Eep! I overwatered my cyclamen?! Fix it!
Wolfey
12 years ago
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Wolfey
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Cyclamen advice wanted!
Comments (2)It depends on the sort you buy. C persica, the big florists' variety will live outdoors. It flowers over winter and needs cool nights. (Put it out with the kitty!) It goes sort of dormant over the summer and starts back into leaf as the days begin to cool down. Some of them barely take a pause at all but, in very arid conditions, they might be happier on the north side of the house in the coolest you can manage. You also might want to look at a species such as C graecum or even the little autumn C hederifolium which are hardy into zone 10. They'll tolerate quite a lot of drought while dormant but they do need winter moisture so they can leaf up and store food for the next season. I grow mine out in the garden, mostly, and I rarely pinch off the flowers when they've finished. I like watching the seed pods bending over and the stalks forming little corkscrews before the Cyclamen self-seeds. If you do this be sure to leave the area unweeded so the babies can establish and get the colony growing. Even when the plant is heading for dormancy I leave the leaves to dry off, unless they are obviously stricken with some form of rot. One thing to really check on with a store-bought plant: the potting medium. Quite often shippers use a peat-based mix because it's lighter to transplant. Unfortunately, it holds moisture for too long. Cyclamen do better with a free-draining medium, perhaps with sharp grit or pumice so their roots can forage in the pot. That peat tends to keep the roots confined as well as not draining very quickly. A small amount of dolomite in the mix helps, and they do well with side dressings of slow release fertiliser. If you have access to ancient and well-rotted cow manure, some of that will also be appreciated....See MoreHow to fix an outdoor overwatered plant
Comments (1)scy0846, push a 1/2" diameter dowel or similar implement into the ground outside the root ball and try to withdraw it as quickly as you can. If you can do so without undue effort it indicates that there is appreciable air in the soil mass; if it is difficult then there is probably a lot of water in the soil. If the latter condition, you might try digging a 'trench' around the outside of the root ball to drain the water away from it. If doing so will make the tree unstable then you might try a posthole. Observe the posthole daily and bail or pump out any water that collects in it. The transplanting coupled with the daily rainfall may explain the yellowing/dropping leaves; it should be temporary. A waterlogged condition at the roots will show up at the growing tips of the tree. Look for limpness, darker coloration or tipping as compared to the tips on another magnolia in good health. I believe that the condition is temporary....See MoreCyclamen mites on my African Violets
Comments (9)If you have only one infected room and haven't moved plants from there into your other rooms, those plants may be ok. I know one can always carry mites on one's hands & clothes but I think close plant contact is the spreader. If you already have found mites in other rooms then you may have to take action and treat or at least watch carefully and toss as needed. As for taking untreated leaves, I would suggest that older leaves may be best. True, they may take longer to root but mites are less likely because their mouth pieces are only able to chew on tender growth, at least I think that is true. I've also read that since mites don't like tough plant parts, if you seal your leaf ( maybe even a younger one in this case) in a plastic baggie, any attached mites may die from starvation before baby plantlets appear. This sounds reasonable but I haven't tested it. Perhaps someone else will chime in to offer advice. An odd note: I recall a shelf upon which all the plants had mites except for one. I could never find a mite on it nor did it ever develop symptoms. Perhaps it just tasted bad or had some type of immunity! Terri...See MoreWhat’s wrong with my Golden Pothos and How can I fix it?
Comments (4)I was referring to potential damage that might have occurred between point-of-sale and your home. You didn't mention how deep the pot is, so I'll just say watering any plants in pots deeper than about 3-5" using that the top inch or two of soil is dry, is more often than not a recipe for over-watering. After a thorough watering, most bagged grow media will support a 3-6" layer of soil 100% saturated with water at the bottom of the pot. A 10" deep pot could easily still have 6" of 100% saturated soil at the bottom of the pot when the top inch or two feels dry. It's far more important to know what moisture conditions are at the pot bottom, and a moisture meter isn't a reliable tool for that; instead, a sharpened (in a pencil sharpener) wooden dowel makes a much more reliable tool. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al...See Moretapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoWolfey
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoWolfey
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoWolfey
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoWolfey
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoWolfey
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoWolfey
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoWolfey
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoWolfey
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tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)