Hello, Matt:
Is the Pachira in bright light? Indirect light? Is it sitting on a pebble tray to add humidity? Mine do not like the dry winter conditions in my house and don't do a lot of growing right now.

When did you repot it? Did you break up the root ball and spread the roots somewhat when you repotted?

Two pot sizes was too much to up. One pot size would have been more than sufficient.

My Pachira like to be pot bound and do not start putting up new shoots after repotting until they've started filling up the pot with roots.

They also do not like to be dry. Dry them out and the leaves will start drying out and dropping off.

Good luck,
Linda

Hi Linda!

Thanks for a quick reply, the pachira is currently exposed to early morning direct light and indirect light in the afternoon. It was repotted last week. I did not break up the root ball. The new pot is only 4 inches deeper and 4 inches wider than the old one. Just needed a new pot that had drainage. Every article I have read states that when the leaves brown and fall off to increase humidity rather than watering during the winter months. I am misting it 3 times a day.

Oh dear! Sounds like it might be a gonner:-(

Take it out of it's big pot and size down to the original pot size.... but with holes. While you have it out of the pot, check for root rot. Take as much of the old soggy soil off the roots and remove any mushy, brown, soft roots. Also check the stem where it meets the soil. If it's soft or the bark peels off the stem, it's a gonner.(sorry to be the bearer of bad news) This is a typical spot for this plant to rot. It not replant in well draining soil and try again.
Good luck:-)
Diane

Only one of the 5 stems are in that condition, the other 4 are still ok. It just happens that the one stem that is rotten happens to have the only shoot left on the tree. The old smaller pot is ceramic and I do not know how to make drainage holes without cracking it. The roots were not too mushy, some was dead, some still alive. Any Ideas on how to make drainage holes in ceramic pots?!?!?

Matty:
You can do two things (other than buy a ceramic drill):

1. Get a plastic pot which will fit in the ceramic pot. Repot the Pach in the plastic pot and sit inside the ceramic one.
2. Repot in new pot the size of the old one.

Linda

Ok, I was only kidding about the pot, thanks for the advice though. After i get it into a smaller pot, is there anything special I should do to revive it? Water or no water? Fertilizer? Sun light conditions? Misting?

Those are tricky questions as the poor plant obviously has rot! If you water, you risk more rot. If you don't, it might dry out and die of the opposite problem.

I would try trimming off all the soft, brown, mushy roots and pot in clean moist soil(not wet!) and put it in a plastic bag, in a bright but no direct sunlit, warm spot. Leave it alone for a couple weeks....maybe mist once a week or so. If soil is really dry after a couple weeks, I'd water again and return it to the bag for a couple more weeks. You should see new growth...?

Maybe someone else might have better suggestions for you? I tried all the above with mine but I didn't get all the rotten roots and it continued to rot:-( Sorry I can't be more optomistic but.....

Diane

Thanks again Diane. I had been misting it every day as there hasn't been any moisture in the air here in Phoenix for months. I was able to remove all of the rotten roots, and as I said, there are still plenty of roots that are alive. The soil drys out too quickly here (even indoors) for me not to water it now. I was careful to water around the outer edge of the pot where I had spread the live roots to. The soil and pot it is in now has excellent drainage. I will try the plastic bag suggestion. Thanks again.

Matty:
Sorry, my ending parenthesis was supposed to be a :-)))
Instead of misting, try a pebble tray to keep up the humidity. You will be astounded at how often you have to add water.

We heat with a woodstove and I have my columnea on reservoirs. During the non-woodstove season, I refill the reservoirs about once every 10 days to 2 weeks. With the woodstove going, I refill them every 3-5 days!!! (With regular heat I was refilling once a week.)

And no fertilizer on an already weak plant; especially in the winter when growth is slowed.

I would trim off all the dead parts and repot. Keep out of direct sun but put in bright light. Set on a pebble tray and water sparringly (check to see if it's dry about 1/2" below the top of the soil).

Have you done a search of "Pachira" or "Money Tree" to see if anyone else has had your problem? Maybe you could email them to see if the advice they received worked. Just a thought.

Good luck,
Linda

Hey Linda,

Yeah, I have researched a ton, most problems out on the internet are related to this tree being planted outdoors. It took me almost 3 days of searching just to find out that my plant was a Pachira and not a Ficus. The way I have it set up now is there is a clear plastic tray beneath the pot to catch all the extra drainage. I will fill with pebbles and give it a try, but like I said, there is less than 2% humidity here in AZ right now, the drainage water from yesterday is practically gone from the tray already. Thanks again for your suggestions.

Matt

Hi, Matt:
I wasn't clear about where I meant to search. I was referring to the GardenWeb Forums. Back when I got my Pach, I searched for all the question others had asked and it was a big help. The Internet was next to useless because, like you said, most dealt only with Pachs as outdoor trees.

I fill my pebble trays under my ivies every day . . . and they're over my kitchen sink!

Good luck,
Linda

I copied/pasted this from my reply to another question on a deteriorating Pachira a while back.

IMHO...most people give these too much water and not enough light.

The confusion with the current name 'Pachira Aquatica' leads us to 'assume' that this plant wants/needs a lot of water, and we're being misled to believe that they are good plants for *low light* - I've found that they're not. They survive for a while, but they begin to deteriorate and do so rapidly when they're both overwatered and grown in insufficient light.

"With the confusion on the care of this plant (not just here, but all over the internet and elsewhere!) I decided to look it up in Hortus Third.

There are, apparently two species of Pachira.
One of them, (P. aquatica synonym P. macrocarpa) is native to a wetland area, and one of them (P. insignis) is native to dry sites, both *sunny*.

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to which one has become the popular 'money tree' that we're all familiar with. Apparently the only way to really know is if the tree flowers, and that's not likely with small specimens indoors, as they both grow anywhere from 15 to 90 ft.

Personally, I think the ones *I* have are P. insignis, as they prefer to be dry but in a bright position, and the trunks are very prone to rotting if not kept relatively dry. (This, too, is from my own experience with the plants.)

P. aquatica is native to *sunny* wetlands....none of us have full direct outdoor sun in our homes,(lol...at least I don't!) therefore we have to water them less.
Any plant grown in less than ideal light needs less water than it would in it's native habitat, outdoors.

I've found that even though Pachiras are 'touted' as great low-light plants....they gradually deteriorate in low light. They really thrive in a brightly lit position, and they even do very well in some direct light indoors, as the light indoors is nowhere near as intense as it is outdoors, naturally."

Thankyou all for your advice, but I believe the plant is dead. The remaining 10 leaves have all crummbled up and turned brown. there are no other shoots left on the tree, just the 5 trunks. I do not see any new shoots forming. I think I am just going to start over. Thanks again.

Matt

Ok, so I bought a new, smaller 17 inch Pachira from Lowes and already we have problems. I think the pot it came in was too small as the roots were sticking out of the drainage holes (large and white roots). I re-potted into a slightly larger pot (it was one of those pots within a pot so i just removed the inner pot). When I was re-potting i noticed an nasty odor coming from the (overwattered thanks to Lowes) soil, it smelled like rotten eggs. There is no visible rot on any part of the plant. My main question is now that I have it in new soil, how much water should it get and how frequently? I have it on a pebble tray (thanks Linda and Diane) made from polished stones and pebbles. Thanks again!

Matt

I bought two Pachiras about 8 months ago and they were just the braided trunks at first but both leafed out beautfully and grew fast. Now on one of them all the trunks have turned brown and brittle and the leaves turned a 'wet brown' and fell off except two and those two are still leafing out just fine. The other plant is fine and they are in the same kind of soil,etc. I am so upset about this because the beauty of these plants are their braided trunks. I have a metal water sensor that I stick down in the soil and only water when it says its dry. Wonder what I am doing wrong.

Terri

Probably over watering too! I will never try growing this one again. Lucky Money Tree.... my A** LOL! Maybe lucky for the seller cause we all want/wanted one:-) We get to watch our hard earned money fall on the floor!

Diane
Check the roots.... bet they are brown and mushy!

don't give up on the money tree yet.i have had mine about three years.both were about 20 inches tall when i bought them and are now just over 4 feet.when i first got them i placed them by the south facing windows for direct light and almost killed them.after trying different places throughout our house and different watering tactics,i ended up in the original room but back away from the windows so the plants get a lot of bright but indirect light and i water them about 7-10 days when the soil is very dry.have had very good luck with them,wish the same for you. dave

Diane, LMAO..you had me lauging out loud for sure after reading your post..
I know what you mean..they are touchy touchy plants..Perhaps if I didn't have as many plants as I do the Pachira/Lucky money plant would do better but I don't have time to fuss with it.
They had some beauty's at HD..they were about 3' tall w/a braided trunk..looked nice..but like you, I do NOT consider them lucky...I've tried a couple times since growing plants and always managed to kill them..I'm sure it's a watering problem..it's either too much or too little. As soon as the heat went on, leaves started dropping and believe me, girl, I keep the humidity up high. Mine didn't rot, it wasn't squishy. So, it didn't die due to root rot. Oh well, that's one plant less in my house..Toni

Glad I could put a nice smile on your face Toni!!

Out the the three "lucky" plants that I have been suckered into buying, (bamboo, money and bean tree) my bean tree (castanospermum) has grown the best....(touch wood) They are supposed to be very tricky to grow, according to an austrailian forum that I crashed.

Now I wait for it to grow tall... up to the clouds, so I can climb it and find that elusive "Golden Goose"! You know.... the one that lays the golden eggs!! LOL Now that would be LUCKY!

Diane

Oh Diane, I love the Bean tree..bought one at Frank's Nursery a few yrs ago..they had about 15..so one followed me home..it did fine..when I went back to Franks to look for pots, all their beans were dead!! leaves were dried out and looked awful. Anyway, I got mine to live that yr, but all of a sudden it started dying..and died. It's such a pretty plant..I wish you luck w/yours..They are uncommon here in IL, and I consider hard to grow plants. How tall is yours now? Toni

I bought 2 single stem Pachiras a couple of months ago - one had 2 leaf stalks (10 leaves) and the other had 3. One of them now has a new leaf, but that is it. I read somewhere that if the leaves are pruned, new lones will grow. How do I prune them?
Also, is it possible to braid the trunks myself - how do I do that?

I bought 2 single stem Pachiras a couple of months ago - one had 2 leaf stalks (10 leaves) and the other had 3. One of them now has a new leaf, but that is it. I read somewhere that if the leaves are pruned, new lones will grow. How do I prune them?
Also, is it possible to braid the trunks myself - how do I do that?

Hi Lazer. Pachira growth slows down this time of year. I wouldn't prune just yet..
Do you want to cut the entire plant down to the base?
As far as braiding, if stems are soft it can be done. But you have to be careful..What I'd do is start twisting stems around each other. When you get to the top, either use tape or a tie (from trash bags) to keep togehter.
I've seen this done on tv using 3 Ficus plants. But the trunks were soft, not yet woody. Toni

Hi. Sounds like if anyone can help me, you folks here can. I've had a money tree since the summer. I kept it in a large west window, and recently moved it back away from the window because it's starting to get cold. Today I noticed two leaves (5 fingers) have these markings. One is a very bottom group, and the other is a big one further up. The new growth still looks good. I'm just wondering if this is burn or maybe I overwatered. I'd hate to lose the plant. It's so beautiful. I've attached a pic. Hope I did it correctly. Thanks. :)

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Hi everybody, I'm hoping you can help me. I bought two Pachira Macrocarpa plants back in June of this year. I repotted them as soon as I bought them and they were doing fine. We moved in July and the plants had to ride in the back of a pickup for two hours down an interstate. The leaves all fell off and I thought the plants would die for sure. Well, the leaves all grew back the plant survived really well for the past four months. We live in an apartment that doesn't have a lot of direct sunlight in it but they were both doing really well in front of windows. All of a sudden, about a week and a half ago, my plants lose all of their leaves and start to get really brown and soft. The trunks are wrinkled and they just don't look as pretty as they were a couple weeks ago. Could they be overwatered?? Could they be cold in front of the windows?? I love these plants as much as my pets and kid so it'll tear me up if they die. Is there anything I do to save them??

Ok I need help yet again. It has been forever since my last post but I am really trying to master these darn things. I need to know what kind of soil this plant really likes. I have seen it planted in an number of different soils. I am down to 2 trunks now, have a severe fungus gnat infestation and the soil I am using is horrible. Please Help!!! I already started the larvacide with no effect. I left the plant in someone's care for the last year and of course they overwatered it. Salvaged what I could. 2 Trunks growing new branches at the base near the soil and I would like to transplant those soon too.

Help!! I got my Pachira from Ikea also, about a year ago. It had so many beautiful full branches and now I am left with only 2 stalks. Leaves are always dropping from it. Can anyone help me please? I've attached a picture.
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