Also, any special fertilizer, vitamins or moss, humidity tray etc I should be using for this plant? Thanks again!!

How it's potted (those are selenite crystals I put in the soil). Thanks!

This post was edited by Pyramids on Sat, Sep 6, 14 at 17:58

One last photo....

simply moving it from store to home.. and changing its light patterns could cause such ....

if in fact.. there is any drooping ... kinda looks fine to me ...

ken

this looks like a mature plant with good wooded trunks - they have most of their roots on the bottom of the pot, but they can take a lot of water when the rootball is full of roots. so that's why soaking in the sink is good - but do not leave it for more then 15 min standing in water. it's best to pour lots of water sev times with 15-30 min interval. just watering it once even with water running thru will not give it enough water - perhaps that's why it is drooping (that and hot sun will do it).
they do best when pot bound, they don't have a large root ball - so i would leave it be for now, but make sure it does NOT dry more then half way (stick a skewer in to check). IF it gets to 80F in your apt - it will take even more water and you'll need to watch it carefully.
any drooping of the leaves is not good. do it one times too many and will start dropping the leaves. it can drop 75% of leaves if allowed to totally dry up.
basically it loves temp over 80F (85F is best) and humidity over 85%. it starts growing like crazy. and it hates low humidity (it likes warm dappled or filtered western/southern light. but not when it's too strong 12-3pm (ok if filtered thru sheers though) - it is best when sun is early or late, 3-4 hours. that would be optimal.
in winter keep it warm - above 65F at all times or else it will drop leaves. then you can water it much less, but still not totally dry - may be top 2/3 of soil drier.
never let it stand in water for more then 15 min - most roots are at the bottom and it might easily develop root-rot.
IF you want to repot it - it's best NOT to disturb the roots, may be a little trim, if they are circling, but it's best to do it when it is almost dormant in very early spring, before it starts growing. severe root disturbance can cause severe leaf drop and stress the plant too much and even kill it. in general it's a slow growing plant that should not need the repot often. may be 3-4 years at most.

Wow, thank you so much.

Okay, so I will leave it in the plastic pot until spring. Then I will pot it in the big ceramic it's sitting in.

I will, in fact, water it in the sink when the soil is 50% dry. I will check it with a skewer. I will let it sit in the sink and run water through it a few times - in intervals.

The drooping might be from moving it from the store here. I will monitor it.

Any thoughts on misting it for humidity or a humidity tray?

Any thoughts on its current corner? Look like an okay one for an aralia? Or should I find a brighter spot....

Thanks again!

http://www.greatbiggreenhouse.com/Expert-Advice/Gardening-Tips-and-Information/Indoor-Plant-Info/Ming-Aralia-and-other-Aralias.aspx

The website above says Ming Aralia prefers high humidity but will tolerate normal home humidity. Sounds like you don't need to do anything. Although, the ceramic pot you have it in is quite a bit larger than the pot the plant is in. You could probably do a gravel & water tray inside that ceramic pot; with the plant pot on top of the gravel tray (not touching the water, of course--the purpose of the rocks would be to hold the plant out of the water; the water evaporates and increases local humidity). I would just leave it be for now and if you see it developing problems, try the rock & water tray.

the ceramic is too large to pot in - and too heavy to boot - you won't be able to water it properly then ;), and what are you going to do with standing water? remove it with a turkey baster ?LOL...
standing water=leaves drop.
when you repot do only 2" diameter larger then the current pot, plastic is fine. it is better to repot after another 2-3 years, then to put it directly into large pot. when there is too much soil without roots that stays wet for a long time - that's a sure recipe for root rot for this particular plant.
i disagree about normal household humidity. my normal humidity never drops below 65" even with central heat in winter. and that is not considered normal by usual standards. normal is more like 35% RH.
up to 50% it'll do OK, but not stellar (misting then is recommended, and pebble/rock tray will help too), but you'll notice the crisping of the foliage when you touch it. healthy foliage is soft and springy, not crisp and raspy. get below 50% (get yourself a humidity/temp meter) and it'll start drying up the leaves and getting sparse.
i grow ming, parsley ming and fern-leaf for close to 6 years going.
in summer time it'll really benefit outdoors - provided nites are over 70F and days are humid, and it stays in bright shade, no sun whatsoever.
where it's sitting on the floor is fine - but if you were to elevate it to the window level - that'll be too hot, unless you filter thru sheer curtain (which then will be fine). in winter sun is weaker, so then you can even elevate it some, but not in summer: too hot, especially very close to the window. mine is in exactly the same position. the temps by the w-nw window in the sun goes easily to 85-90F depending on geo-location.

Pyramids - appropriate pot size isn't determined by how large the prospective pot is, relative to how large the pot that contains the plant now is. It's determined by soil choice. If you use a soil coarse enough that it doesn't support a soggy layer of perched water at the bottom of the pot, you could pot your existing plant in a 55 gal drum today if you want to. Actually, using a soil like that would be very good for the plant, given the plant's aversion to wet feet.

Here's a picture of a soil that works extremely well for aralia, followed by something about pot size. I also included a scenario that illustrates the benefits of repotting, which includes a change of soil and root pruning, in comparison to simply potting up a pot size, which ensures limitations related to root congestion will always be a factor that limits growth and vitality. I hope you find the info useful.

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Choosing an Appropriate Size Container
How large a container ‘can’ or ‘should’ be, depends on the relationship between the mass of the plant material you are working with and your choice of soil. We often concern ourselves with "over-potting" (using a container that is too large), but "over-potting" is a term that arises from a lack of a basic understanding about the relationship we will look at, which logically determines appropriate container size.

It's often parroted that you should only move up one container size when "potting-up". The reasoning is, that when potting up to a container more than one size larger, the soil will remain wet too long and cause root rot issues, but it is the size/mass of the plant material you are working with, and the physical properties of the soil you choose that determines both the upper & lower limits of appropriate container size - not a formulaic upward progression of container sizes. In many cases, after root pruning a plant, it may even be appropriate to step down a container size or two, but as you will see, that also depends on the physical properties of the soil you choose. It's not uncommon for me, after a repot/root-pruning to pot in containers as small as 1/5 the size as that which the plant had been growing in prior to the work.

Plants grown in ‘slow’ (slow-draining/water-retentive) soils need to be grown in containers with smaller soil volumes so that the plant can use water quickly, allowing air to return to the soil before root issues beyond impaired root function/metabolism become a limiting factor. We know that the anaerobic (airless) conditions that accompany soggy soils quickly kill fine roots and impair root function/metabolism. We also know smaller soil volumes and the root constriction that accompany them cause plants to both extend branches and gain o/a mass much more slowly - a bane if rapid growth is the goal - a boon if growth restriction and a compact plant are what you have your sights set on.

Conversely, rampant growth can be had by growing in very large containers and in very fast soils where frequent watering and fertilizing is required - so it's not that plants rebel at being potted into very large containers per se, but rather, they rebel at being potted into very large containers with a soil that is too slow and water-retentive. This is a key point.

We know that there is an inverse relationship between soil particle size and the height of the perched water table (PWT) in containers. As particle size increases, the height of the PWT decreases, until at about a particle size of just under 1/8 inch, soils will no longer hold perched water. If there is no perched water, the soil is ALWAYS well aerated, even when the soil is at container capacity (fully saturated).

So, if you aim for a soil (like the gritty mix) composed primarily of particles larger than 1/16", there is no upper limit to container size, other than what you can practically manage. The lower size limit will be determined by the soil volume's ability to allow room for roots to ’run’ and to furnish water enough to sustain the plant between irrigations. Bearing heavily on this ability is the ratio of fine roots to coarse roots. It takes a minimum amount of fine rootage to support the canopy under high water demand. If the container is full of large roots, there may not be room for a sufficient volume of the fine roots that do all the water/nutrient delivery work and the coarse roots, too. You can grow a very large plant in a very small container if the roots have been well managed and the lion's share of the rootage is fine. You can also grow very small plants, even seedlings, in very large containers if the soil is fast (free-draining and well-aerated) enough that the soil holds no, or very little perched water.

I have just offered clear illustration why the oft repeated advice to ‘resist pottting up more than one pot size at a time’, only applies when using heavy, water-retentive soils. Those using well-aerated soils are not bound by the same restrictions. As the ht and volume of the perched water table are reduced, the potential for negative effects associated with over-potting are diminished in a direct relationship with the reduction - up to the point at which the soil holds no (or an insignificant amount) of perched water and over-potting pretty much becomes a non-issue.

Repotting vs Potting Up

I often explain the effects of repotting vs potting up like this:
Let's rate growth/vitality potential on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best. We're going to say that trees in containers can only achieve a 9. Lets also imagine that for every year a tree goes w/o repotting or potting up, its measure of growth/vitality slips by 1 number, That is to say you pot a tree and the first year it grows at a level of 9, the next year, an 8, the next year a 7. Lets also imagine we're going to go 3 years between repotting or potting up.

Here's what happens to the tree you repot/root prune:
year 1: 9
year 2: 8
year 3: 7
repot
year 1: 9
year 2: 8
year 3: 7
repot
year 1: 9
year 2: 8
year 3: 7

You can see that a full repotting and root pruning returns the plant to its full potential within the limits of other cultural influences for as long as you care to repot/root prune.
Looking now at how woody plants respond to only potting up:
year 1: 9
year 2: 8
year 3: 7
pot up
year 1: 8
year 2: 7
year 3: 6
pot up
year 1: 7
year 2: 6
year 3: 5
pot up
year 1: 6
year 2: 5
year 3: 4
pot up
year 1: 5
year 2: 4
year 3: 3
pot up
year 1: 4
year 2: 3
year 3: 2
pot up
year 1: 3
year 2: 2
year 3: 1

This is a fairly accurate illustration of the influence tight roots have on a woody plant's growth/vitality. You might think of it for a moment in the context of the longevity of bonsai trees vs the life expectancy of most trees grown as houseplants, the difference between 4 years and 400 years lying primarily in how the roots are treated.

Al

Wow, thank you so much everyone! I have a lot of reading to do. Al, I'm still trying to make sense of your post. But I will.

Petrushka. Good to hear that it will like its current location.

I walked in today and my bungalow was a scorcher. Even though I leave my back door open (with a locked metal screen). I misted the aralia and decided to feel the soil. It was completely dry all of the way down. Wow, in like one day (actually I don't know the last time the shop watered it).

So it's currently sitting in the sink enjoying its first round of soak throughs.

Really love this website already and can't wait to purchase more plants for my home!

This post was edited by Pyramids on Sun, Sep 7, 14 at 23:34

high temps are not a problem - it likes 85-90F, that's when it starts growing like crazy. but it'll need a lot of water. how's your humidity outdoors? is it dry or humid? hot dry and low humidity is a bad combo.
if it's hot and gets water and low humidity - it'll feel very crisp, but with misting daily it should be ok.
i read about a well known grower who grew hi humidity plants in arizona - by filling up large no-hole pot with rocks 4-6" deep and filling it with water almost to the top of rocks, then putting the plant pot inside. but it needs to have 2"-3" 'open' area all-around the plant pot to allow the air to circulate. so you'll need a large chinese fish-pot or smth - all else will be too small ;). a bit much to bother, but...
see how it does, i just never had mine below 45% - and that was outside in the shade, no sun and good water.