Office Plant Dying! Please help.

11 years ago

I have this plant in my office at work, but I'm not quite sure what type of plant it is, so I'm having trouble researching how to help it.

It used to have lots of nice, green leaves on it, but recently its leaves have started turning brown/yellow and falling off. I have tried watering it more frequently, and less frequently, but neither seems to help.

I also found on the internet that it might be too dry in the office, so I spritzed it with water, which also did not help. The plant guy that occasionally stops by the office suggested it might have mites, so I bought and tried Insecticidal Soap.

Some of the ends of the branches have seemed soggy, so I've been breaking them off. Now only a couple of the branches have leaves on them, they're falling off quite quickly.

Can someone please help me decipher what type of plant this is so I can research it better online, or give me some suggestions on how to save it?

Thanks for your help!!! :)

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Comments (6)

jess_karen
Original Author
11 years ago
Here is a close up of one of the branches.
summersunlight
11 years ago
Your plant is a Dracaena marginata. I'm attaching a link which includes some background info and care advice.

Here is a link that might be useful: D. marginata plant profile
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Though I can't say what variety it is, but it does look like the typical succulent house plants that do not need too much water. Your last pic shows a very good soaking which is good for other plants, but may affect this one negatively. Anyway, it's good to learn about, but try to stay on top of it and if it looks in bad health again, just reduce some of the watering. It looks like the office mascot by this time. I do want to comment that until you could properly identify it, it looks like it may be leggy either because of lack of proper lighting before, or it might be one of those plants that "trails", so if it starts toppling over again, that might just be its attempt to be more horizontal than vertical, and not necessarily because of lack of water. I mention this because while in the original pic, it was being more horizontal (for which we don't know the exact reason yet), but in the second pic, you have planted it as a more vertical. It could be that it is a trailing plant.
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"when pressed lightly, it's mushy and some liquid comes out." i'm sorry to tell ya but this is rot & has got to go immediately before it spreads. You need to remove the entire leaf pls, the dark one w/ the yellow top. More importantly, it should probably be unpotted, taken apart, have all rot & debris removed from its roots & repotted into Cactus & Succulent mix w/ added perlite (like 50% as much). I'd remove that mossy stuff off the top, more potential for rot. What size is the Mason jar you're watering w/? how many ounces? Jaye: the poster said they were watering every 3 wks, not 3 days, as you seem to have said. I see that otherwise they look like healthy leaves / plants, I don't know what caused it, but I think it's fixable. Good luck. Lena
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That looks like a large terracotta pot. It might have a drainage hole. However, it looks too big and I can't see the kind of soil in it. I'm guessing that isn't a pot full of quartz sand. However, if it is a large pot full of quartz sand then I can see how that might be difficult to correctly water to keep the plants healthy. The two spiky plants in the back look like Hoodia. They are Asclepiads rather than Cacti. They look unbothered about anything. The front left plant might be a dark-leaf Aeonium. However, I'm not sure the stem should be that dark. The stem might be rotten. The center red ball cactus was grafted on to a root stock and the root stock died. Unfortunately the red ball cactus can't be saved without grafting it on to another root stock. The dead root stock is a common problem with that plant. I agree the P. afra in the back right and Echeveria in the front right look like they can be saved. You might have to cut the long stem off the Echeveria and reroot the top. If those were mine I'd prefer to plant each one in separate smaller pots. Group plantings in a pot bought at a store often don't work long term. In this case the plants might look like they need to be watered but have been watered too much, or been moist too long, and lost the healthy functioning of their roots. Without healthy roots plants can look like they need water even when the soil is moist. Some people asked if the dish was purchased "as is". I'm guessing they meant to ask if it was purchased as a group of plants in one pot rather than ask if it was sold marked as is meaning no guarantee the plants were healthy. If they were sold with no guarantee then I wouldn't bother trying to return them. Sometimes I buy plants like that.
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tifflj
11 years ago
My father in law has one that I am also tryingto save. From what I have read, they dont like to be moist and would rather dry out etween waterigs. They also dont like sunlight. Perhaps a shadier home would suit him better?

I went through a phase where I was having issues with my house plants and I thought all of them had mited of some sort. From what I know now...you WILL kow if it has mites. The only thing I know right now is soil plays a big key in the plant. I was using a miracle grow soil and the plants were WAY too moist. They were 2 and a half weeks between waterings and it was still damp. I changed the soil recently and hoping it will make a difference.
PRO
The Ficus Wrangler
11 years ago
You've got a dracaena marginata. Bad news is that, if the ends of the branches are soft, it's got rot, and even though there are a few green leaves, it's actually dead. No cure. Best to toss it. If you ever get another one, they like to get almost dry, all the way to the bottom of the pot, before watering again. And never treat for bugs or disease without being sure of what the plant has got. If the plant guy did not actually look at the plant to see if it had mites, he had no business telling you it did. And you can tell him The Ficus Wrangler said so.
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
11 years ago
Hold a white piece of paper under the foliage & rap the stem smartly with your knuckles to shake loose any mites that might be on the plant. They'll be visible as fine moving specks about the size of fine pepper on the paper if you have them. If you find the little beggars, we'll figure out how to treat them - it won't be hard.

If you're a person who puts much stock in the odds, odds are that the plant has very serious issues afflicting its roots. The ACTUAL cause can be parsed in much the same way as the question about the chicken and the egg. Some will say it's from over-watering and others might suggest it's ultimately the fault of an overly water-retentive soil. I hold firmly to the later as being the real cause because eliminating an overly water-retentive soil makes it somewhere between very difficult and virtually impossible to over-water. It also ALLOWS the grower to water correctly, which is to say it allows you to water beyond the saturation point. This ensures that you are flushing salts from the soil that accumulate from fertilizers and tap water and provide the third unwanted leg of the triangle you get free of charge with water-retentive soils. The excess water retention rots roots and/or inhibits root function, and the excess level of soluble salts in the soil makes it increasingly difficult for the plant to take up water (Think of how curing salt actually pulls moisture from the cells of pork as ham or bacon cures, and you have the picture). Fix the soil and all of this goes away and the degree of difficulty it takes to bring along healthy plants is slashed dramatically. Honest. ;-)

I'll leave you a link (below) that goes over some of the things that can help you to avoid the pitfalls that bring most growers here in search of remediation. If it makes sense to you, and you feel even mildly inspired, I'll provide another link that goes into quite a bit of detail in an effort to provide you with a good understanding of how to make your soil choice work FOR you, instead of against you. In my estimation, that second link would represent the largest forward step a container gardener can take at any one time, but you can judge that if we get that far. I'll help as long as you have interest ....

If you want to try to save this plant, you should be looking at depotting & inspecting the condition of the roots. My guess is they will need remedial pruning and the plant will need repotting, but even that might not be intervention enough to ensure the plant's turn-around. ;-( More on that if you want to explore that option.

Best luck, JK (KJ?).

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: Click me to see what he was talking about.
jess_karen
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you everyone, this information has been very helpful.

Office Plant Dying! Please help.

Comments (6)

jess_karen
Original Author

summersunlight

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tifflj

The Ficus Wrangler

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)

jess_karen
Original Author

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Office Plant Dying! Please help.

Comments (6)

jess_karenOriginal Author

summersunlight

Related Discussions

tifflj

The Ficus Wrangler

tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)

jess_karenOriginal Author

COMPANY

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GET HELP

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jess_karen
Original Author

jess_karen
Original Author