what's wrong with my coleus plant? Its dying?
gardengurl49
18 years ago
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lucy
18 years agoRelated Discussions
My clematis vines keep dying. What am I doing wrong?
Comments (6)I doubt you killed your clematis, but you may have cracked the fragile stems at the base. Keep treating the roots like they are alive and you will probably get new shoots coming up. Best practice is to prune the clematis back hard before you plant leaving only about 6 inches of growth or taller so you have a few sets of leaves. There isn't a leader vine. Sweet Autumn grows fast, so keep watching it so you can try to guide the stems. I add bone meal the way Chalk Hill recommends, but it isn't required. I don't take out the supports that came in the nursery pot unless they fall off. I try to cause as little disruption to the roots as possible. I do take off the twist ties though and use my own. Tightly tying the vine to your support isn't good. I use velcro straps to hold the vines in place. It doesn't take long for the tendrils to grab on, so as soon as it does, the straps can be removed. What I try to do when planting a new clematis is plant it at an angle towards the support. That way the vines will already be growing in the right direction. To help it along, I might add a couple of lengths of thin bamboo on either side of the root mass and use these to help guide the vine. It also serves to protect the vine (somewhat) from dog feet. Where practical, I will use the velcro pieces to hold the bamboo to the support, but most of the time it can just rest on the support because the soil holds it in place....See MoreWhat's wrong with my tomato plants, and how do I fix it?
Comments (1)Some looks like disease - If so, likely needs more air circulation Some looks like ran short of water. Lots of possible reasons to investigate for that....See MoreHelp! My Coleus Has Yellowing, Dying Leaves
Comments (7)Linus, coleus is pretty easy to grow inside in most cases. It used to be very popular as a houseplant, falling out of favor as the market introduced more and more tropicals with colorful foliage. I suggest that other factors are to blame....overgrown root system, poor quality potting medium, insufficient or excess watering are all possibilities. As easy as they are to grow, they can be tempermental about watering. Was your plant grown in its own container from the beginning or transplanted prior to being brought inside? If the latter, the plants may have more problems adjusting. I grow coleus every year for my back patio and screened porch areas. I almost always combine them with other plants in large containers. If I'm especially crazy about a variety, and it's not protected by a plant patent, I'll take several cuttings in the summer, and root them in a very porous potting mix. I've actually never tented a pot of cuttings. If you prepare them properly by removing most of the leaves from short 4" cuttings, they root rapidly with little fuss or muss. Fill the pots with the potting medium and water it thoroughly. Use a sharpened pencil to pre-drill the holes, drop in your prepared cuttings which must include at least one node, and water again to force the particles of the mix to fill in around the cuttings. Avoid poking and tamping with your fingers as that can remove the oxygen filled pore spaces....See MoreNeed help finding out what's wrong with my plant and how to heal it.
Comments (2)It's probably a combination of a soil inappropriately water-retentive, over-watering, and (if you fertilized) a high level of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil solution. If the roots looked good, stick a wick in the drain hole and don't water until a wood dowel (sharpened in a pencil sharpener) or bamboo skewer stuck deep in the pot comes out clean/dry. After you water, tilt the pot at 45* with the wick down and let the wick drip until it stops - you can do that today w/o watering. Put the plant outdoors when temps are above 55*. Given the condition of the existing foliage, you might as well put it directly into full sun, wait for the new leaves to emerge and cut back the old leaves as they go over. Figure A is your pot. Note figures B and E as representations of what tipping the pot after watering and a wick can do for you. You could also put some ballast in the bottom of the pot to help reduce the amount of water held as perched water. See figure D. Al...See Moretommyr_gw Zone 6
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