Wilting after repotting
Hello all,
First of all I'm a beginner for indoor gardening. I've done a lot of reading to educate myself in this field for the past few months thanks to this forum and the helpful people here. Really appreciate it.
However this is my first repotting. I have a few plants that I owned for more than 6 months, wish to repot it due to its poor soil that came with it. Plants including calatheas and zebra plant. They're wilting and the leaves are soft after the day I repot.
Picture first:
Some of the leaves of calathea even curl up. I not sure why.
As for my repotting procedure,
1) I've watered the plants that are going to be repot around 4 days ago, so the soil wouldn't be too moist to work with during repot. First thing first I took out the plants, remove the existing soil as much as I could, then rinse it with water to get rid of the soil that is still sticking to the roots. I've carefully remove them and avoid damaging the roots as much as possible.
2) From there I got the bare root plants, the roots seems to be healthy so I didn't remove any of them. I lay them on top of dry towel, then blow dry the roots slowly (maybe this is a mistake. Instead of blow dry I should leave it for a few days to dry naturally. However when I blow dry I did not use hot air and keep a certain distance in between the plants)
Then proceed with the soil mix. I spent quite some time reading and trying to understand the 5:1:1 mix before planing this repot. Can't really find some of the ingredient like sphagnum peat and gardening lime, so I decide to make an amendment but following the guideline.
Those are 5 parts of pine bark, I mixed it up with some larger particles. 1 part of sifted perlite and 2 parts of potting soil that I have in hand (it contains peat, coco coir, vermiculite, perlite). I know it is not ideal to have a peat base media, but I decided to give it a try. I also use 2 parts of it for more water retentiveness (perhaps this is a mistake as well) as I can't afford to water my plants that frequent base on my living schedule.
Finally, I water them thoroughly after repot. The water drain very quickly, within a minute or a few seconds after I water them. I suppose that is a good thing right?
The next day I discovered the plants that I repotted is wilting. I wonder if this is so call "plant shock"? Or maybe it is the newly potted roots is yet to establish to absorb water? I'm not entirely sure and really worry that they will die just like that.
Any opinion is appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Comments (12)
WJ [Singapore]
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Question about repotting echeveria
Comments (4)I agree with paracelsus, but you dont have to cut off flowering stalks unless you want to :-). I repotted a Lola I got from a friend a few weeks ago while it was starting a flowering stalk, and all that happened was that it sent up a second smaller stalk and lost a lower ring of leaves. It started putting out new growth in less than two weeks. Species more prone to rot or slower-growing species may require a longer period of recovery before they show any growth....See MoreWilting after repot-- every time
Comments (12)Whoa! I didn't realize sphagnum ph was so low! I knew ph was something I need to pay attention to when I started the leaves. I planned on researching more before they grew up (I'm a little behind) I'm a bit out of my element in the plant world-- humans are fine tuned machines -- our lungs & kidneys compensate if our ph ventures outside of 7.35-7.45 I don't know how my violets have made it this far! And I'm a bit overwhelmed! I'm still trying to apply & bring all the information together ive been given. I suppose I disturb the roots more, as I know the mix isn't good. I want to make my own (trying to get my Grammie's green thumb & my entire African violet interest). I originally started the leaves in 1-1-1, but I ended up removing the vermiculite -- the soil felt too wet to me. I'm not 100% satisfied with my 75-25 mix, sometimes it still feels too moist. illinois is humid! I may experiment with vermiculite again-- I think the stuff i used before was pretty fine (would coarse make a difference?) I will search the threads for a recipie. As for now, I will only use water without fertilizer. I do have very hard water-- so my tap water is softened - so I don't use either. I buy gallons of spring water- I'm not sure of the mineral contents. Is spring water ok? Or should I used distilled? Anything else I should do sooner than later for the ph? I will get supplies to check the ph, but that's a week away (dang work!). Would it be best to repot sooner than later? i appreciate your advice! ~ Betina...See MoreDrooping repotted peace lilly
Comments (8)How did you repot? Did you just pot up (move the entire plant with its root ball intact to a bigger pot) or do a complete repot (all the old soil removed)? How much light is it receiving? How often do you water? Could you share some pictures?...See MoreWilting Philodendron after Repot
Comments (10)Sorry, but I don't think this is a Philodendron rather a Pothos. Bit too raggedly looking to be sure. But I think both can be handled & propagated the same way. I believe this has been made unnecessarily complicated & in short, you're killing the plant w/ kindness & overwatering (overwatering is THE most common killer of houseplants). Pothos are usually restarted from cuttings, often discarding the original plant if rather spent & beat up like yours (sorry). After 22 yrs. in the same pot, I wouldn't bother keeping the base part of the plant, especially w/ roots rotting repeatedly, as you've mentioned. Likely why that's happening is that pot is too big for the amount of plant material left. I suspect what's happening is this: too much soil for too little plant material being kept too wet all the time. That equals root rot, because the roots can't get any air, they're too wet, so they rot. This plant needs to dry out somewhat btwn waterings so the roots can get some air. I would have gone w/ Cactus & Succulent soil (C&S mix) combined w/ Perlite, in equal parts, like 50/50. That's all you needed; peat is not a good idea for houseplants, unless a small amount (it can become too compact & then water repellent which makes drainage problems). I am unfamiliar w/ pre-wetting soil, not something I do. Also normally, one should fill a pot w/ soil up to just an inch from the top. As is, those plants are potted too low in the pot, but I wouldn't bother doing anything else w/ those remnants. Don't mean to be brutal, but I'd discard those rotting leftovers & focus on the cuttings, of which you probably have many. Shorter is better should you not know that. 2-3 pairs of leaves per cutting is plenty. Pls. stop misting, it's not helping & is keeping the plants too wet. "I tried to get as close in on the soil-level stems as possible." Sorry, I don't know what this means. For now, I'd skip fertilizer, sugar, any extra doodads & just let the poor things get re-established. I see you've tried really hard to improve the plants, but now, I'd like you to consider keeping it simpler along the lines of 'less is more'. These plants do well w/ a fair amount of neglect even tho' that doesn't sound right. Good to see you know to pot up the water rooting cuttings after they get roots about 1" long . Lots of cuttings in small pots is a good idea. As example, a 3" pot could take 3 or 4 cuttings. Let me look for a pic of mine. This is a 4" pot. This plant gets watered maybe every 7-10 days, depending when I notice & remember ;>) The container that pot sits in has pebbles in the bottom, so I water to overflow into the pebbles ON TOP of which, sits that pot. It matters that the bottom of the pot is not in the water, rather just above it. That set up is referred to as a humidity tray. Some plants really appreciate it!...See MoreWJ [Singapore]
7 years agoWJ [Singapore]
7 years ago
Dave