Sudden leaf drop on Begonia Maculata
Hello,
I've had a Begonia Maculata for the past year, and up until this week everything has been going great. It has nearly tripled in size since I bought it, and how I care for it hasn't changed. It has well draining soil, nice indirect light it seemed to be happy with, and I water when top soil gets dry. However over the last week it has dropped 75% of it's leaves. This was it a week ago:
However over the last week it has dropped close to 75% of its leaves, and I am unsure why. It happened very quickly and about halfway through I checked to roots to make sure there was no root rot, and all of the roots seemed totally healthy. The one possible clue I have been noticing is some of the leaves that are dropping (not all) start to brown right around the stem before they drop, although the whole leaf never browns.
Here it is today:
Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated. This is one of my favorite plants and I would hate to totally lose it. Thanks in advance.
Comments (14)
hc mcdole
5 years agoIt is a fussy begonia for sure. My own observation is it grows well in bright light, summer temps but seems to sit still in winter often regressing to death or close to it. This past winter I literally dribbled water into the pot to keep it a little moist and it did so much better than in past years.
Another note on another big polka dot cane is 'Flamingo Queen'. I have bought this one at least four times to no avail - it looks great when I get it and over time it dwindles away to nothing, including a big one I bought at the convention this year in New Orleans. One of the stems broke off (me or my dog) and I stuck the top into a big pot with old soil (Miracle Gro). The pot it came in looked like great soil - peat based. The original plant looks like it is dead or close to it yet the one in the big pot has grown beyond my wildest expectations for a simple broken top. Is it the size of the pot or the potting mix? I'm inclined to think it is the potting soil.
My old maculata grew great the first year after moving it into a big pot with other begonias.
I had to move all the begonias to smaller pots for winter and I lost the glossy green one at the bottom (Mrs. Hashimoto) and the maculata took a big hit as well. Maybe a bigger pot is the answer after all? This was 9 years ago.This past winter it looked like this in a much smaller pot.
FrozeBudd_z3/4
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Leaf Drop on Clown Begonia
Comments (3)Mike, I guess nobody has the same plant who comes on here. I don't think I own it, but I have a similar species. Look at the left of the pic (posted somewhere else on here for the Ademium). This is a also a cane begonia, and they tend to get leggy. But if yours are are not growing to the full size before falling off, there is something wrong. Are you giving them any plant food? Some is good, but I don't feed every time. Also, I let it get pretty dry because it is hard to reach the pot to water it. Western exposure, 8 inch pot, canes about 30 inches tall....See MoreCaudiciform begonias.
Comments (13)Plants that go dormant usually stop being dormant when whatever made them go dormant in the first place changes. If it's temperature that triggers dormancy, they break dormancy when it warms up. If it's photoperiod, they break dormancy when days get longer. If it's drought related, they break dormancy when there's water again. I've not typically had issues with succulents breaking dormancy. If they actually are genetically programmed to die after flowering once, they're monocarps. I'm not aware of begonias being monocarpic. From what I've read, caudiciform begonias will lose their leaves and stems and go dormant as a drought response, but do not have a required dormant period, and would not go dormant outside of reacting to excessive stress. The only begonias that I'm seeing that has an 'enforced' dormant period are tuberous begonias which, to the best of my knowledge, are different from the caudiciform begonias. If you have any documents that you could link to that show that caudiciform begonias DO have a seasonal dormant period, and specifically what triggers them, that would be greatly appreciated since that would probably explain what's going on....See MoreIs my Begonia Maculata worth saving? Please help
Comments (10)I agree with Dave on this being a fussy cane begonia. Root rot comes from too much watering as well. I keep mine in the basement and have learned to keep them on the drier side in winter. Mildew is the one issue that can make these types quickly turn ugly. I don't mist my canes but I do water by hose so if some of the leaves get wet, not a huge deal. I have several I've grown from seeds collected off the mother plant that seem identical or slightly different. I wished I had known about watering back when I started getting canes. Here was the mother plant back in Sep, 2009 in the same 18" pot of Encanto Bronze (the bigger cane), Mrs. Hashimoto (the plain green one with white blooms, and Morocco. close up of it, Mrs. Hashimoto and Morocco. Here it was in bloom that year. The seed grown ones last Sep in a slightly smaller pot (maybe 15") and blooming. The plant to the left is Begonia platanifolia (another good sized begonia) This same pot the winter before had mildew so bad that I lost some stems and almost all the leaves before I did anything to remedy the situation. Now if I had a big GH like at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, we could grow them to 12 to 14 feet tall....See MoreBegonia Maculata - Polka Dot Begonia - Questions
Comments (7)Carolina Girl, No, that is not what I said. You can cut a leaf off if it is ugly, diseased, or just old without hurting the plant but not for forcing a nodal tip to sprout. Pinch out the top growing point and it should force the next growing tip(s) to sprout. If you cut the top out then the next growing point will become the leader. It will make it somewhat uglier but if you aren't growing for a show, no harm. You can cut an entire cane to the ground (the roots should send up new shoots), lay the cane horizontally in a long pan of good potting mix and every node with a growing tip should make a new stem. OR you can cut each node below and above the growing tip and stick those vertically and you should get a new plant. Most folks cut a stem for 3 or 4 nodes and stick the lower two below the surface for roots. Here is an example of a pan (aluminum pan of syngoniums and a lanky tall growing Hazel's Front Porch) back in November. All the side growing canes were old and a bit ugly. I had one young stem growing straight up. The new cane had a lot of promise and was thick. new leaves were short I cut all the side shoots and stuck the tops in water. I could've stuck the middles in as well but I don't need anymore of this begonia. This was the last day of last year. almost the end of January after those tops were put in a pot. The young shoot I decided to keep as is. I started tying with the green tape to a 3 foot stake. The orange tape is from a taping device I bought later on. the tops in late Feb the young stem is now above the 3 foot stake in Feb. Mid-March (you can see some side shoots because I pinched out the leader back in Feb) end of June and the stem is over six feet tall. I put a new stake in that is probably 5 feet and re-taped the entire stem. I could pinch the top out of the new leader but I haven't yet. July 19 and all the cut off side shoots have sprouted new canes themselves and the syngoniums are like weeds that need cutting before bringing indoors My maculata that I got at Walmart a couple of months earlier next to a big Red Umbo PS: maculata is a great seed parent but beware of mildew - it is notorious for mildew when the temps turn colder. Here are some of my seed-grown plants from my old maculata. The one in the very back is one of my own seedlings. My old maculata back in 2009 where it grew like a weed but mildew did it in the next year or two. It shared an 18 inch pot with Mrs. Hashimoto (the one in bloom), Encanto Bronze which is the tallest one but in back and Morocco (the rounded leaves with tiny white blooms)....See Morehc mcdole
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoThanks FrozeBudd. The one hanging at the bottom (green leaves and white flowers) is Mrs. Hashimoto (which I lost after a year or two).
Here it is sitting on top after I turned the pot 180
EditWeill, the last photo didn't come through - GRRR!
Guess if the photo is kind of greyed out means it hasn't fully uploaded.FrozeBudd_z3/4
5 years ago
Danielle N
5 years agoFrozeBudd_z3/4
5 years agohc mcdole
5 years agoThanks FrozeBudd. It is a big job moving everything outside for summer and back indoors for winter. My basement runneth over as I try to organize them into their cubby holes just to keep them alive. I still have about 20 extra large pots to move indoors before Monday (our first freeze). The plants get bigger, new plants come in faster than old ones check out, propagation makes things worse as space is limited, and I am another year older. UGH!
This is from last December
Confetti on left, Hugh McLaughlin on right. Not sure what is in the back.
Amelia blooming, Cowardly Lion (striped rhizo), and it looks like Big Mac (glossy green)
Helen Teupel (purple with silver edges) and some unknown silver curl.
Flirty Girl (a seedling from Ozzie Johnson who is a member of our begonia club)
Jack Black with a cluster of blooms
My Special Angel (polka dot cane), Taconite (large dark green leaves), and U450 or U540 (seems like the tag was mislabeled) is the silver leaf with dark veins.
rexes from Walmart or Lowe's (Exotic Angel nursery)
Proud Mary
various begonias I propagated for fun.
tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
5 years agohc mcdole
5 years agoI started "dribbling" water last winter since the recommendation of a thorough watering after the first inch or two of the soil felt dry was not working out that great (I don't like sticking my finger into hundreds of pots anyway). To my amazement, everything seemed to do much better than previous years including rexes and some finicky canes. If we went away for a week, then I would water everything thoroughly and hope for the best.
Feb 19, 2018
This 12" clay pot of 3 different rexes amazed me the most.
Sylvan Triumph
Sophie Cecile
Velvet of the Night
Greta Schneider
3 years agoMichelle peterson
3 years agohc mcdole
3 years agoCas Li,
That is not maculata. The leaf edge is too erose - they should be smooth.
maculata looks like this:
Here is East Gate as an example of leaf edges being toothed or wavy.
hc mcdole