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coumica

Recently purchased Burgundy Rubber Plant Issues

Cou Mica
4 years ago

Hello!


I'll start by saying I swear I've read all I can consume about this plant. I'm new to caring for houseplants and know how quickly downhill something can go, so I'm trying to catch whatever poor behaviors/issues as soon as I can.


I recently purchased a Burgundy Rubber Plant from a local nursery (3-4 weeks ago) and the plant has looked amazing until the last week or so: 3 leaves are beginning to yellow/develop spots, and growth has seemed to halt as well (new leaf at least once a week per plant for the last little bit).


Here is the whole plant:


Here are the 3 problematic leaves:


Here are the leaves (front/back of the three highlighted above):







The plant is in a room with a very large SE facing window and door (usually open), picture:


This doesn't seem completely catastrophic just yet, but it's about a day of anxiety/worrying away from being the last thought in my head when I go to sleep and wake up.


Background/more details:

- This came from the nursery with 3 plants staked and planted in a single pot

- I am using Formula 420 soil (recommended by the nursery)

- Plants are potted in a glazed terracotta pot with a single large drainage hole in the bottom

- The bottom 1-2 inches of the pot are rocks/pebbles (I don't know where this came from or why I did it)

- When potting the plant from its original container, it was nearly impossible for me to loosen the roots up much at all - the whole potted area (soil/roots) was very dense and I was afraid to break it up too much in case I destroyed the roots (not large thick roots, very fine thing roots spidering EVERYWHERE)

- Deep watering is taking place once a week - or when the top 3-4 inches is dry - and the excess water in the drip pan is removed (somewhat) promptly - this is *not* a scientific method whatsoever, I'm getting a dowel to insert into the soil in about 30 mins

- Once a week (or depending on dust) I wipe each leaf down with a damp towel

- I used to mist the leaves the first couple weeks once every day or so - but I can't believe this is effective AT ALL and stopped this practice

- Overall growth on each of the plants has stopped - in fact, the plant showing issues has been the fastest grower of the 3. As mentioned earlier, I used to get about 1 new leaf per plant every week until the last week. Each plant has a visible meristem, the two on the non-affected plants are very short and haven't grown in days, the one on the affected plant has been about to open for the last few days but hasn't

- On the lower part of 2 of the plants, where the leaves attach to the trunk/stem, seems to be drooping - I'm unsure if this is a symptom or the leaves are just somewhat heavy

- There has been zero fertilization; brand new soil and only a month of time in my home seemed a little soon for the need to fertilize (to me, the dummy)


Basically - I believe I've been overwatering this buddy of mine - BUT, I'd be devastated if I corrected the watering but still had the same issues. Does this look like classic - and ONLY - overwatering, or is there anything else I should attempt to correct/rule out?


Thank you so much in advance!

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