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Hydrangeas Annuals Garden Clinic

my plant is dying ??

Karebear Briscoe

3 years ago

Please help, I don’t want my plant to die. I don’t remember what I planted here, it could be a Gardenia or a hydrangea.( it buds white flowers) Some of the base leaves are yellowing and there’s black spots on it. I put armor all baking powder on it ( read online
that it helps kills fungus ). I live in Tennessee and bought my plant at my local Lowe’s. I water it a bit everyday

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Comments (4)

luis_pr
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
A rhododendron perhaps? Make sure you are not watering it when the soil is already moist (or soggy) as soggy soil makes it hard to get oxygen and some foliage may die. Give it morning sun and water the soil -not the leaves- when a finger inserted into the soil to a depth of 4" feels dry. If it stays in soggy soil for long enough, the roots may develop root rot. Maintain 2-4" of organic mulch all year around. If your soil is not acidic, it may eventually be necessary to amend it using garden soil, iron sulfate or iron chelated liquid compounds.
Karebear Briscoe
Original Author
3 years ago
@luis_pr thank you so much! That is what my plant is, I completely forgot but that does sound familiar. Is it too late to save my plant ? I will use your water trick
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PG, it is a .pdf file, a common type of info source. You may have your computer set to a very high security level that requires your permission to finish loading it, or may not have Adobe acrobat plug-in. It's the same kind of file/link as this excellent article about plants at NDSU. I agree the tip of the Aglaonema may be all that's left alive, and that propagating it is the only likely way to save this one. The way it leaned and dipped to the side leads me to believe it had not been in enough light and/or was never rotated to keep it upright and even. Auron and Aarony, I think this article could be very enlightening. The vast majority of house plants will do great in a same well-drained/aerated soil mix. Watering plants is not a mystery at all, add more when dry, don't let them sit in a drip saucer. Tap water chemicals can build-up over time to toxic levels, to which some plants are more sensitive than others. Repotting can fix that, using rain/distilled/dehumidifier or air conditioner condensate can prevent it from happening again although plants growing well will fill their pot with roots periodically, necessitating repotting when this happens for continued good health. Sending good vibes for your plants' recovery, Aarony! When you repotted/moved the peace lily, did you replace the old soil? The soil mix you bought sounds good, does water flow out of it as fast as you pour it on? If you can use a light sprinkle for the first month or two, that can help a lot, by preventing the particles from being washed/compacted into each other. The spaces between particles allow the roots to grow quickly, speeding recovery and enabling vigorous new growth.
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Good potting soil is critical. A poor soil can hold too much water, essentially drowning your plants (starving them of oxygen). Watering on a daily basis or any sort of schedule can also be very detrimental - you need to water when the plants need it or when the soil is dry. Consistantly watering already fully saturated soil only exacerbates the problem. Without knowing more details about the type of potting soil and the size pots involved, I'd guess that overwatering is likely the culprit. Personally, I don't find moisture meters to be very accurate - I prefer to test the soil with the finger method (poke index finger down into the soil as far as you can - if the soil feels moist, you're good. If it feels dry, water) or by lifting the pot if a small container. A light, easy to lift pot is dry. I grow a lot of plants in containers - right now my ENTIRE garden consists of containers :-) But I do not have a need to water daily. I do check them all on a daily basis but water only as needed, maybe every third day. But I know how my potting soil works and most containers are quite large.
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These are still inside, right? I see some damage from the aphids but more from the pest spray - the soap spray needs to be on the bugs, not the leaves as much as possible and used sparingly. I'd stop it and if you find more aphids just finger squish them or blast them off with plain water. It also looks like some fertilizer burn on the leaf tips and new growth - too much fertilizer for plants this young, especially since there is already some in the soil mix. How often have you been feeding them? Try laying off the fertilizers completely as well as the insect sprays and see if they don't improve. Sometimes we gardeners are our plant's own worst enemies and left alone they can do amazing things. ;) Good luck. Dave
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It's hard to see anything with your white pebbles used as top dressing. I would remove all the pebbles (permanently, in fact) and make sure your plants are in a fast draining mix, preferably with few or no organic components. Top dressing is pretty but it keeps moisture IN. Cactus and succulent plants don't need that so much. It's hard to tell, but your pots do look like plastic. If you have succulents in plastic pots with top dressing, you are keeping a lot of moisture in that mix, regardless of what it is, and that's not favorable for the kind of plants you have.
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luis_pr
3 years ago
It is doing fine. Just maintain the soil as evenly moist (not dry but not soggy either) as best as you can. Expect some leaf loss for multiple reasons throughout the growing season (few plants in a home garden stay pristine looking by the end of the season).
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
3 years ago
its stressed .. not hungry.. no more fert .. i see enough on the ground around it already ...

and never put anything on damaged leaves .. until you are sure what you are treating.. and you are sure it wont damage the leaves more .. [though in this case the baking powder was rather benign...]

these leaves will not recover... look to new growth for the plants current status ...

and never add soil amendments.. until you have a good soil test done ... no guessing ...

it appears you put a plant with a lot of size potential very close to the house and porch ... you might want to move it in the next appropriate season ...

this is how i look for future potential .. presuming the ID above is correct:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rhododendron+size&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

omg.. scroll down until you see the 120 year old british plant ... crikey ...

ken

read this.. maybe you did other things that are complicating proper watering: https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub
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