Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Mites?, 1 by bettydee

bettydee wrote:
The leaves look really dark green. If it not my imagination, that color indicates too much nitrogen — over fertilizing. Chances are if the Brugs have had too much fertilizer, there may be too much of other nutrients as well. Leaching the soil if the plant is in the ground takes a bit longer because you have to run water through the soil for a while and drive the nitrogen down away from the Brug's roots.

I know that down turned leaves have to do with calcium. Tonny Surrow-Hansen has a thread here at Dave's on mineral deficiencies and toxic levels. It used to contain photos, but he removed them later. In his e-book he mentions which minerals are bound because of a deficiency or toxicity. He has a photo with down turned leaves and mentions calcium, but doesn't indicate whether it is due to deficiency or toxicity. At both deficiency and toxic levels, some minerals are bound to the soil and can't be used by the plant. Leaching the soil would tahe care of too much calcium as well

Checking the pH of the soil around the Brug would help if the problem with the calcium is a deficiency. This chart compares pH to the uptake of nutrients. You may know this already, but I'm including the info just in case. Thinning bars indicate interference with a plant's intake of that nutrient. Thin bars indicate plant can't take up that nutrient. PH levels between 5.5 and 7 give you the maximuim uptake for most minerals.