I have new baby leaf and the stems are still appear to have life.
What am I doing wrong?? HELP!! Is it too late to transplant it?
African Mask HELP!!!
Not too late to transplant. How much water and light do you give it? It's not in a drafty area is it?
My guess would be too much water from the looks of the leaves and soil. I agree, transplant and water lightly.
RRM.... When mine did that, I stopped watering because I've read that alocasia needs a dormancy period and all the watering in the world will only cause rot. You may find babies in the soil so look carefully. I took one apart and it had healthy tuber thingies, so I put them in some dryer soil and I only water occasionally when it's pretty dry. Research it to see if it sounds right.
First of all after I move it from the living room to the kitchen, then I am going to transplant it. It has a little grren leaf, so that is why I believe there are babies. I'm sure you are all right, I may have overwatered it. I "loved it to death" nearly. I want it to be Beautiful again so I
want to Thank You all forthe help. You are such great Folks and I love you all.
One more question: you think I should cut the leaves off or just let them do their thing. I just Transplanted and have only the soil that was on top. Lava rock is in the bottom. It was a new baby, so precious!!
Charleen
RRM
This message was edited Dec 25, 2009 2:59 PM
You could get rid of the leaves from an aesthetic point of view, but otherwise they'll fall off in their own time. What you need is humid air around the roots rather than wet soil.. The lava rock should help with that.
Charleen, welcome to "the club"!! I am now on the 3rd African Mask. They are so beautiful resisting is impossible. Whenever the leaves do that I cut them off, the leaves are dead, not the tuber. I've been guilty of throwing it in the compost pile only to have it return in the spring. As 3jmom says, it must need the dormant period.
I think that's more a matter of climate. Mine never go dormant. Some leaves age, go yellow, and fall off. But new ones are coming all the time.
After I transplanted it ,it still doesn't look
great but the baby leaf is still green so I still have hope.
I want to Thank you all for the help. You are Wonderful.
Charleen
RRM
RIDES
Tropic? Do you have the same day length year round, or do you have shorter/longer daytimes? I wonder if that has anything to do with it?
We have just over an hours difference between the longest and shortest day. Plants notice these things. Our winter day temps are also above 30C (over 86F) .Colocasias and Alocasias go all year. Some Caladiums go dormant regardless, some go dormant for about a week or so. And some others seem to also keep going all year.
This is one of my other Jewel Alocasias, A. reginula, that's been sitting out in the pouring rain for about a month. It's sitting in rocks, the water goes straight through. The leaf fall (from the trees) has been left there to keep the humidity inside the pot
Oh, that is so pretty. Are the leaves velvety looking in person?
Our day length change here is more than an hour, I wondered how much difference there was from the equator on out. Here in Kentucky, it is around 5 hours difference from longest to shortest day. At least our days are increasing in length again. We are up to 9 hours 34 minutes, woo hoo :).
When they're wet they just look shiny but dry they're very velvety. They tend to look artificial.
At the equator there's virtually no difference between longest and shortest days. We're about 12 degrees off the equator, hence some difference. Then it gets more extreme as you get closer to the poles.
I will add here that spidermites are a magnet for these plant's especially for people who try to grow them in door's through out the winter month's who use "dry heat" with little or no humidity to aid them. Been there and done it and I hope I have learned! Tropicbreeze is right concerning the environment/climate when it come's to some of these plant's thriving especially as indoor houseplant's and No they do not "have" to go dormant.
I strongly urge those to read the article's concerning the jewel alocasia's from LariAnn Garner concerning plants such as these if you have not done so.
Some can be a challenge to keep thriving as indoor houseplant's but it is worth the try;-)
I agree Rachel, reading Lariann's articles certainly put me on the right track. Before that I was heading for "Jewel Oblivion".
I read about the polly type alocasia suddenly dying off no matter what the grower did, and they figured it for dead only to find it sprouting months later. I figured that was a natural rest for them. Now I am curious about how to keep them from wanting to go dormant. I have a polly type plant that one bulb is dormant, and the other isn't. I planned to dry them off for a while. I haven't watered them for about a month and they are in lower light. How do you keep them from going yellow (I am pretty sure I wasn't overwatering) and should I give it more light and water it, unpot the dormant one? Now I'm so confused, lol.
3js, have you read the article's that both Tropic and I have mentioned? If not, do it and scroll through all the topic's concerning a "Polly" availabe on the Aroid forum plus all the other Jewel Alocasia plant's as well. I would never transplant or re-pot a Alocasia or Colocasia plant during Fall much less the Winter month's . Watch the watering and make sure they are in a fast draining soil because they can get root rot easily if over watered. Watch the climate in the home environment.....like I have already spoke with you about;-)
If your Polly has gone dormant do not water it and place it in a cool location "not below" 50-55F. though if you can help it. My Polly does loose quite a few leave's during the Winter month's but I never loose them all to the point of total dormant. I just really back off the watering and watch the plant as the day's go along. The plant will tell you when it need's a drink....the leave's will start to droop a bit. I hope this help's thus far it has for me and a few of my other Jewel's as houseplant's via the Winter month's.
I didn't make the connection that polly was a jewel. Sorry :) One pot is dormant. The other pot has one leafy and one dormant plant. That is the one I wasn't sure about. I thought dry was better right now to keep from rotting the second plant, that's why I asked about separating them. It actually hasn't wilted but it is in low light now. Probably pretty warm.
No, I am not sure if I read Lariann's article but I'll look it up tomorrow. Thank you for getting me pointed in the right direction.
One more thing 3js;-) try watering the plant from the bottom up instead of via the crown and remember if your plant is located in a humid room the plant is still receiving moisture through the leave's as well.
I sure hope this help's and yes please read the article's. If you need the link's just ask.
Wishing you all the best.
I think it was temp that started the dormancy then. They probably did get chilled before I got them. One was actually frozen off the day I got it, but had some firm babies in the soil. I put the babies into a small pot near some other alocasias. I only water occasionally but have them on a humidity tray. I sometimes mist the whole room, and have buckets all over, lol. Maybe that's why the one plant still looks fine that I quit watering, too. It may qualify as high humidity. I am still not sure what to do with the pot that has one lively and one dormant.
I have to edit this because it has the longest run-on sentence that I ever produced. My eyes got tired reading that one long sentence. I also want to tell that the dormancy issue was a temp thing. I had placed them on lower shelves because of the height of the plant, but lower is cooler in my growing area. All the plants had new growth on them when I looked this morning. It was because I put them on the warmer higher shelves to dry off. Now I have them watered and on a higher shelf so hopefully they will become happy campers. And thanks for helping me, or the plants may have become weakened from growing and no water, lol.
This message was edited Dec 31, 2009 9:22 AM