help

greetings!! i'm brand new to the site and i love it so far…

i’m hoping one of you plant gurus can help me resuscitate my ailing plant…

i have (or had) this GOREGOUS cane tree. It was given to me by the gardener at my job who was THROWING IT AWAY because its plastic pot was cracked and one of the stalks had a serious gangster lean. Figuring that it just needed a tiny bit of love, I took it home and stuck it in a corner of my apt, where there was very little light, watered it periodically and basically left it alone. it flourished.

a year and a half later, i bought a house, and KNEW that my cane plant was going to be a show-stopper. During the summer, I bought a new planter, some soil, and some fertilizer. I took the plant to my deck so it could get a lot of sunshine and left it there for about 2 weeks. during those two weeks, though, atlanta got more rain than the city had had all year and when it wasn't raining, the sun baked us. by the time i went to get my plant, it was a shriveling, browning mess. but i thought i could save it.

Since summer 2009, I have…

repotted it;
changed the soil twice (i even rinsed the roots, thinking it was suffering from root rot);
sprayed the leaves to get rid of the white bugs on it;
held off on the water;
and stuck it in a dark corner of my home.

the attached picture is what's left.

Last night, I moved it to an eastern-facing window (which is where it originally sat in the house.)

What else should I do? Is it too far gone to save?

Thanks in advance for the help!

just as a reference.... here's what the plant looked like 1.5 years ago... sad, ain't it?? any suggestions to bring it back to its former self?

I would suggest patience and being really extra careful on the watering. Since it sounds like it got severely overwatered and also had an insect problem, that is quite stressful for the plant so it may take it a little time to bounce back. Also, since the leaves are mostly gone I can't really tell this from your picture, but when you moved it outside during the summer, if you just took it from one day being inside to the next day getting a lot of direct sun it likely got badly sunburned as well as being overwatered by the rain. Anytime you are going to give something more light than it's been used to, you need to adjust it gradually to the increased light level (it's just like if you take a person who's pasty white from a winter indoors and throw them onto a tropical beach for a few days--they'll be fried to a crisp!)

This poor plant has been through quite a lot, so you can't expect it to recover right away, it make take a bit of time. The good news is if it was going to die from the earlier sunburn, overwatering, etc it probably would be completely dead by now, so there is definitely reason to hope for recovery. The best thing you can do is keep a close eye out to make sure the bugs don't come back, and make sure you're watering it properly now--since it is missing the majority of its leaves, that means it won't need to be watered at anywhere near the frequency it did when it was healthier. And keep it in the location you know it was happy before.

If it does recover and you want to put it outside next summer--first of all adjust it gradually, giving it a little more sun exposure each day. And I don't think you want it in full sun even once it's adjusted to the higher light conditions--I think these are listed as sun to partial shade, and in a hot summer climate that means it'll be happiest if it has shade in the afternoon.

I agree. I think that 6 months down the road you will be amazed at the recovery as long as you water carefully and let it get accustomed to it's spot (don't move it) I see new growth, and as spring approaches it should leaf back out nicely. And as Ecrane said, if you put it outside, the shade will be nice. I start mine close to the house on a covered porch and move them to the edge (more sun) as they get used to the higher light before I set anything in full sun.

thanks for help!! i have another question--how often should i be watering it? what's too dry or too wet?

I let the top couple inches or more dry on mine before I water. So far it is working alright without any signs of stress. I do the same whether it's growing in sun or shade, but the shady plant I water even less. That reminds me that I wanted to repot a dracaena that is in a heavy soil. I'll go do that now :).

Oh, tapla taught a good method, put a string into the soil at the bottom of your planter, it helps pull excess moisture out, but it also is a great place to check if your plant needs water. If the string is dry, the soil (and plant) will be ready for water.