I was given this plant by a friend today. She had it staked, but we had to remove them to transport. Apparently, it wasn't very stable anyway. Should I restake it, maybe with some kind of sturdier poles? Shouldn't it be strong enough to be upright on its own? She told me she watered it once a week, but I don't know how thoroughly. Please help!
BTW, the scale may be hard to see, but this beautiful plant would be around 5' tall standing up.
The plant really does need staking, it does not look happy growing along the floor when it should be tall and proud.
Start by buying new indoor plant compost then, removing the plant from the pot(onto newspaper) look at the soil and gently try to shake, finger comb the old soil from the roots, get larger pot (not to big) make sure pot have drainage holes in bottom, place some new compost into bottom of larger pot, spread the roots of the plant gently into /onto the compost, make sure the roots are not a tangled mess and spread then more if they are. top up the pot with more compost and when about an inch from top of pot, firm the soil gently down so the plant feels secure. Next place a stout cane into the pot, don't break the roots so do this gently too. as the cane feels firm, bring up the plant stems and loosely tie them to the cane using soft string (I use my old tights cut to lengths as they are soft) place the pot/ plant into a basin of water, allow the pot to sit there till the soil turns darker, this indicates the compost is wet, lift the plant out of basin and let the water drain away, mist the top of the plant and stem, this will remove any dust etc, place the plant in good light but not full sunlight at a window as this will cause the plant to dehydrate and will die of heat stroke like us humans.
The plant will take a couple of weeks to recover from the move, the new environment, the root disturbance etc, so be patient, don't feed the plant right away, wait till it has recovered then give half doze of liquid plant feed, you stop feeding when the onset of winter comes and maybe find you use less watering too, restart feeding and more watering in early spring or when you thing it is needing more, then Carry on as before.
Hope this helps you out and the plant stands tall and proud again, good luck. WeeNel.
Kg - you're right in that it should be strong enough to stand on its own. That it isn't is strong testimony to the fact it was grown in inadequate light. I realize that those just getting started tending houseplants might be a little less bold than those of us who have been used to manipulating plants for many years, but I wouldn't stake the plant. Instead, I'd look at what you have now as a great chance to start over with a fresh slate. By that, I mean that I would prune the plant back HARD, each stem to within a few inches of the soil. This will eliminate the floppy stems that aren't going to become self-supporting any time soon.
Height is not something that is especially valued when it comes at the expense of the plant's ability to support itself. Additionally, the long bare stems are not very appealing to the eye. If you cut the plant back, get it into good light, and get started on a pinching program that will ensures a more compact and bushy plant, I think you'll end up with something that has greater eye appeal than what you'll have if you stake it up and take the passive role.
I would bare root the plant, get it into an appropriate fast-draining soil, cut it back hard, and move it into a bright spot.
I'd like to talk about bottom or wick watering for a second. I never use it for two reasons. The first is that in order for wick watering to work well, the soil has to be water-retentive to the point that by its very nature (its physical properties) it has to be limiting (to growth and vitality). The best soils for containers are those that need watering very frequently. These soils ensure there will be lots of air in the soil and very little perched water, which is the water that occupies the soggy layer of soil at the bottom of the pot that always occurs when you use heavier soils. Second, watering by immersion or wicking ensures that all or a significant fraction of the soluble salts in the water remain in the soil. This inhibits the plant's ability to absorb water and nutrients dissolved in the water, and also contributes to the probability of spoiled foliage.
Properly watering from the top, on the other hand, ensures that you're flushing accumulating salts from the soil each time you water. It also ensures that the ratio of nutrients YOU select and want to supply remains unskewed because you'll be replacing nutrients with regular fertilizing instead of simply adding to what is already in the soil.
The best advice I can give to new growers (and I've taken a LOT of new growers under my wing, both in forum settings and in the lectures/demos/presentations I do for various clubs and organizations in the community) is to make sure you build on a good foundation. Your SOIL is the foundation of EVERY conventional container planting. If you learn to avoid the commercially produced, water-retentive soils primarily based on peat, and learn to make your own soils using pine bark or inorganic gritty components like Turface & chicken grit (crushed granite), it will provide a MUCH better opportunity for your plants to grow to their genetic potential within the limits of other cultural factors, and provide you with a MUCH wider margin for grower error.
I've talked long enough, but if you have questions .....
Al
