Hi friends these are the leaves of Tabernaemontana Divaricata 'compacta' (A dwarf variety).I just bought this 3 days ago and it was fine in polythene bag.But after I shifted it to pot and added soil and water it seems it's leaves turned yellow and dropping.
Please tell me if it is problem due to over watering or due to any other disease like root rot?
It could just be stress from transplanting into the pot (and potentially from being in a bag for a while? A polyethlene bag doesn't sound like a good place for a plant to live). So I'd give it a little time, but also it never hurts to check on your watering and make sure you're not giving it too much--check by sticking your finger down a few inches in the pot and see how wet things feel. If it's still wet then hold off on watering. Also, I hope you used potting mix in your pots rather than filling them with garden soil? Garden soil is very heavy and doesn't drain well when used in pots so you will often have problems with it.
Hey my soil is like this
60% clay + 25%sand + 10% cow dung (dried and powdered) + 5% wood ash.
I have also observed that the top leaves are green and firmly attached to stem, but the bottom ones are yellowing and very loosely attached (if we just disturb they fall off).
Will adding Epsom salt be helpful?
I have a feeling that, Nitrogen=For Stems(Bulk),leaves,
Phosphorous=For flowers,
Pottasium=For fruit. Is this intuition true?.
60% clay in a pot will make it almost impossible to water your plants properly--it will not drain well enough so unless you're growing bog plants their roots are going to stay too wet for too long. Even if you let things dry out in between waterings, the roots will stay way too wet for way too long and you will have problems. Do they sell potting mix designed for use in containers in India? You can also make your own using various components. I highly recommend reading through this thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1226030/ It's in the houseplant forum, but the advice around potting mixes is relevant for anything in a container regardless of whether it's an outdoor plant or indoor. If you scroll down a bit, you'll see some recipes if you want to make your own potting mix.
Thank you.I've added about 100gms more sand.
Adding more sand isn't going to help. It has very small particles, and what you need in your pot are larger spaces within the mix so the roots can breathe. You need to totally get rid of the clay--clay should never be used in a container in any quantity. And I would argue sand doesn't have any place in a container either, except maybe as a layer across the top to help prevent fungus gnats, but mixed into the soil it doesn't do any good.
Please, please read the thread I linked to in my last post--if you can find the ingredients for the potting mix recipe mentioned there that will be ideal for your plants, but at a minimum you need to look for something similar to the bagged potting mixes that are available here. I'm not sure what's available in your area but I'm sure there must be something that will be better for potted plants than clay & sand.
It's ok.But I've heard that Clay+sand=Loam. And loam is suitable for plants?.
Anyway I have vermicompost in a 10 kg bag.I'll add about 250 gms of it and thoroughly mix with existing mix and probably add about 50gms of dried manure and a 100 gms of coco-peat.
Well these are so many ingredients!. But please answer if loam(=sand+clay) a good mix or not?
Hey by the way I read somewhere that in Alkaline soils the Iron is locked (not available for plants).It feel may be it is the case? especially because I added about 50 gms of wood-ash in the pot before watering.How to undo all this?
Start anew by removing the plant, rinse off the roots, and use good soil. Good luck!
Hi Burraganesh, don't recognise your plant by the name and in some countries we use different names from one another. The best advice I can give you is to follow the advice fro Pirl and Ecrane, and try remember that all plants cant grow in the same type of soil as some like acidic soil, some like a Rich well draining soil while others like rich damp soil, even some grow without soil and we call those parasite plants or air plants.
If you wish to break up the clay in your soil and allow air into it, then I find the best way of doing this is by adding sharp grit (Very small gravel) and then add your animal manures that are well rotted. this will allow the soil to retain some moisture when you water but also allow the rest of the water to drain out from the soil.
Hope this helps you out, Good luck. WeeNel.
Sand plus clay does not equal loam, and although loam is good in a garden bed, any sort of garden soil is not suitable in a pot. Sorry, I don't know how many more ways to say that you need to find a soil-less potting mix, whether you make one yourself following the recipes in the thread I referenced, or else see if you can buy some bagged potting mix. Clay has no place in a container no matter what you mix with it unless you're growing bog/water plants. I would worry about your soil first before you start worrying about pH.
Thank you ecrane I am getting your point now.I'll make a complete changeover.
Great! I think your plants will be happier if they're in proper potting mix instead of clay. If you haven't yet, I definitely recommend reading the thread I linked to earlier--Al explains all about water retention in soil (among other things) way better than I could.
Thank you once again ecrane.I'll read the article.
burraganesh, ecrane is sooo right about NO clay period. And also about reading and heeding the link she gave you.
Yes ecrane is a helpful guy and tapla must be an expert at growing plants.By the way I've removed the clay carefully upto plant roots, and then aerated the remaining portion by dipping iron rod and moving between roots carefully.
Then I added a mixture of Vermicompost (looks very dark), Coco-peat (Since I don't have Sphagnum peat moss) and also powdered dried cow dung cake(it's around 40%).
Luckily I've noticed that the roots are not rotted.(Actually I stopped watering the plant from 3 days but still when I touched the roots I can feel moisture probably due to the moisture retention property of Clay).
Since here in India it is late winter and coming season is Spring, I think the dried dung will release required nutrients (thanks to Sun god) for consumption by plant.
I've also read somewhere that Spring is excellent season for applying fertilizer or soil amendments.I am thinking if I can add about a Tea cup of Gypsum but I'm leaving the choice to you.
Somehow I feel that the bottom of a Terra cotta pot may be added some clay in general because Terra cotta material absorbs water pot unlike a plastic one (with plastic pot clay would be an absolute mess).So about 15% of Clay in a Terra cotta pot may compensate for water loss (absorbed by pot) thus acting like polymer crystals?
:0) don't know about that. I would not fertilize the plant until it became somewhat established even if it is spring. Too much experimenting with that plant is going to really throw it into decline. I think, my opinion. I would just let it get settled in a plant with potting mix like ecrane/Al said and forget fertilizer for a while until you see if the plant is going to survive.
Ok I will stick to the sincere advice of ecrane and not experiment too much.
By the way just tell me if it is a good idea to grow tubers / Rhizomes like Colocasia or Acorus calamus or Potatoe etc,. in Clay based mix(like 40% clay+40%coco-peat+20%dried manure or compost), especially since clay retains water more?
