Mt BOP leaves are curling and not wide open--- Does anyone know what I need to do? More water or less water? More sun or less sun? The leaves are not discolored at all but the bottom 2 leaves are turning yellow. It has recently been re-potted and our days are hot. It receives about 5 hours of afternoon and evening sun a day and is shaded in the morning til about 1:00 p.m.. It may just be transplant shock but I do not want to do something wrong and take a chance on losing it--Please help
BOP problem?
I would water more. Esp if the soil seems dry. Has it been getting this amt of sun all summer? and when you transplanated, did you rip the roots a lot to activate new root growth-if so, then it may need some more shade in the afternoon for a while.
The soil has not seemed dry, I water usually daily. I have only had it for about 2 weeks but when I transplanted it I did not rip the roots. Is it to late to do that now?
I just wondered if it had gone into a little bit of shock if you had ripped the roots, but I would not go do it now-the roots will spread. It may be the heat that is curling the leaves, gingers do that in the heat of the day and then open up flat in early am and in the evening.
I would look and see if the leaves open up in the am, then its the heat. Keep on eye on the leaves that they are not getting sunburn-afternoon sun is the hottest sun of the day, so you may have to give it more am sun and a little less afternoon sun.
My BOP does great when left to dry out quite a bit in between waterings so if you're watering every day it's possible that's too much (I water mine at most once a week, except when we had a week of 100 and 110+ temperatures, then I watered it every couple days but I'm not even sure it needed that much--it was showing no signs of distress in the heat unlike most of my other plants!). You might also want to stick it in a shadier place for a few days--even if you didn't purposely do anything to the roots, some of them may have been damaged in the transplanting process and keeping it out of all that sun for a bit will help it recover (but make sure to water it less if it's in the shade!)
Thank you both for the advice. I will try what you mentioned a hope not to kill it with kindness ( and water and sun, etc....)
The only reason that I say water more-if the soil is drying out, is because of just transplanting and being in the hot afternoon sun-just for a few weeks. Ecrane is right in that they like to be on the dryer side-but I don't like to stress my plants a lot right after I transplant.
I have 3 BOPs- 2 are planted together and get tons of shade (which I thought would be the end of them) they are in bloom now and look healthy. The 3rd is in full sun, hot, hot, hot, all day (poor thing) and in Houston they compare northern full sun to like 6 hours of our sun. This 3rd one does get more water because it's near the hose and the hose drips, etc. The leaves on this one are curling and cracked to a certain extent and it is not blooming. The plants in the shade even if you removed the blooms (bite my tongue) are happier, healthier, greener plants. To be honest I would never have planted BOP in the shade, though nursery's here (Houston) often recommend it. I grew up w/ them in full sun in southern CA and figured they were tough and could handle anything; lesson here is can handle anything doesn't mean they like it!
Hope that helps.