how to save this dying tropical plant?

i used have this plant which i just grow in the water, here is a picture.

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/892417/

in the other forum, someone told me that it is called "Dieffenbachia amoena.", but from what i see at homedepot, those plants' leaves look dull, the one that i have has shiny, oily looking leaves.

anyway, i have transplanted it to soil a while ago, then during the winter, i decided to give it more sunlight, i put it outside, then it started to die.

now that is all that is left. the stem just somehow dried itself which i already cut. this pot is made of porcelain. the stem that is left used to be green, now it is turning brownish green.

I am thinking about taking it out, and replace the original soil with the compost soil? should i do that?

How about replacing it with a healthy plant, after researching its proper care.

well, I got it aboard, so i can't fly back and get another one, that is for sure. and from what i see at homedepot, the one they are selling is not the same one.

I usually try and stay away from giving people bad news, but, if your plant doesn't send out a new side shoot soon it is not going to recover.

I would suggest that you leave it in the container as it is, give it some Superthrive (HD or Lowes), cover the top of the pot with clear plastic (remove to water) to raise the humidity and keep it warm (keep it very warm-80* at night).

Your plant is Diffenbachia and there are many species and hybrids in the plant world. It is a low land tropical and needs year around humidity & warm temps for best results.

I hope it recovers, I have not seen that kind before, where did you smuggle it in from?

Not a diffenbachia>

i got it from a caribbean island.

here is a picture that looks like the one that i had.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/14205/

Getting another one won't be the same as having the one you went to so much trouble to bring home. However, the photo looks like an ordinary diffenbachia to me. I would think you could buy one in a lot of places in So. CA. Try Armstrong Nursery or Green Arrow/Green Thumb. They should carry diffenbachias, probably several varieties.

I would dig it up and see if it has any healthy-looking (white or light-colored) roots. If so, you may be able to bring it out of this. Personally, I think it looks as if it was kept too wet. They take being too dry much better than being too wet. I had several potted plants that got too wet for too long last winter (long story). However, several of them showed good solid roots when I dug them up even though all leaves were dead and gone. I planted them back and then only watered when the potting mix was dry down a couple of inches. All but one came back, even though it did take a long time for them to recover.

Karen

haha, yea, i literally had to smuggle it across the US border.

anyway, i was really curious to see what the root looks like now, since you suggested, that is what i did.

i found out that there is one branch of root left which still looks healthy. the stem looks ok. i replaced the original soil which was sticky and has no compost in it with the soil that has plenty of compost. hopefully it will grow back again.

You have at least one good root and the stem is not rotted so it may well grow back for you, but it can take several months. It may seem as if it's sitting there doing nothing, but it has to replace the lost roots before it can support leaves.

If the original soil in the pot was sticky, it still sounds to me as if it was getting too much water, so only water it when the soil feels dry in the top one or two inches. Keep it in bright light but out of the sun.

Good luck,

Karen

Please do not smuggle any more plants into the US. There are EXTREMELY important reasons behind the restrictions. Even a single plant infected with a non-native parasite or pathogen can eventually end up committing genocide against native plants and established crops. Your plant is almost certainly a goner, and the soil may be infected. Please dispose of it responsibly!

over 10 days have passed, i looked at this old picture again, i realized that the bottom half of the stem is not as green as before! it is all becoming brownish as shown on the top half of the stem. I did replace the original soil with some of the home-made compost and some good soil.

I just learned about the function of perlite, should I buy some and put them in the pot now? And should I buy some of those miracle gro products to stimulate the roots or something?

and should i put it outside with no direct sunlight, but high temperature, (i did that for a few days, it didn't get any greener, so I moved it indoor now), or inside with no direct sunlight, but cool temperature? should I mist the stem daily?

I wouldn't mist the stem, that can benefit leaves but I don't think it'll do much for the stem except maybe make it rot. I wouldn't try to repot and add perlite at this point unless your potting mix is very heavy and not draining well--repotting is going to put further stress on the plant and that's the last thing it needs at this point (although if your mix is heavy and doesn't drain well then you probably ought to try that so the roots don't rot). A root booster shouldn't hurt and might help so I don't think it would hurt to try it (just make sure it's just a root booster, not a fertilizer). And I'd probably keep it indoors somewhere that it gets bright indirect light--outdoors if you have any hot temperatures that's just additional stress that the plant doesn't need at this point. I'd also be really careful on the watering--since the plant doesn't have any leaves it's not going to go through nearly the amount of water that an actively growing plant with a full set of leaves would, so it's very easy to overwater them when they're in this sort of condition. Hopefully your plant will still come back for you, but if the stem's starting to turn brown that may mean that it's not going to--while plants are pretty resilient, unfortunately sometimes they're subjected to enough stress that they just can't recover from it.

I agree with all of the above.If the bottom of the stem is still green I would cut back to the green part.A porcelain pot is probably the worst for it right now,because they hold more water and do not allow the roots to breathe.

Dale,
What is that lovely shrub?? in your photo?
Lynn

From reading your other thread where you talked about using garden soil in your containers, if you did that with this one too I would repot it right away into some soilless potting mix.

this thing is very strange, the stem used to be about 5 times taller than what it is now. the top of the stem just dried off by itself. this is all that is left now.

the original soil was plain garden soil with no compost. i changed the soil entirely with garden soil and some of my self made home compost about 10 days ago. should i really repot with the soilless mix again? i have some tiny plastic pot, should i use that instead of the porcelain pot?

Garden soil is really not ever recommended for containers, and while adding compost might seem like it would help, it decomposes and collapses quickly which is not what you want for a container. I would always use soilless potting mix for containers unless you're growing bog/water plants. As far as plastic vs porcelain pots, plastic doesn't breathe either so I don't think that would make much of a difference. Unglazed clay pots (terra cotta, etc) are the best since they allow moisture through.

I see that you're not a subscriber so you won't be able to read the whole thread, but I would highly recommend going over to the container gardening forum and read the first post in the two sticky threads written by tapla--he gives a lot of great info on how water moves in containers. You won't be able to see the followup discussions which are also great, but at least you'll get some basic understanding of things from his first posts. Here's a link to that forum, the threads I'm talking about are the first two listed. He also gives some recipes for good container mixes which actually would work better than the bagged products you can buy, so if you've got time to get the ingredients and make them yourself you'll be in great shape. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/containers/all/

And here's another one of tapla's great threads in the Indoor Gardening & Houseplant forum--again you won't be able to see the followup discussion, but he's got a lot of great info in the first post which you should be able to see. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/796311/