Hi,

This is our first post here so we'd like to say hello to everyone:)

We have no experience at taking care about plants - our apartment seemed to be a bit "empty" place so we decided to change it.
I realize that probably we made and will do many mistakes, but maybe you can help us to prevent further damage by sharing some thoughts with us.

I admit that when placing plant we mostly considered how it will look than how plant will feel

First, our Money Tree.
The windows are facing South-East.
Unfortunately recently some leaves turned yellow, some have partially dried and some have light discolored (dried?) spots.
Now in Poland sun is not very strong so we keep windows shutters open.


















Second, Fiddle-leaf Fig.
It is located next to North-West window.
Aas you can see, without direct sunlight. Probably this is bad decision. Problem we have you can see on photos: brown spots on leaves, especially visible on the youngest leaf. Also we worry about this deformation of leaf presented on photo (second and third) is natural or also sign of some problem. This is visible mainly on leaves closer to the ground.
















Third, we have Ficus Ginseng, also located on North-West side. It lost a lot of leaves on the beginning, but now there is many new ones so we hope it will survive. We would like to place some other big plant in the left corner of this room (marked ? on photo) but, considering that it will be really shady corder , we don't know what to choose







Sorry for a bit long post, and thanks in advance for help:)

Anna and Blazej

Welcome! This is a good place to learn. If you search randomly on the internet you will find a lot of poor information about indoor plants.

I suggest that you switch the locations of the Pachira and the Fiddle-leafed Fig (Lyrata). The latter requires more light than the former.

Small leaf spots on leaves are blemishes and indicate nothing more than nothing in nature is perfect. Occasional yellowing and dying back of a few older lower leaves is also inevitable. If your plants don't get enough light or are not watered properly, you will get more dying lower leaves than normal. So far, yours appear to be okay.

New leaves that emerge on a Lyrata do so with those reddish mottling. The new leaves will gradually turn all green as they mature.

Your Ginseng will lose some older leaves - more than your other plants - as it adapts to its new home. Its location there is fine.

In the corner location, the only larger plant that will do well there is a Dracaena 'Lisa.'

Some unsolicited advice. Keep all your plants in their plastic nursery pots as they are now. Resist the temptation to make the plants grow faster by putting them in larger pots. Water your plants thoroughly until some water trickle through their drain holes. Water the Pachira as soon as the top half-inch of soil is dry. Water the Lyrata and Ginseng as soon as the surface of the soil feels almost dry.

Have fun!

Thank you very much for your suggestions and all very useful information - we really appreciate it.

Pachira is growing like a crazy, so we decided to leave it in the same place (and honestly we really like how it look in this place).

Fiddle-leafed Fig is ok, but now growing. I realize that that's probably because not enough light, but without switching with Pachira we cant find any nice spot where it has enough light and look good it the same time. So for some time we will just leave it and keep and eye on.

Ginseng is behaving strange - it is growing a lot of new leaves, but still loosing old ones (almost no old ones left). For some time plant was almost leafless. I have waited week or two, but only some new leaves on top were growing. So I decided to prune most twigs and then it started to develop. I am worried that when new leaves fully grow that process will repeat and plant will again become leafless.

I have one more question to you - Pachira and Ginseng developed new leaves mostly from window side (which is obvious:), but I wonder if we can rotate those plant to make grow more even?

Anna and Blazej

Don't be surprised if your Fiddle Fig one day suddenly starts to lose a number of leaves.

The older leaves on your Ginseng were adapted to the more intense light they received in the nursery. That is why they are dropping off now in the reduced light of your home. The new leaves will be adapted to the light available in your home so they will not die back as long as you water properly.

Most plants benefit from being rotated so that they grow evenly. I find that a quarter turn with each watering seems to work well.

Thanks for advice. I've followed your advice and moved Fiddle Fig to South-East side.
You have suggested before Dracaena 'Lisa' for bedroom as I asked about large plant, but now I have to fill this empty space after Fiddle Fig.

Do you have any other idea what could fit instead Fiddle Fig? I would like to avoid another Dracaena 'Lisa' - I was thinking about Zamioculcas, but it does not have similar shape and height to Fiddle Fig which fit this place perfectly

Your options for that space are limited because most taller plants would be too wide to fit there.

Plants to consider are Dracaena compacta, Dracaena marginata, Snake Plant, Corn Plant, and Lucky Bamboo. All of these come in different heights and widths and all would do well in that location as long as the window is uncovered during the day.

Hi Will,

Again I am back for to ask you help:)

As you suggested we bought Dracaena marginata and place it instead Fiddle Fig.

Unfortunately there are some problems

1. Money Tree - generally it grows really good in this place. Lot of new leaves and looked healthy. Recently I have noticed some strange spots on leaves - I need your advice if we should worry with this




2. More serious problem - Ficus Ginseng - this plant drives us crazy. As I mentioned in my previous post , after we bought it it lost almost all leaves. AS you suggested - it needed to adapt to new environment - we helped with some pruning and last two months it was growing really nice. Then, new leaves started to get black and later during last few days it started to loose older leaves too. Photos are not perfect but you can see that fresh leaves are dried. As for today 30% of other leaves dropped




To give you full picture there some other thing that may be important:

- since last month , weather in Poland is disaster, more like November that May, so there is almost no sun (and this is north-west window)
- in the same time we bought new plant and placed it next to Ginseng - it was Hedera Helix or similar. Last week it died completely, just like that in a few days. Most leaves dried completely
- I've noticed that around our plants there are some flies - after research I think that it is Sciara militaris (Fungus gnats?), not a good thing;/. I placed some trap with vinegar but it will only catch flies, not larvas

I don't know if problem is lack of sun, those flies or everything together, appreciate any advice

/Blazej

It looks like physical damage to a few of the Pachira leaves. It is not likely to spread.

Fungus gnat larvae live in contaminated soil. Did you repot your Ginseng?

WillC said:It looks like physical damage to a few of the Pachira leaves. It is not likely to spread.

Good to hear - I was thinking that it may be a sunburn. It is possible it was there before and I did not noticed this, but it is unlikely

WillC said:Fungus gnat larvae live in contaminated soil. Did you repot your Ginseng?

Not yet - For now I've moved it to south-west window, because I also think that every time sun is limited it starts dropping leaves. As for fungus gnats - I've seen those flies near to almost every plant we have, except Pachira - does it mean it is mandatory to repot all those plants, remove old soil and clean roots?

Replacing the soil is not the solution to the gnat problem. Allowing the affected plants to dry deeper into the soil before watering is the most effective long-term solution. If you repotted your plants and added soil to the top of the original rootball, then remove that soil.

WillC said:Replacing the soil is not the solution to the gnat problem. Allowing the affected plants to dry deeper into the soil before watering is the most effective long-term solution. If you repotted your plants and added soil to the top of the original rootball, then remove that soil.

Thank you for quick answer. I did not repot any plants yet, so I will follow your advice and I let soil dry deeper. I managed to catch most flies with vinegar trap so hopefully they will not create more larvas.
For now, Ginseng's leaf drop has stopped, so maybe it was more light-affected problem. We will see.

By the way - some time ago also following your advice I moved Fiddle Leaf Tree to south-western window. Since then there is no major problems, it is just not growing at all - like it was "blocked" in grow when it was on north-west side. For now, I just wait patiently.

When it comes to indoor plants, patience is a virtue. Plants often need a chance to settle in. Fiddle Figs tend to grow in non-seasonal spurts, putting out a flush of new leaves and then no new growth again for several months.

Hi,

I've got some more questions. Sorry, it will be a long post:)

1) Fiddle Fig
First, some good news - like you've said before, patience is needed, and after moving our Fiddle Fig to new location it started to grow. There is a proof - 3 new leaves:)



2) Pachira
After some really good start something started to happen. Growing has stopped, some leaves turned yellow and some branches are look dead (but I am not sure if it was like this from beginning or recently).





3) Next question is more general

Pot size - I have no idea when it is good time to increase pot size. I will give you example. As you can see on this photo, our pots are inside "cover pots", so we decided to add some clay pebbles (I am not sure it is correct name). Unfortunately roots are growing out and attached to those clays. Does it mean that it is time to repot to larger size? When repotting should I cut those roots or just leave it with those clay pebbles?
By the way, Pachira also has clay pebbles under pot, but it fits really tight into cover - so I wonder maybe this is bad for plant because water from pebbles can't evaporate and roots are overwatered sometimes?



Fertilizer - this is also area I have no experience. I've read that too much of fertilizer is not good, so I am using it for most plants every three week. I don't know that kind of fertilizer is good, currently I have vermicompost . I am open for any suggestions in this topic too.

4) My northwest room - according to your suggestion I've placed there dracaena (and monstera later). They are doing well in this place



Regards
Blazej

Good news with your FLF!

Pachiras are weedy plants that grow rapidly, shed leaves frequently, grow unmanageably and are tough to kill. The loss of some older leaves is normal and to be expected.

Plant roots will seek out moisture and oxygen where they can find it and often that is through the drain holes. It does not mean it needs a larger pot. If your plant is healthy, don't disturb the roots by repotting.

Fertilizer is overrated and there is a much greater danger to over than under fertilizing. Any standard fertilizer that is available and inexpensive is fine. Dilute it to half strength and use it no more than monthly and only when the plant is healthy and growing vigorously. Or don't bother with it at all.

The new location looks good!

Thank you!

One more question regarding larger pot - how do recognize in the future when is the perfect moment to repot plant?

There is no perfect moment. The best general rule of thumb is when ether is no longer enough soil that you need to water the plant thoroughly three times or more per week to keep the soil appropriately dry.

Moving it up one pot size will provide sufficient soil to extend the time between waterings to a week or more. On the other hand, premature up-potting ( a common problem) will add soil that will stay wet for too long and suffocate the roots.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, many potted indoor plants never need repotting. Larger, older plants especially rarely need repotting.

Returning to my previous question about root growing from pot drainage hole. As you have said, contrary to popular belief, this does not mean that plant have to be re-potted immediately. For now, those roots in FLF are really long. Pachira also have similar "problem"

I am still a bit concerned if I should remove plant from this "outside" white pot each time I water it ? I am not doing this currently.

I have noticed that sometimes water stay for some time between those clay pebbles and roots are directly in a water, so I am afraid if this is safe (root rot danger?)

Your Pachira aquatica is a semi-aquatic plant and it can tolerate constantly wet soil. They are often grown in water and pebbles and do just fine.

My rule of thumb is to not repot as long as a plant is doing well and not showing any signs of stress. Why mess with a good thing?! That said, if a plant does show signs of stress that does not necessarily mean that repotting will fix it.

WillC said:Your Pachira aquatica is a semi-aquatic plant and it can tolerate constantly wet soil. They are often grown in water and pebbles and do just fine.
.

Hi. Most of our plants are doing well, but we still have problem with pachira.

Two of five trunks are dead - I think problem started not long after we bought this plant - one of my previous photos showed this - trunk is a bit soft in touch not only on top but almost to soil level. Second one lost all leaves and also soft. Third is still hard in touch but leaves started to fall off and turn yellow.

As you said pachira can tolerate wet soil, but every "googled" source I found states that yellow leaves and soft trunk is clear sign of rot. I am confused because as I remember I've always waited for 1-2 top inch of soil to get dry, then water and remove excess water from tray under pot.

So, probably it was my mistake but I have no idea what I did wrong.

What should I do now to save rest of plant? Should i cut those dead trunks and remove roots and change soil? Appreciate any help:)

The roots of a plant can die for many different reasons. When that happens, the stems or trunks will turn soft and die because the roots are no longer capable of meeting the needs of the rest of the plant. That softness is commonly called "rot" and that seems to imply overwatering or some disease, which may or may not be true.

Online advice is often not very subtle.

Are all of the stems soft and dying?

You may want to take some healthy green tip cuttings. Those can be propagated in plain water or in damp soil. An updated photo would be helpful.