I have a small Draceana marginata - about 8 inches of stem and another 16 of leaves. It was in about a 3" grower's pot when I bought it. It appeared to be doing fine for many weeks last summer & fall, and it did fine in full sun for 4 hours or more daily.

Around the beginning of October, one leaf turned yellow, so I figured it was pot bound, and decided to try it in grit. When I depotted it, I did find the longest root wrapped around the bottom of the pot, but I've seen much worse. It wasn't badly pot bound in my opinion, but needed repotting nevertheless. I spread the roots out in an 8" x 6" pot of grit. It's enormous compared to the previous pot.

I have it a couple of weeks without any full sun, then gave it just a couple hours. It wilted. I water it twice a week with all my other plants in grit, and it's pot is larger, so I thought it just hadn't established its roots yet. I was wrong.

It has been about 4 months now, and every time it gets more than just an hour or so of direct sunlight, it wilts - even if I watered it the same day or the day before. This is a plant that didn't wilt in a pot just 1/4 of this size - but in a peat mix.

I'm frustrated. With normal soil, it's easy enough to tell whether it's over- or under-watered. Not so with grit, and if it requires watering more than twice weekly during a western Oregon winter, I'd have to water it several times daily in summer.

It appears to me that the only way to know what's going on is to de-pot it and check the roots, then adjust my mixture or something. I put it in grit because I want it to grow as fast as possible because I want a larger plant, and de-potting it again will just set it back.

Anyone have experience with Draceanas in grit in full sun? Wanna weigh in on this, Al?

My original post and photos when I potted it are linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Best pot size & growing medium for Draceana marginata