Help! What's wrong with my friend's money tree?

9 years ago

I got my friend this money tree as a present. When I bought it, all the leaves were standing up at full perkiness. In the couple months since then, it has grown a ton of new leaves but EVERYTHING IS DROOPING! You can see how sad and drippy all the leaves are. The old leaves are angled down, and the stems are the new leaves are bent right in half.

An album with more pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/utdAf

Pot:

He repotted it into a slightly larger ceramic pot with Black Gold organic potting soil. The pot has a drainage hole and we put a couple inches of gravel in the bottom to help draining.

Watering:

He was keeping it really wet, watering it every day. When I realized it was wilting, I told him to cut back on the watering and only water when the top of the soil is dry.

Sun:

It is in a north-facing room and gets less than an hour of direct sunlight a day. When I realized it was wilting, I told him to put it closer to the window, thinking it might want more sun?

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Comments (5)

greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
9 years ago
Something is impairing root-function, otherwise the new growth would be turgid. Did you say if there is good drainage?

Josh
User
9 years ago
I am new to houseplants and I am still learning, but what are all the rocks on the surface of the soil? I think I read somewhere that rocks on the soil surface can stop the soil from drying out properly. That is not the problem but it might be a contributing factor. Usually there are muliple problems. I wonder what the professionals will say. I was thinking of getting one of these plants so I am curious.
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lauraeli_
9 years ago
I was going to say root rot, but this is a swamp plant so I would think it could handle the extra water.
alisonoz_gw
9 years ago
I think part of the problem is the lighting. When plants are grown in such a low-light situation, the new growth can be terribly tender and sappy and a sudden increase in light may cause drooping.
I also think overwatering may still be adding to the plant being overly tender and an even further reduction to harden it up could be useful. Although your friend has repotted it, it's still sitting on a saucer with only a few small ridges between pot and base - so there is really not a lot of scope for "drainage" - if you could find something - even a few bottle caps - to place under the pot on the saucer - balancing the weight - to just raise it a little further I think that would be better.
I don't see any problem with the ornamental rocks on top - mulching with any material is useful to avoid surface dryout esp in situation with air-con or heaters, and surface dryout can lead people to "assume" the rest of the soil is also dry.
The plant looks good except for that concern of yours, and perhaps just rotating the pot to distribute the limited sun effect. It is perhaps just not enough light for the species to thrive
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
9 years ago
Good advice to elevate the pot in its saucer to keep the drainage holes above any excess water.

This plant isn't a swamp plant, per se, but rather a wetland plant that is used to flooding and then draining. In a container, however, one should not attempt to replicate the soil conditions. Instead, replicate the irrigation conditions by thoroughly saturating the root-zone with each watering, and then allowing the medium to drain. During the Summer, lots of water and fertilizer.

Josh