Help with my umbrella plant cutting:(

tryme

New Member
Ok i've had this cutting about 6 months easy. It's doing quite well. Well, was :(. It's leaves are turning yellow and drooping. What does this usually mean?
 
Has the cutting actually grown roots? If not, it needs water and cannot get it due to an absent root system. Yellowing in most any plant indicates any number of problems. Is the plant getting too much or too little light, too much or too little nitrogen, or too much or too little water? Drooping usually indicates too little water, however; this could be a side effect of low humidity drops or heat sources sucking the water out of the plant's leaves.
 
Yeah it has been on the window ledge. I don't think its been getting enough light as there isn't much in the winter here in London. :(
 
Umbrella plants need lots of light and just some direct sun. I do hope it is potted. They like the soil to be moist and not soggy. Both of these things could cause leaf drop.
 
Yeah he is potted. I think because I switched pots to a smaller one that he isn't doing so well as he isn't getting much sun to regrow the roots.

I switched from a bigger pot to a smaller one because I though the roots were finding it hard to get water in the soil. So I figured smaller pot for a smaller plant until it gets bigger. When I switched pots It lost almost all it's roots.
 
Tryme,

You can adjust the water level by simply watering a little every few days and simply removing the water tray if you have one under the pot. You can also leave the tray and just water enough to keep the soil moist without letting water run out the bottom much. Provide the plant with the strongest window light you have and add florescent cool white lighting of at least 3000 to 6000 lumens up to 6 inches over the plant. You might need to try some all around fertilizer that provides an even mix of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Plants use those different fertilizers to grow different parts. Potassium and phosphorus in particular help stimulate root growth. If you have to repot the plant you can simply tap and squeeze the sides of the pot until the soil is loose and turn the pot upside down with your hand cupping the soil at the base of the plant. It should fall out into you hand and you can repot it into a larger pot merely by filling in soil around the smaller mass of soil the plant is in. That will reduce disturbance of the root system.

Sorry I did not get back with you. I was thinking you had diagnosed the problem and were already acting on a fix. I can't see your plant, so I do not know exactly what is wrong, I can just provide a little help for you to diagnose the problem yourself.
 
Ok well I will try watering little by little and putting my finger in to see if it's too damp etc. Should it be moist all the time but not wet?
 
Yes, just moist all the time will be fine. It is a balancing act with Umbrella plants as they are like Mama bear, they like it just right. Too wet or too dry and they will have problems.
 
I find umbrella plants to be quite easy to grow. I have on in my basement since it got too cold here in ontario. It hardly gets any light or water but the plant keeps growing little at a time I cut off clippings and still it grows, very slowly but it won't die. My opinion is you damaged the roots during transplanting. I never move a plant from a bigger pot to a smaller pot unless I am splitting up the new growth into several new plants. As well I never change to a bigger pot unless I can pull out the whole root ball and the plant is root bound and needs a bigger pot to grow. Good luck. Sorry for babbling but I could talk plants all day...
 
how many days did it take to root the cutting?i am biulding a aeroponic system to root some shefflera and ficus cuts.
i lost both ficus i got from kammers,one jus died the other halfway died then dropped the last of its leaves.the ficus tree i got from lowes is still ok.
 
When I potted it it only took a few days for roots to start developing and within a few months they was all around the pot. Then I changed to a smaller pot and accidently ripped off all the roots.
 
Shock!

My background with plants is just a bit of gardening around the house and a few potted plants inside at various times, for a couple years when I was 18 I worked in the Home Garden Department at Home Depot and I ran into alot of things.

When repotting plants, which is generally recommended once a year, always to the next size up... you have to be careful or you can dmg roots.
Damaged roots lead to shock. Other reason's that can cause this are moving a potted plant to a new location, with different amounts or intensities of light.

Plants CAN recover from this state. Such as the hibiscus I currently have in my cham's cage. After I repotted the hibiscus, and moved it into the cage, leaves started to drop off. It looked almost dead with a few tiny green bumps coming up out of the branches. Just kept taking care of it like normal, letting it dry out in between watterings then soaking the soil completely. Now it's about back to where it was when I bought it, had a couple flower buds come up (that Evo broke off climbing around on it) and it's been a slow recovery over the last month but it's doing well.

Had this happen before with a habanero chile plant I kept indoors under a grow light, several times with that plant when I would repot it or tryed to use a window and eventually outside. With this plant the leaves would actually grow different depending on the light conditions. Larger, thinner, and less numerous leaves under the soft glow light, spreading to take advantage of every photon. Outside smaller, thicker, more compact leaves outside (maybe about 1/4 -1/2 the size from under the growlight) seemed more advantageous for the plant as the sun moved throughout the day rather than 1 specific angle.

Anyways, hope this helps. Just keep taking care of it as best as you can and it should grow. If there isn't alot of light by the window you may consider addind a grow bulb spotlight, obtainable for about $6 here at home depot, or available as a florescent for a bit more in various forms.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom