Need help with terrible looking spider plant, monstera deliciosa and possible also ponytail palm
imgur.com/a/RbIs9Z0
imgur.comPosted Sep 4, 2020, 11:06 AM UTC
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imgur.comSpider plant: Soil looks terrible. I'd repot into a better soil mix. First, though, I'd trim all the brown bit off and check the roots. Since you mentioned it's rootbound, I'd go for a slightly larger pot with good drainage. I keep mine in terracotta and it's doing great. If you plan on keeping it in a plastic nursery pot inside a cache pot, I'd suggest getting a cache pot that is bigger than the plastic pot, to allow for more air flow.
I like to mix lots of perlite in with the soil for pretty much all my plants, and the spider plant is not an exception. Water thoroughly when soil is dry.
Monstera: Looks thirsty to me. How do you water? Do you remove it from the outer pot and water until excess drains out the bottom? I know it can be really hard to do with the bigger plants, but it makes a huge difference. I like to let my Monsteras dry out pretty much all the way before I water them and it seems to work for them.
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Yeah it is still the original soil. Thanks, I will do that.
For Monstera, I think I was significantly underwatering it for some time. When leaves started curling I looked it up and it said I'm underwatering, water started draining from the bottom only after I put about 1.5l of water in. I'm watering it more now, but it usually doesn't drip from the bottom - should I wait and then water even more? I also have Adanonsii which is doing much better and I do let it dry before watering. Thanks!
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With the Monstera, it's hard to give good advice since it's in a pretty big pot and I have no idea what's going on beneath the soil. If the roots fill up most of the pot - sure, water until it drains out the bottom. It'll dry out quickly enough. If the roots only take up a small part of the pot, you might want to consider potting down a size so the soil has a chance to dry out after a thorough watering.
It's always good to do a thorough watering (until it drips from the bottom), because then you know you have given all the roots a chance to drink - even the deepest ones. If they never get a drink, they'll die eventually. With thorough watering, you're encouraging root growth throughout the whole pot.
I know it's a pain to water these big guys thoroughly. I keep my big one in a large terracotta pot and I usually leave it in it's spot nowadays. What I try to do instead of putting it in the sink or shower, is that I water it a little bit at a time over maybe ten minutes. So, say I give it a litre of water at first, then move on to water some other plants. I come back when the first water has absorbed, and give it maybe half a litre and wait, and repeat. When the first bit of water has made its way down into the tray, I stop immediately. If there's just a tiny little bit of water in the tray, I leave it because it will soak into the terracotta and won't do much of a difference. If there's more water than can be absorbed in a few minutes I soak it up with a rag or something.
Since yours looks like it's in a plastic pot, I'd maybe suggest putting a layer of stones or leca (expanded clay) in the bottom of the square pot, so that if you water a little bit too much, it'll collect on the bottom between the rocks. If your pot is standing on the rocks, the water won't reach the pot, so it shouldn't be a problem.
ETA: I hope that makes sense. If not, feel free to ask.
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Thanks very much!
The standing pot has ~5 cm "teeth" that seperate the bottom from the nursery pot so overwatering a bit isn't a problem. And it's visible if I put too much water in so I can just take the plant out of the standing pot and pour the excess water out.
All makes sense yeah, thanks :)
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Sounds like a good pot! :) Good luck!
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Spider plant is a €3 rescue from few weeks ago, it looks even worse than when I bought it. It's rootbound just enough, I water when top inch (1 inch = 3ish cms) of soil is dry, it gets a lot of sunlight and it has drainage.
Monstera has thrips on it but I don't think they are the only issue. I've been spraying it with neem mixture for past two weeks, thrips seem to be almost gone but it's still looking... not great. I water when top 3 inches of soil are dry, but due to thrips issue it's likely I over and underwatered it few times.
Ponytail, I don't know but something doesn't feel right. Some leaves are droppy and some just won't go down.
about the spider plant: are you using tap water? and I have found out that they do better when they arent that close to the Window, but like 2 meters away
Every now and then I go to a nearby natural spring (it was tested, it's good for drinking) and use it to water the picky plants. I don't think I've used tap water for it since I got it cca 3 weeks ago, but I'm sure that the grocery store I bought it from did. Yeah it's about 70cm away from a window, unfortunately it wouldn't be getting much of sunlight if it was that far away. But I'll try to move it a bit further, thanks.