What's wrong with my plant?

This is a Pachystachys lutea that I bought from Logee's about two months ago. It is a house plant and is near an east window area. It gets about an hour's direct sun early in the morning. It is about 5 feet from the window.

The problem is the curled leaves on the top part of the plant. The older part of the plant has normal leaves. I cannot find any insects on it anywhere. I have used Miracle Grow in case it was a micronutrient deficiency. It has not helped. Other than the leaf curling, the plant appears healthy and is forming a bract.

What's the diagnosis?

I'll post two views.

This message was edited Apr 2, 2006 7:13 PM

Second view.

I'm assuming you are watering it regularly...could it just be that it needs to be repotted? I bought a Shrimp plant as a houseplant from Logees a while back, repotted it when I got it, but last month it started drooping for apparently no reason. I had planned on repotting it anyways just because I was having to water it too often. When it started drooping, though, I was too afraid to repot it and just tried to baby it instead. After about 2 weeks, I just repotted it anyways and it stopped drooping within a couple days.

I water it when the top 1 inch of soil is dry. It has been repotted twice in the two months since I got it and is now in a 10 inch pot. The leaves have good turgidity but are simply curled.

Maybe take it out of the pot and check the roots?
If it is really root bound it may not be getting much water.

I buy primroses in flower every winter from the safeway and then try to carry them thru to spring when I plant them out. Discovered why they were constantly drooping even though I watered a lot - they were so root bound that only the outer edge of the 'soil' was getting water and the main root ball was absolutely dry.Now as soon as they are finished flowering I get them into a big pot!

carol

It looks as though it could have spider mites, and an early infestation is often difficult to spot.

Any sign of tiny specks on the leaf undersides or webbing near the uppermost leaves?

or maybe it's also sensitive to your water (hard water, chlorine, flouride). Some of my plants I have to use rainwater for (have cistern in back yard). Some are REALLY sensitive to tap water and others take a long while to tell me their unhappy with it.

Good point cjolene, and so true!

I don't have this one, so can't say, but I do know that Bromeliads, many Ferns, many Palms and most Calatheas are sensitive to our 'limey' water!

Hi- did you go from a 2.5 inch pot to a 10 inch pot in two months? What size pot did the plant come in? I'm used to Logee's plants being small, in a 2.5 inch pot usually.

I agree abt. taking the plant out and inspecting the roots. See what's going on down there- might be very telling. I also agree that it might be an early stage mite infestation. Take a white piece of paper and hold it under the leaves. Tamp the leaves firmly. If anything falls to the paper and begins to move around- you do have mites.

Let's try to get to the bottom of this!

GH

Yeah, lets!

It's funny, because your plant does look nice and green despite the curled leaves.....no sign of any speckling/mottling that spider mites are famous for.

You can also *feel* them if you stroke the underside of the leaves....they feel like fine little grains of sand.

I'm wondering too....if it's getting enough light?
I had a couple of other 'shrimp plants' a few years back, and they were only happy near the south window.
Then again...yours is forming a bract, so it must be getting enough light.

This message was edited Apr 4, 2006 10:59 AM

I have checked under the microscope for spider mites. I didn't find any or anything else.

The soil is too wet right now to take a look at the roots. I'll have to wait until it dries some.

I received the 2.5 inch plant and immediately repotted it into a 4 inch pot. Within a month, it was drying out rapidly so I checked the roots. They had filled the 4 inch pot so I repotted into this 10 inch pot. It is not drying out rapidly now.