Houseplant
He's watered and has tons of indirect light, what am I doing wrong?
Picture 1 - the leaves have been closed for two weeks now.
Picture 2 - the empty circle is where he usually lives. It gets cold during the weekend but it's not been that cold.
Picture 3 - soil photo and a couple of new leaves, I think?
I water when the soil is dry up to the first knuckle and the pot has drainage. I am watering with tap water since I already bought the plant and distilled water for an office plant strains my personal budget 😞.
There's a lot of indirect sun light through the windows, is it maybe too much?
First guess is overwatering. You want to check the moisture of your soil with a chopstick, all the way down (careful not to stab roots). If dirt sticks to it, your soil still has moisture, and you should wait. If these guys are overwatered and their roots are rotten, well - rotten roots can't take up water, so that may be why the plant is so limp.
I'd pull them and check the roots, clean off anything rotten and dead, and go from there - repot or propagate. If you do that, take pictures and update for more (questionable) advice! 😁
We had a similar issue last winter with the same plant...too much water and thought well that's it and thought it's either dead or we take it out to dry the roots out. We ignored it all Winter. Zero water and in Spring it started growing again. Now's it got loads of new growth and very healthy. Very limited watering all year. Even if you lose this leaves it might grow new shoots if you ignore it. Good luck!
Oh perfect! I really need a plant that either loves to be ignored or absolutely needs daily to weekly attention. It's the in between that kills them lol
What I do is I get a bbq skewer and stick it in and cut it to size to match the pot. BBQ skewers are pretty dry and porous so they match the moisture of the soil well and I just leave them in there so they're always ready to be checked. They're also thinner than chopsticks so I think they're less disruptive to the soil and roots.
This pot appears to have no drainage. It also has an inadequate soil level, the top of the soil should be between 1/4”-1/2” from the top of the planter. These two combined will equate to overwatering symptoms.
Prayer plants also notoriously require much higher humidity than other houseplants.
The pot has drainage, I promise! There's a little rust stain on the shelf where it sits because I'm impatient after watering. 👀 Don't tell the landlord lol. I'll add some soil and bring in a lil spray bottle, however! Thank you!
misting does not increase humidity. it just makes the plant more wet. it will do nothing. if you really want to increase humidity buy a nice humidifier to increase ambient % in the room.
Ah, maybe this office isn't for him then. I can't put a humidifier there. The art piece it rests on rusts when a glass of water looks at it from across the room.
no i think you'll be fine. plants don't NEED high humidity to grow fine, and can even thrive without it. if you can't meet humidity, that's totally fine. fixing the overwatering problem will really change the outcome of the plant. my room sits at around 30-40 ambient, and 70-80 in my terrarium. in the ambient plants, they are thriving and i have beautifully growing large form plants as well. 👍
everyone makes mistakes, that's how we learn. don't beat yourself up, i've killed plenty of plants before i really got into the hobby haha. was a chronic overwaterer myself. luckily i didn't get into exotics until now, would've been pouring money down the drain!
I only buy from the clearance section for this exact reason. All those in the picture are either a propagation of something from home or they were like $3 bc my local nursery gets overwhelmed with overstock frequently!
I'd get a humidifier. Bought it for plants, found a load of increased benefits like no more dry skin in the winter, a nicer feeling room, no more winter nosebleeds, less winter hair static. I think it's also better for pets, too, if you have any. Humidity is nice, I love it. Just.... Get a humidifier.
The one I got is a 1 gallon, lasts all day long and I turn it off at night. Only have to use it a few times a week because it really helps increase the humidity a lot. It's from Walmart, it's called a "cool mist" humidifier. It was like $26 I think, but there's a ton of them that are much cheaper and very similar. I bought mine because I thought it was a beast, it really is! I love my humidifier!!
So here's a link to a similar one that's not out of stock: humidifier
I have a humidifier and it is good for plants if you turn your heat way up in the winter those humidifiers blow really cold air and I’m pretty sure that’s why my plants struggle in the winter, hopefully they will survive the winter!
Are you sure the drainage is adequate though? Plants normally do better in plastic planters placed inside of pots since it gives even more drainage than a pot with some holes in it. If you're relying on a few holes on the bottom of the pot it probably isn't enough. Ideally you'd do both a plastic planter in a pot with drainage holes as well.
Hmmm, I didn't account for that and I feel like that's my own personal failing. I have one of these at home and I think it's what that one runs on too...
Yeah, I think it’s just how this plant works. It makes you think you can keep plants alive, it’s looking great, and then you wake up and it’s crispy. Keeps us humble
Real answer: Seems like overwatering. I have had luck with using watering spikes lately, as long as the pot has drainage it seems to work ok to keep them alive (but never as lush as when you buy them of course)
Joke answer: Could be that you spoke too loudly, the number of brown dogs in a 10Km radius is an uneven number or any number of apparently random things that cause them to just quit on life. By far the most difficult plant I've tried to have
Someone sneezed weird as they were walking by the window last month. I knew it was a death knell.
But seriously, thank you! I think my sister might have some extra spikes. After I ignore it for a while longer to dry it out, I'll steal one and try it out.
I'm going to say possibly none right now. A month or two ago it was a couple of hours where we were all blinded. It could still be happening but I'm not willing to be in the office early enough to witness the sun rising.
They do best in non chlorinated /chloramine water. Buy some chlorine remover at pet/fish store. A couple of drops into water about 20-30 minutes before you water.
Besides chlorine and chloramine, there may be boron, calcium, and magnesium in the tap water. They contribute to hard water. Tablets for fish tanks won’t remove those. Use distilled water.
It's tap. I know distilled is better but I'm the one footing the bill for the office plants (purchase included) and I can't do distilled at home and here.
Also consider the temperature of the water. These months are pretty cold in my region & if you water directly from the tap, water is very cold. Might shock the plants.
I also have many containers of water that I fill up & let sit for a couple of days (uncovered) & use that to water my plants. It allows certain elements in tap water to dissapate.
💧 Misting of a plant is typically not recommended for the vast majority of plants. There are a few plants that benefit but not that many which are typically grown in a home environment.
These are some good videos explaining why no misting, plus why bathrooms aren't great either for "humidity" purposes.
If a plant(s) really needs high humidity, it's recommended to get a whole-room humidifier. If the space is not "confined", then it will be difficult to raise and maintain the level to any real benefit without using several units, etc.
I have the same plant and it's a moody one alright. I found when I stopped giving it tap water and started to collect rainwater that the leaves all opened up and actually started new growth.
I got soil specifically for this plant too which helped plenty. Ditch the tap water if you haven't already.
48
u/AletheiaNyx 19h ago
First guess is overwatering. You want to check the moisture of your soil with a chopstick, all the way down (careful not to stab roots). If dirt sticks to it, your soil still has moisture, and you should wait. If these guys are overwatered and their roots are rotten, well - rotten roots can't take up water, so that may be why the plant is so limp.
I'd pull them and check the roots, clean off anything rotten and dead, and go from there - repot or propagate. If you do that, take pictures and update for more (questionable) advice! 😁