:'( My Dracaena surculosa var. punculata looks green (not dark but light) and bushy two months ago. They are about 3ft tall. I bought 4pots from a nursery and use them as a screen in my balcony. 5 new stems shot up higher than 3ft since and a few new shoots are just sprouting. The roots were visible then and there were not much soil (I think they have been sitting at the nursery for some time) so I repotted all of them 3 weeks ago with burnt soil mixed with compost. Feeding once a week. Water once a day in the morning. Despite all these, some of the leaves are yellow and have been falling everyday and this had happened even before I repotted them. Can anyone tell me what is wrong with them?
Most Dracaenas require weekly watering, not daily...too much water will cause the leaves to turn yellow and drop off. Feed them once or twice a month during spring and summer but they do not require it in fall and winter. Avoid direct sun in the afternoon, partial shade is good. And they like to be a little bit potbound so don't replant to a pot much larger than the one they were in.
Many thanks for your valuable advice, Toni. My balcony is facing South so they are not receiving direct sunlight. I will comply amd monitor the water and feed, and update again in a month's time.
It appears that not all the fallen leaves were yellow, some were brown and some were pale green. The remaining leaves on the branches appear blotchy. I examined the fallen leaves again this evening and spotted some of the pale green ones have white sticky substance on them. I turned to the potted plant that shed the most leaves and saw this... Yucks! Do you think this is the cause? I wonder why this happen. I did not hesitate further, spray White Oil on the plant and isolated the pot, including the 3 other pots. I hope I am doing the right thing. Any further advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks!
I can't see the picture you've posted so I don't know if this is what you've posted up but I was actually going to say that you might have a problem with spider mite. They leave a sort of white webbing (you can see it clearer if you mist some water over the plant) - they're sneaky things as they suck the 'juice' right out of the plant so they're quite hard to treat - I've rinsed the plants leaves with cold water, sprayed them with an oil and water mix and left to dry. But to get totally rid of them you'd need to treat the plant via the soil, systemically.
Hi Glyptostroboides! Thanks for checking past post. Wow, you surely have a long name. Is that name linked to a tree? Sorry, I may have removed the photo from photobucket. You are right. There were white sticky substance on the plant. I think they are called Mealy Bugs. Hence, I have strip the plant naked and spray the entire plant with white oil and water less. Right now, my plant is thriving. New leaves are growing. Very happy to see it is improving. Once again, thanks!
Hi songlim18! Glyptostroboides most certainly is a tree! That's great to hear that your plant is doing better - I've just had a return of the dreaded spider mite on two of my indoor ivies and I am not happy! :-x I've rinsed them in a cold water shower and done the neem and water mist thing so they look a little better but those blighters really creep up on the plants so quickly, they do so much damage before you realise what's happening. What is 'white oil'?
It is an oil based insecticide for control of scale, aphids, mealy bugs and mites. It comes in an aerosol spray can so it is easy to apply, just spray! At times, I use Malathion in low doses. This stuff is very smelly but I find it effective too. I had spider mites on my Dischidia pectenoides (Ant Plant). Sadly I could not save it as it was too late when I discover it was infested with the creepy crawly.
Hi SongLim, if you still have the original photo it would be great if you could possibly upload it to your Garden in PlantStew. You can then add its Image code into the first post here and you don't have to worry about it disappearing again
