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neodraka

Hibiscus Not Budding

neodraka
16 years ago

Hi all, it's that time of year again. In March I transplanted my hibiscus to a larger pot and started putting it outside. It's a tropical "Amy Lynne" hibiscus, so I didn't leave it outside obviously when that hard freeze and flurries stuff happened a couple weeks ago. It was growing well during the winter under an energy-efficient light bulb, but now that it's outside, paradoxically, it's sorta stopped growing! I adjusted it to the light level outside, so there weren't sunburnt leaves.. the plant actually looks pretty good, but now that it's been outside in like 7 hours of direct sun every day for a month and a half, shouldn't there be buds on it by now? and the new leaves it tried to put on have just stayed the size they were like 2.5 weeks ago. I bought another hibiscus plant, a smaller one and compared the leaves, and the leaves on the old plant are sorta yellow (just barely not as dark as the other hibiscus leaves). I've been using Garden-safe 3 in 1 to try and keep away the bugs, only a light spray once every 2 weeks. So at first I figured it was a micronutrient deficiency, so I decided to use miracle-grow lightly on the leaves, a foliar feeding. I figure it's either a deficiency or I upgraded to too big of a pot (which I really don't think that's the problem). I think most likely it's my potting soil has turned alkaline. Am I going down the right path?

Comments (2)

  • watergal
    16 years ago

    Put it on a regular regimine of fertiler according to the label to enhance the leaf color and encourage budding. Do not use a bloom booster fertilizer - use a balanced one or one with a lower middle number in the formula.

    I'm not sure how warm it's been in TN lately, but if it's cooler outdoors than indoors, growth would be slower. If you pruned, it will take any pruned branches 3 months of new growth before they will make buds.

  • neodraka
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Yup, much phosphorus is bad apparently. Thanks for answering my question -- I pretty severely pruned every branch as I repotted the plant, which was about 1.5 months ago! I had no idea it took so long for hibiscus to re-bud after being pruned! Thanks!

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