Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
wildmonster

pl. help with over-watered golden hahnii

wildmonster
20 years ago

Greetings everyone!

This is my very first post (but I have been reading and learning a lot from others posts)! This is also my first attempt at nurturing some houseplants :-)! I only have ones for Âbeginners  philodendron, Chinese evergreen, purple passion, etc. And a few small sans too. Touch wood, all of them seem fine for the past couple of months.....

But now I have two new over-watered golden hahnii, and I am panicking!! A kind friend, hearing of my new plant interest and wish for a golden hahnii, went out of her way to mail me two..... But when the parcel arrived last week, I discovered with dismay that the poor plants had several flabby leaves, brownish wet stems and roots! Perhaps I should have exposed their bare roots and left them to dry (they came in plastic pots and the soil was wet)..... But I planted them in terra cotta pots with a dry loose soil mix. Now after 5 days the roots are still moist and a couple of leaves are still soft..... ThatÂs why I am at a loss!

Should I simply lay them without soil on a warm sunny spot to dry out? How dry should the roots be? Almost pale colored and ÂcrispyÂ? Roughly how many days? Or are the little hahnii beyond hope? (I do want to save them; the 6-7 leaves on each still look okay......)

I look forward to your wonderful advice, and thanks very much!

Comments (3)

  • Cena
    20 years ago

    It sounds as if there is hope. I would remove them from the pots if the soil is still even damp. Total dryness would not hurt. Leaving them sit on newspaper would do, but just leaving their roots flapping in the breeze wouldn't hurt a bit, if no newspaper handy.

    This particular plant dies most often from overwatering. They can be a challenge even for experienced growers. That is why mine are all the way, back in a corner, where I have to actually work and aim with my weird IKEA watercan to hit the pot.

    Take off all the mushy, damaged leaves, using scissors, snips, or even a sharp knife. Often, just the rotting leaves can cause a problem with plants that are in a downward spiral.

    Then, leave them to go bone dry. After they form a good callous and are completely dried pot up in your choice of pot, TC or plastic, with a good, pourous, well draining soil. Chances are these plants won't need messing with (repotting or moving up in pot size) for a couple of years, so it makes sense to start with a good quality soil.

    Then figure out on what rotation they need watered at. You can leave them until wrinkles start to show up, but that is a mite extreme. You want to find a happy medium between soaked and dry wrinkles. Mine go from 10 days to 6 weeks sometimes without a thorough soaking. I have actually had regular sans depotted, sitting, waiting for attention for over six months, just flapping in the breeze. This is NOT the recommended treatment, and the plants do NOT look good from this care. It can take five years to reverse this type of plant maintenance, but when you have oodles and gobs... where do you put those leaves you just trimmed off, or the plantlets you just seperated?

    These are tough plants, I tell ya! Good luck with yours!

  • wildmonster
    Original Author
    20 years ago

    Cena, a belated *THANK YOU* for all the clear and detailed info! I will now be patient and wait till the roots are bone dry before potting the plants.

    By the way, when I do pot them up, so I give them a thorough soaking, or is that too much of a shock to those little guys (tough as they are!)?

  • Cena
    20 years ago

    I would 'water them in' but not with a thorough soaking. More like a 10% watering for a small drink.

    It is not recommended to Tablespoon Water houseplants because that causes root die off, then rot. But, with an already overwatered plant what you are doing is really just firming up the soil, collapsing air pockets, and just wetting the fine 'hair roots'. I would minimally water, 20% to 30% of your normal amount until new growth, maybe just 1/4 inch taller, shows on your plant.

    And certainly Don't Feed when a plant is stressed. Food is for an actively growing, healthy plant. Not sure if you knew that.

    We're a small group right now at SF, so we want everyone to participate, posting, asking questions, reporting progress, snickering about something we saw at the Horrid Orange place.

    And don't think that I haven't killed five or six of these things, already!