What’s wrong with these plants? Growing them indoors

[TomekK]

So, just as one cacao is starting to grow again after threatening to die, my other cacao are losing leaves! Ah well, such is life when you try to turn zone 7 to the tropics.

I wanted to ask about several different plants that either never grow well for me or always die. First up is my pineapple guava/feijoa. I have tried to grow guavas several times, and the same thing always happens. The plant grows well, but then the leaves start to wither away, new tips wither away, and the plant dies. I’m down to 2 feijoas from an original ~10. Please help, as a guava may be the only thing that, if I can solve this problem, may have a chance of fruiting for me.


Jackfruit never grows well in the winter. For one thing, most of the leaves fall off. Nothing special, except that one of my two survivors had all the leaves one by one droop, turn yellow in a weird way and fall off. I sprayed with neem oil, and the leaves stop dropping, but in a few weeks droop again. Spraying with neem seems to help, would like to know what is causing this. May be too late to save that one, as I knocked off a tip (long story), but am considering growing other artocarpus this year.

My lychees from supermarket lychees are just about dead, with no hope. They grow 2 new leaves, then the growing tip dies. They may try again, but if they fail they end up dying. I’m down to my last one, which reduced two sickly leaves that are quickly browning. Funny thing is, I treat my Spanish limes I got from PR the same way (most likely terrible soil, bad watering, etc.) but they seem to grow quite nicely, though that may be because it’s their first year.

No photos for this, but my coffee is not growing well, putting out leaves as fast as dropping leaves. Cherimoyas drop leaves, hopefully those that dropped all will recover outside, I never throw away dead sticks! One of my round leaf cacao that I thought had no chance, where all of my other round lead cacao (over 10) all died, is putting out new growth.

Thanks for the help,
Tomek

[SeaWalnut]

Cherimoya is deciduous and its normal and actually desirable to drop leaves in winter.If it doesnt drop its leaves then it will not fruit lile in the teopical places where people cant grow cherimoya because its too warm for them to drop the leaves.
Low light its most likely the factor why your plants loose their leaves in winter . Be carefull not to overwater them this time of year.

Feijoa its verry easy to grow and tough plant.
The dead new leaves your describing can be the simptom of salt build up in the potting soil.
You can add a little gypsum on top of the soil and wet over it.
Also when you wet the pots you want 40% of the water you pour to flow out of the pot and then discard it to flush the salt.
Use rain water preferably and also feijoa like an acidic soil.

[brian]

What is your growing environment like?  How much light?  I assume ~70F all day and night, light from windows? 

My in-ground greenhouse jackfruit has grown non-stop all fall and winter, and my grocery-store-seed lychees are doing just fine though not actively growing in winter.  It's definitely possible if you get your environment right.  I haven't tried growing much inside my house, I always assume there isn't enough light especially as modern windows supposedly filter light to the detriment of plants.

Some plants probably need humidity, and if you are heating your home it tends to be extremely dry rather than humid.  My greenhouse environment is very humid, unlike my people-house

[TomekK]

Oh, of course my house isn’t humid. My family won’t allow me to have a humidifier next to my plants, so I’m out of luck there. They say the house will rot away, cannot convince them, especially after ruining the wooden floor with my leaky watering. I grow my plants in front of a south facing double door (with pretty much all windows) that we never use. I get good light, good heat from the sun. Temp in the house is 68 degrees all the time during winter, but some additional heat from the sunlight. Light could be why the lychee doesn’t grow and dies, because they are in a slightly shady location, but my Spanish limes grow well close by, so I don’t know. Sea walnut, I’ll try the gypsum, it probably is salt buildup as for a long time I’ve been using tap water, must change that.

I am in the process of making a few YouTube videos about my garden and fruit experiences, but I don’t want to make any promises as to when I’ll start releasing them. Hopefully in the next few weeks.

Thanks,
Tomek