A few weeks ago I got a bunch of Vasconcellea plants of various species. One of the species, growing in tall and thin containers, haven’t grown at all, and two of three have lost all their leaves. The plants seem to be trying to produce new leaves, but they turn yellow and fall off before maturing. Another species has been growing very slowly, but has nice and very deep green leaves.
The species most important to me has at first grown spectacularly. After growing a stunted leaf or two after the stress of shipping, they quickly grew new and bigger leaves. Some of the leaves at the bottom fell off, but that I excepted. A few days ago, however, it seemed as if they just stopped or slowed down. What was going to be the largest and most complex leaf of the largest plant, just isn’t seeming to grow and mature. And many of the lower mature leaves, and even a newer leaf, started to have yellow tips. It’s as if they stopped growing, and the leaves from the bottom are still falling off.
What is this? I think I have narrowed it down to two possibilities, though it could be something else I don’t know. First, they are root bound and need bigger pots, but that doesn’t make sense because the smallest one still stopped growing and it’s small for the pot.
What I think is more likely, though, is that they need water. But I usually see that all the leaves are flopped with other plants that are drying out, does this happen with papayas? I am very scared of overwatering them and getting root rot, that’s what killed every single one of my previous attempts at papayas (albeit those I grew from seeds, these are bigger). I have not watered them since I got them, and yesterday I felt the soil about halfway down the pot was very dry. I watered them slightly yesterday, but today another leaf from the biggest plant is starting to turn yellow.
Please advise.
Topic: What’s wrong with Papaya relatives? (Read 933 times)