PSYCHOTRIA VIRIDIS, diagnosis thread part 1

[parzival]

This thread is the beginning of a few, I have recently come into a camera and can finally put pics of my garden up, and correct whatever mistakes I am making. Hopefully we can keep this post alive and updated, and may serve as a guide to any others who experience problems with chacruna. With your help, my plants will flourish.

I have one rather old, but short and bushy viridis, I also have two relatively young but unhappy viridis.

Here are the details first of all; They are in potting mix with verm and perlite, with a bit of osmocote and recently i have started boosting them with a seasol and fish mix. They enjoy a fairly humid envrionment, arent lacking any water and get filtered or indirect sunlight. I have Used Pyrethrum on them before but now use a weak soap flake/isopropyl alcohol mixture.

Now my plants seem healthy, but not happy, be it bugs or what have you something is wrong. Thier growth is slow at best, very susceptible to bugs, and there is alot of leaf dropping, dying growing tips and some general necrosis.

Plant the first:

While i'm aware it probably needs a good repot, as far as i see its not a big issue as my other one has more than enough root space and has some of the same problems.

Notice the twisted uneven growth, and the dead/ dying growing tips.

What worries me most is that at a certain point the stem has actually died (or been eaten) but does not seem to be dying back. This has happened also with my P. Carth.

this is the carth

Here are some pictures of my second little plant before i move onto the big one;

The ragged/twisted/unhealthy growth alarms me.

Now for the the big fella; this plant i've had for a year or two, however only recently repotted, i feel it should be much bigger than it is.

I want to know if i can prune off the dead/dying tips to encourage some new growth.

If there is any further pics or info you need, feel free to hassle me.

Many many thanks for those who have a look.

[ramon]

In my case the tips die back due to small infestation holding them together instead of allowing to open.

I use a fine jet from spraybottle to knock as many of as possible.

[Stonehenge]

Have you been fertilizing them? Some of them look pale to me. They like high humidity, how are things in your area? For bugs I use a horticultural soap like Safer's in a spray to kill anything eating them. Be sure to hit the undersides of the leaves and do it every day for a couple weeks if you have an infestation.

[Conan Troutman]

Best thing I ever found with my viridis was after they all died... I replaced them with carth and never a prob since

[parzival]

stonehenge; i have started ferting them recently with fish&seasol, before that i did it lazily with osmocote which i dont think satisfied them. Humidity is pretty good at times, and i mist them too. Ill have a look for a hort. soap

Still wondering about pruning to encourage some better and more sustainable growth.

[nothinghead]

While on the topic of viridis - has anyone noticed that after trauma (my mini greenhouse blew over a while ago and damaged the viridis) when viridis begins to die back, instead of the couple of leaves that begin to die back simply falling off and the rest of the plant continuing growth, a lot of the initally unaffected parts of the plant will follow in suit and die right back?

[parzival]

c'mon lets keep this one alive fellas

[parzival]

any thoughts on the stem being eaten through on the carth?

or the effectiveness of pruning?

I am not new to viridis, have had some of these for years, I raised the big bushy one from a bare twig so i'm doing something right. The problem is they seem to grow steadily and seemingly happily for a certain period then they hit a level of development and just seem not to do anything.

cheers

Edited September 11, 2007 by Parcifal

[nothinghead]

I haven't seen any psychotrias have the stem eaten like that, but seeing as the carth is growing a new shoot I would prune back to just above that in case something is burrowing down in there. As for pruning psychotrias that are dying back/slowing, I haven't found this to be effective at all.