Psychotria is sick

[rogdog]

P. carthaginensis is looking sick. I got her about a year ago, and she is 2.5 to 3 times bigger than the day she arrived; she was growing happy and healthy, until Autumn, and some dirty ants started to farm aphids on her tips. White oil seemed to solve the problem, but she never recovered. Then I shook some tomato dust on her, to try to kill any other bugs.

Long story short, my baby survived winter ok, but her leaves are looking nasty

Now the first flowers are starting to appear, and I dont know what to do. I could just keep up the weekly nutrients and seaweed extract program and see what happens. But my senses are telling me to snip all the flowers, and the shitty leaves, to encourage new leaf growth. The new leaves she is putting out look fairly healthy.

I would love to hear from people who've been here before

[mac]

My P carthaginensis are not very nice looking im thinking in my case its the dry heat & low humidity

If you have recently re potted it it may just be stress ?

A makeshift humidity tent made from tomato steaks shade cloth & plastic may help, I see your only 530 ks from me & have similar temps as we do but your plant looks a little older & is faring allot better than my two plants but they are still looking like producing more berries this season

Ill try get some pics of my plants tomorrow for you to compare, i wouldn't be worried they seem fairly tough as they have survived last summers heatwave without much pampering

Edited November 11, 2009 by mac

[rogdog]

Thanks for your thoughts mac. I am against a humidity hut, because I am a lazy gardener; I mean I want the best for my plants, but if evolution says they can't survive, I'm not going to argue...unless it's not hard work..thats why I am growing carth and not viridis

Any thoughts about snipping the flowers, so she can concentrate on leaf growth, or just let nature take it's course

[edit] lol, I am seeing a trend here mac! (just guessing) I think you are a low maintenance gardener. Before the SA police showed me the error of my ways (growing indoors), I learned the art of super-charging a garden..it's a habit that's stuck! I feed my babies full strength nutes once a week, and bull-kelp extract(similar to sea-sol) in between. Yes Sir, if it grows in my garden, it grows fast

Except for this bloody P carth wont play the game with me..plenty of nutrients, but fully flushed with rainwater, so there is no salt build up..sassy plant is playing hard to get

Edited November 11, 2009 by rogdog

[mac]

Yes im a low maintenance Gardner (lazy bastard) & had much the same experiences many many years ago with choice of veggies i had in the yard

I just put one of my P carth in the ground in a very shady corner & the other i move it about to see what it can handle, they are a tough plant IMO, im against cutting off the flowers for now but i may try it out on one later down the track

My carth came from up QLD way last season just before the heatwave hit & the next 4 days forecast is 40 degrees so will test "All" plants my garden cacti included

Edit : oh My p carth & the rest of my garden only gets A sprinkle of lime some dynamic lifter composted cow crap & the odd bit of Maxicrop when i remember or can be bothered (cacti & rest of the garden im heavy handed with the lime & dynamic lifter)

Edited November 11, 2009 by mac