I recently purchased some night-blooming jasmine plants. After a week the plants are wilting. I transferred them to new pots with different soil but no improvement noticed. I also sprayed numerous times with baking-soda and water(also mist with just water alone, and yet no improvement. I also checked the roots for signs of rot but found none. Why are they wilting? How can I save them please?
3 Answers
The only use I know of for baking soda is to control powdery mildew. The pictures are not clear enough to see if that's what the plants have but powdery mildew does not cause the kind of wilting that we can see.
This plant is the night blooming jasmine or Cestrum nocturnum, a flowering shrub native to the west Indies but now naturalized in Asia, South Africa, New Zealand and commonly found in North America where the temperatures remain above 10 deg C ( 15 deg F).
The wilt could be a fungus/virus/bacteria causing root rot or the plant could be under watered.
Consider these suggestions:
- when you water add enough water that it runs out of the drain holes in the pot. If you do not have drain holes in the pot that could be your problem. After watering let the top ten percent of the soil dry out before watering again.
- consider removing all the wilted leaves and any dead leaves on top of the soil. They will not un wilt so you might as well act.
- ensure the plant is located so it received bright sunlight for at least eight hours a day
- the tough love approach would be to cut the plant back at least two thirds to a strong stem. Reduce watering and wait and see
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I took your advice and went with the tough love approach. I have, of course, not seen much in terms of changes, but will definitely post an update as soon as possible. Thanks Jan 6, 2015 at 20:05
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I am not certain if I should consider it helpful as the plant continued to wilt and eventually died. I am right now contemplating getting another but I seem to have also learned a couple more things which is that my plants seem to get root rot almost as soon as I transplant them into a more permanent pot. Jan 31, 2015 at 4:27
Just sharing a solution I got when I was experiencing your problem
"My plants seem to get root rot almost as soon as I transplant them into a more permanent pot."
Just check the water you are using and whether the light conditions are according to the nature of plant. Some plants are sensitive to hard water content. Try giving normal neutral water and position the plant according to its light requirements.
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I realized that my plants come from a greenhouse grown in perfect conditions. So I have to put them in my screened in patio for a couple weeks to acclimate and then they don’t wilt when I move them out to the straight sun and heat