help
my chacruna plant's newer growth has leaf curl, the leaves are bright, shiny green, but are curling down, and are kind of crispy. one would think it just needs water, but this has been observed in the past by simply drooping leaves, that spring back when water is added. not sure what to do, any ideas?? many thanks

could be it needs more humidity.

You don't really give any idea of the current growing climate (you could be in antarctica or peru for all we know).


Humidity normally gets the edges crispy. Too little water makes the leaves duller.
Too much water/stagnant soil/root rot is a possibility with your description as well.
Same goes for too many salts in the soil.

I find when growing any plant it is better to keep the plant in a fairly small pot with a very porous soil and to water often. Nearly every plant I've ever grown tropical or not tends to recover FAR better from drying out then they do from being soaked to death.

good luck!
Rw

This doesnt sound right for any type of plant. Crispy edges and leaf curl usually mean there is some sort of nutrient deficiency going on like Calcium or Magnesium.

When leaf edges are crisp its normally because the plant itself is pulling nutriens/sugars it needs stored in the leaves. It will pull these stored nutriens from the leaves when they are not available in the soil or water. the plant will pull from the outer edges first and eventually work its way in if the problem isnt corrected.

I am betting the problem is a nutrient deficiency issue.

Chacruna does deal with two very distinct weather or seasons in its native habitat. Very warm, wet, and humid and warm and dry. Oh, and everything in between. So, a little dry weather isnt going to hurt or kill it as long as it has water and nutes. Humidity is important when they are babies as they sprout in their native habitat during the wet humid time of year.

thanks for the replies,,

the plant is about 10" tall. It has two off shoots from the main stem now.

i was misting regularly, then stopped when someone told me it may be a bad idea with tap water because of chorine. I know they love humidity, tho--i will leave some water out in a pan to evaporate the chlorine.

it is growing near a window, trying for indirect light, south-ish facing. I am in Maine, and it has been the mildest winter on record. it was really happy all winter, but the new growth never really opened all the way.

hmmm, well it is def not too humid at the moment. nutrient deficiency could be very possible, and with all the new growth, it has only gotten water, no fert.

what sorts of (og) fertilizers will chacruna appreciate?

I agree this sounds like a nutrient deficiency, but did the crisping begin before you stopped misting?
Leaving tap water out to remove chlorine is fine, but it does little for any other excesses of trace minerals or toxic contaminants; maybe pick up a cheap Brita water pitcher, cheaper than a tap replacement. The carbon filter will remove most of the bad stuff, just in case.

Still, more likely a deficiency issue. Unfortunately I can't offer any suggestions on the fertilizers. Good luck.

start feeding it a diluted fert.

if the curl gets better you have your answer.

just remember to start low and work the fert up, don't want to fert shock it.

By leaf curl, do you mean the edges are wavy? I have two plants where the newer leaves have wavy edges and I'm trying to determine if it's a sign of a problem or not.


both are around 10" and in high humidity. I don't really give them fertilizer other than water from when I do water changes in my aquarium. no chems, just fish poo. And sometimes I give them some leftover coffee to lower ph a bit.

[quote=mithrandiir42]By leaf curl, do you mean the edges are wavy? I have two plants where the newer leaves have wavy edges and I'm trying to determine if it's a sign of a problem or not.

Wavy edges is the sign of your plant being psychotria alba, not psychotria viridis.

Ah, right you are. The one that's really wavy definitely IS Alba (It was sold as that). The other one was sold as Viridis but it sounds like it's probably Alba too.

Thanks!

When mine drooped it needed slightly more humidity but when they curled under badly then the himidity was far too low, i figured out a nice way of keeping the humidity up. Just use the mushroom growing trick, get your self a nice container that your pot will fit in fill the bottom few inches with perlite, wet the perlite and then stick your viridis on top, cover with a clear lid, blow some fresh air in every few days it should take off like a rocket

Also a note on the "different leaves" between the two varieties, iv got both and depending on the conditions they will both pop out somewhat differently shaped leaves, some impossible to distinguish from one another and some are very distinguishable. Just something to keep in mind

If you look at the picture I posted you can see that the Psychotria Alba leaf has a long petiole (leaf stem) which
Psychotria Viridis do not have.
The Viridis Leaf almost end at the stem.

P. viridis can exhibit petioles in some conditions. And leaves are really not the best feature for ID...especially by themselves.

To verify species:

Check flower petals (P. viridis = green, P. alba = white)
Check stipules (P. viridis = more ornate, bulbous/tapered & larger, P. alba = smaller and plain, closer to semi-circle/triangle)
Check petioles/leaf margin (P. viridis = generally full margins/no petiole, P. alba = petiole)
Check for foveolae/dolamtias/espinas (P. viridis leaves will exhibit these in optimal conditions, but not always on all leaves, P. alba will not)