I am hoping some folks can help me. I have two chacruna plants I got about a month and a half ago. I have them in a little indoor greenhouse. The humidity bounces between 70 and 85%. The temp is around 60 deg F. I water them every few days, and the soil drains well. I use natural rain water. They have new growth that looks healthy enough, but the older big leaves have been falling off. Right now the only leaves to fall off are the very bottom sets. First it was just one plant, then today the other dropped a leaf.

Is this normal? Do they need something? Is it too cold?

Also, some of the younger leaves seem to stop growing, and they are not quite half the size of the older leaves on the bottom. They are stem cuttings, so maybe the bigger leaves were from the mother plant who had a better root system?

I am forever in any one's debt who helps me keep these little gals going!

The "chacruna" I bought turned out to actually be P. Alba (grr), so I don't have any real experience with viridis to offer. But my Alba is doing all right with a lower humidity (40% ish), and a higher temp (80ish). If I had to guess I'd think it's the temp, 60 seems pretty low for a tropical plant. Or possibly a PH issue? If your rain water is very alkaline that might do it. Soil/water PH in the wrong range can keep the plant from taking up nutrients. Ringworm has said they like it acidic, but so far I haven't found a specific number range to shoot for yet.

Thanks man! I hope they'll be ok. My house is just cold. I'm pretty broke, and so we just space heat the rooms we use. My fish tank greenhouse keeps the plants at 60 ish, where otherwise they'd be at 50 most of the time.

What's really frustrating are my damn salvia plants. Let them sit at anything lower than 60% humidity and they wilt in a matter of minutes, only to take days to weeks to perk up again.

So are P. alba active? How can you tell the difference in species? Kind of wondering if I should positively ID my plants now....

Yes Alba is active, but it is supposed to have about half the amount of DMT as Viridis. But, it is also supposed to grow twice as fast, so some people consider it a tradeoff. HERE is an article with lots of info on telling the difference. Long story short look closely at the place where the leaves join the stem. If the edges of the leaf go all the way down to the stem, you have real viridis. If there is a space between where the leaf edges stop, and the "leaf stem" (petiole) joins the branch or main stem (like in the first picture HERE), you've got an Alba.

Arg! I have Albas, too! Oh well, I can't be angry at them, it's just who they are... Probably a lot of work to extract from, so I suppose they'll be for tea.

Can I still call them charuna?

Good question, I'd like to know that too.

I'd look at them as practice for growing the real thing!

If I can get mine to survive outdoors through the "winter" here (which is probably more like the fall where you are) I'd like to plant a whole hedge of them. Who cares if it takes twice as much leaf as long as it's got the goods.