Yeah…here comes another cribbing post. I guess I’ll have to accept that some things just don’t grow in my home how much ever I try. Take the elephant ears for example. Every yr they look like they are ready to take off.
And then boom they start wilting! This year I even tried the edible variety from the Asian store instead of the more expensive nursery version. I think both my porch and deck are way too sunny/dry for these tropical staples to thrive.
Casualty #2 – My dinner plate hibiscus. Soon after my gloating post the plant started showing signs of wilting. Just one stem would wilt while the others looked perfectly fine. Naturally I assumed that it was not getting enough water and would douse it with lots every evening after I came back from work. After losing quite a few of the branches I jumped on Google and realized that the culprit might be the wilt disease. Tried the bleach treatment with whatever little bleach I had left at home before we went for vacation. Sadly came back to an even more wilted plant. Just ‘coz I was too lazy to haul the plant out of the planter and replant in new soil I decided to give the bleach trick another try this time using the correct amount. Not sure if it worked. It does seem to have grown a new branch. I’m holding on to that little bit of hope.
Remember the free pumpkin I scored from our Facebook yard sale group? There seems to be a grayish mildew like film on the old leaves. The grayness engulfs the leaf in days and it dies down soon. I read online that it indeed is a mildew problem caused mainly by watering in the evenings and to try spraying a mixture of milk and water (to change the pH on the leaf). Stopped watering in the evenings and tried the milk spray but doesn’t seem to work.
What is surprising is that the plant on the whole is very healthy and growing like crazy.
My only gripe is that we have yet to see a pumpkin. So far I’ve seen only 3 male flowers all of which bloomed when we were out of town. So I couldn’t even pollinate them by hand! Hoping that we’ll get to see at least one pumpkin from this yr.
Since we are on the subject of cribbing I’ll squeeze in one more….No, no bad news here. In fact it is thriving but the only problem is after the first 3 flowers my water lily seems to be content with just putting out leaves and more leaves. Understandably I on the other hand am not too happy. 🙁 Gimme more lilies.
You guys know what the problem is with these plants?
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