I had been noticing that her roots were looking a little funky; off-colored and some black spots. Also, a few of the new buds had blasted. Today, I decided to pour out the media and take a good look to see if anything was going on. I almost fell over when I saw the condition of her roots and it was all my fault. When I first brought Petaluma home, her roots were nothing short of gorgeous. So, whatever has happened since then has been entirely up to me.
I am glad I decided to take a proactive approach and take a close look inside her pot. I had to trim off about half of her roots to remove all the bad roots and rot. After I finished trimming off the stuff that needed to go, I put her back in the pot, but made sure the media was nice and loose so that air would be able to circulate better between the roots. The clumps of media which I found were oversaturated, I threw directly in the garbage.
I then placed her in front of the tower fan for the rest of the day so that media could dry out some more. Since I did not realize what was going on before I actually emptied the pot, I watered it this morning, which I now realize was the worse thing I could possibly do.
I hope I caught the problem in time and from now on, I will start waiting until those roots are a silvery color or white before I add even a drop of water to the media. This is something I must confess I was ignoring before and was simply judging whether she needed water or not by sticking my finger inside the media. Obviously, that is not a method that works for me. I might start trying the toothpick method (where you insert a wooden toothpick into the media and it should come out completely clean and not be cool to the touch at all). From my readings I know that has worked for a lot of people.
Odd thing is the plant looks so healthy atop the soil. The leaves are a beautiful green and firm, the flowers are blooming. If you look through the side of pot, you could see some of the roots and they were green and plump. If it had not been for the couple of new buds blasting, I never would've noticed there was a problem until the plant probably died. I am just hoping that Petaluma bounces back and starts to grow new healthy roots.
I am just very disappointed. I was trying so hard to care for her and I ended up almost loving her to the death!
I am glad I decided to take a proactive approach and take a close look inside her pot. I had to trim off about half of her roots to remove all the bad roots and rot. After I finished trimming off the stuff that needed to go, I put her back in the pot, but made sure the media was nice and loose so that air would be able to circulate better between the roots. The clumps of media which I found were oversaturated, I threw directly in the garbage.
I then placed her in front of the tower fan for the rest of the day so that media could dry out some more. Since I did not realize what was going on before I actually emptied the pot, I watered it this morning, which I now realize was the worse thing I could possibly do.
I hope I caught the problem in time and from now on, I will start waiting until those roots are a silvery color or white before I add even a drop of water to the media. This is something I must confess I was ignoring before and was simply judging whether she needed water or not by sticking my finger inside the media. Obviously, that is not a method that works for me. I might start trying the toothpick method (where you insert a wooden toothpick into the media and it should come out completely clean and not be cool to the touch at all). From my readings I know that has worked for a lot of people.
Odd thing is the plant looks so healthy atop the soil. The leaves are a beautiful green and firm, the flowers are blooming. If you look through the side of pot, you could see some of the roots and they were green and plump. If it had not been for the couple of new buds blasting, I never would've noticed there was a problem until the plant probably died. I am just hoping that Petaluma bounces back and starts to grow new healthy roots.
I am just very disappointed. I was trying so hard to care for her and I ended up almost loving her to the death!
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