Can anyone tell me what I've done to this croton. I thought it was too little Water but watering it made it worse. I've told my daughter to stop misting it with the Shefflara. The room is fairly bright but the plants do not get any direct light. One of the lights on top is a gro light ( incandescent) temp at plant level is 75-80 degrees. Soil is an organic potting mix with stone in top of soul. Clay pot.
Plant help.
- Thread starter Kcbeck
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Andee
Chameleon Enthusiast
How big is your cham? Crotons don't make very good plants for older chams only rather young ones, because their leaves really can't support the weight. However is it in standing water? How moist is it's substrate? Misting often isn't enough for plants in terrariums unless they are meant to be misted. I dump a huge bottle of water on my schefflera and my cammelia has constant dripping on it from my dripper as well as an automatic mister, so it's soil is quite moist by the end of the day, but it's also directly under the lights so it gets dried out pretty fast too. Are you still decorating? Or are you waiting for your plants to grow? Because there is not enough foliage in your enclosure just so you know ^^. I suggest getting a tall bushy plant like a young cammelia. I absolutely love your branches, plenty of horizontal pathways, and the ladder is absolutely adorable
Chase
Chameleon Enthusiast
Two things that are showing here. One, the amount of water it is getting seems to not be enough. Even if it is being watered every day, sometimes if the soil dries into a hard ball, it doesn't really absorb that much water. I see you have rocks on the top of the soil, maybe remove those and see if the soil is actually wet. Crotons like a lot of water, I've never over-watered a Croton, nor have I ever heard of one being over-watered.
The second thing, they require very bright light. From the picture, it does not seem to be getting a lot of intense bright light. The way I know this is the leaves do not have the reds and yellows they generally have. I don't know where you are located but you could do one of two things. Every few days you could bring the whole enclosure outside (weather permitting); this will be both beneficial for the chameleon and the plant. Or, you could purchase a 6500K light to give it the bright light to give it back that color.
Chase
The second thing, they require very bright light. From the picture, it does not seem to be getting a lot of intense bright light. The way I know this is the leaves do not have the reds and yellows they generally have. I don't know where you are located but you could do one of two things. Every few days you could bring the whole enclosure outside (weather permitting); this will be both beneficial for the chameleon and the plant. Or, you could purchase a 6500K light to give it the bright light to give it back that color.
Chase
I've been real gun shy on watering, I took my mom hibiscus tree from her yard and brought it in and put in to much water and it dropped almost all its leaves. We live in Ohio so outside this time of year is not happening. When I transplanted the plants to the bigger pots I had the dropper over the plant and I had it set wrong and the whole dripper empted in less than a day. I lost some of the leaves, was not sure if it was due to water or just all the moving around. The soul is dark and moist but not wet. You can see the moisture in the clay pots from the outside of the pot. My Cham is just a few months old, you can see him barley on the back side of the verticals stick in the shefflara. I have started a vine clipping but not sure how long that will take. I did find some artificial vines I found in an old container that I was debating on wrapping around all the sticks.
I went ahead and water it. It really soaked it up. I am wondering if the clay pot is keeping the water from the roots, the bottom half of the pot was wet on the exterior. It did not take long for the hibiscus to drop those leaves, it uss lowly coming back though. I can't figure out how to post more than one pic at a time so here is the before.
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Chase
Chameleon Enthusiast
Hibiscus is another plant that requires a lot of light. I've never had good luck with them when I've had them indoors.
I would give a good watering to both plants probably every other day or every three days, that should be enough water plus they'll get some from drippers/mistings.
Chase
I would give a good watering to both plants probably every other day or every three days, that should be enough water plus they'll get some from drippers/mistings.
Chase
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