We have a Dracena for the last year. It's been in the same spot indoors for 12 months, under the same grow light (on a timer), and gets watered only when the soil is dry (I test it weekly with a moisture meter), which is about every 4-5 weeks.
For the last few months in particular it was thriving. New growth, with zero leaves turning yellow and dropping. I was a happy plant parent.
But ever since the last time I watered it 6 weeks ago, it's been dropping about 8 leaves a week. 6 weeks later and the soil is still reading as moist in about half the pot (6/7 out of 10 on the meter)
It's just the shorter plants in the pot that are suffering. The tall ones are fine (so far).
My biggest fear with this beauty was overwatering and root rot. Have I failed here? What should i do?
by TrueBlueTourer
1 Comment
Moisture meters can be fairly inaccurate, and dracaena don’t need much water. Just as a comparison, ours is watered (soaked right through in a bathtub) every 3months or more and is fine. It’s also in natural indirect light which can influence health of indoor plants.
The other possibility is the potting mix has degraded or if it’s the Bunnings sort wasn’t that good in the first place. The few we used that on held on to water way too long and it rotted and grew mould.
I’d pull it out of the pot, knock off the potting mix and fully replace it with fresh succulent and cacti mix with some added pearlite for good measure.