My zamioculcas is suffering for a long time now, and no matter what I try it doesn't seem to feel better. This plant has a lot of emotional value for me so I'm desperate to save it. Please help!
I have this plant for many years, probably close to 10 or even more. It's a plant from my childhood home so I'm not sure how long we had it before I "adopted" it. It was never too full, but it used to have big healthy branches and it had new sprouts every once in a while.
Around 3 years ago I moved to a new country and I took the zamioculcas with me. The temperature is much colder here and the air is more humid. Ever since the moving it's slowly dying…
In its original spot back home it lived in a darker corner, but in the new house it had a much brighter spot next to the window. Almost a year ago I moved once again, and here the plant is away from the window and direct sunlight, but still no improvement. This summer I took it out and potted it back with fresh soil, and I saw the roots are just small balls without any stringy parts.
I am scared of overwatering so it only gets a sip of water every couple of weeks. I do admit I didn't give it plant food since the first moving – I gave it a bit some weeks ago and I will try to do it monthly, can that help? I don't know what else to do… đ
Thank you in advance for your help!
by HexCupcake
2 Comments
Looking at how etiolated it is, probably not enough light. Mine do great outside on a covered porch when itâs warm outside. The good thing with these is that you can cut everything back to the rhizome (the small âballsâ) and itâll still have a fair chance at sprouting again. I once threw some in my compost bin that I thought were goners and wouldnât you know, a few weeks later I had ZZs sprouting up in the dark. I would only use fertilizer during the growing season, and very sparingly. You could probably stand to shift your watering to slightly more water, but less often, only when the soil is really dried out. The rhizome stores water, so the plant can survive a while without it.
It looks very dehydrated. I think some changes need to be made to the soil and the watering patterns.
These plants don’t like to sit in wet soil, but they do need enough water to hydrate the whole plant.
You want loose soil that drains and dries fast, but you need to fully soak it when it comes to watering. That potting soil looks very dense and organic, with very little drainage. Is there any perlite or pumice mixed in?
When you say you give it only a small sip of water, do you mean you’re giving it like a splash of water on the surface? That’s probably a major reason for the lack of root development; you want to fully soak the soil so that water runs through and drains out the bottom. If the water is only sitting on the surface of the pot, the roots have no water in the soil to grow towards and soak up.