Help with water jasmine

[ECMist]

Hello all,

I have a water jasmine that I have had for almost a year now, and haven’t really had any problems with. Once it began to get cold, it brought it in with all my other tropicals. I hadn’t really invested in a decent grow light or payed much attention to the humidity, so it didn’t really grow at all for two months but seemed ok. However, it seems to be defoliating itself rapidly all of a sudden. I got a new grow light a month ago and a humidifier 3 weeks ago, and it along with all my other topicals seemed to enjoy it and began to grow more. Thus, I decided to very lightly fertilize all the trees with a 3-1-2 liquid fertilizer earlier this week. However, on friday I noticed the tree dropped half of its leaves, with some with black tips. I thought that maybe I burned the roots, and thoroughly washed out the plant with water. It was fine yesterday, but is beginning to lose more leaves today and I’m unsure what I’m doing wrong and how to save it. By the way, none of the other trees seem to have been burned by the fertilizer.

(PS, this isn’t a true water jasmine/wrightia religiosa, but a wrightia vietnamensis)

 

[KateM]

Watch out for overwatering. I can't keep then alive through the winter...

 

[ECMist]

I’ve been trying to water when the first inch of soil is dry, but I suppose that is too often perhaps? I heard they like a ton of water usually during the summer, but maybe that isn’t the case for winter….

 

[SWfloirda]

I have one here in Florida and have a hard time keeping it healthy. It is mostly bare right now but we are basically starting spring and I would expect it to leaf back out in a week or so. I water all of my trees less in the winter but because I keep them outside they still dry out even if they don't have leaves. Yours will probably need a lot less water inside. but don't let it get too dry. Good luck.

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

I like a challenge/crazy/idiot so I have one under Spider farmer lights (SF-1000) with a humidifier running in winter. Temps are in the low 70's & humidity in the mid 40's. It will drop leaves when brought inside for the winter. It lost about 50% of the leaves last year and I read that they can be semi-deciduous in my climate. The leaves grew back in a five weeks and it seems rather tough. Bugs love them & I love the smell of the flowers. I keep it moist and don't let it dry out.

Growing it out in summer 2023.


The flowers smell great.

 

[ECMist]

I like a challenge/crazy/idiot so I have one under Spider farmer lights (SF-1000) with a humidifier running in winter. Temps are in the low 70's & humidity in the mid 40's. It will drop leaves when brought inside for the winter. It lost about 50% of the leaves last year and I read that they can be semi-deciduous in my climate. The leaves grew back in a five weeks and it seems rather tough. Bugs love them & I love the smell of the flowers. I keep it moist and don't let it dry out.

Growing it out in summer 2023.
View attachment 580632

The flowers smell great.

View attachment 580633

That’s interesting that yours is semi-deciduous. I’m worried though because mine is losing leaves after being inside for over two months. I will look into the spider farmer light though and be more careful about watering.

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

That’s interesting that yours is semi-deciduous. I’m worried though because mine is losing leaves after being inside for over two months. I will look into the spider farmer light though and be more careful about watering.

You definitely need to change your watering habits for the different seasons. More in Summer and Less in winter. When temps and sunshine amount drop so does the watering. The leaf pic you posted looks like overwatering, and one of the reasons the leaves will turn yellow & black.

Have you checked it for pests? Mealy bugs, Aphids, scale insects, & spider mites can cause leaf damage. Look under the leaves, nothing stuck out to me in the photos.

Is there a cold draft by the window perhaps? Drafts can stress it out. It can handle 45F but prefers 65F to 80F.

Looks like you have a light already so I wouldn't worry about that. It doesn't look that bad in the pic, but put something (ceramic tile or coaster, etc) under those pots in the white tub. That way the plants don't sit in water after you water them. And just to be safe the Jasmine pot has a drainage hole correct?

 

[Carol 83]

I've been bringing my Water Jasmine in for the winter for a few years, now I have two inside. They never drop leaves and actually grow like crazy. I use full spectrum LED's but they are so tall, the lights just shine up at them since they're at the top of the shelf. They get some light from an eastern facing window.

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

I've been bringing my Water Jasmine in for the winter for a few years, now I have two inside. They never drop leaves and actually grow like crazy. I use full spectrum LED's but they are so tall, the lights just shine up at them since they're at the top of the shelf. They get some light from an eastern facing window.

What temp do you bring them in? I've let mine taste 40F or so.

 

[ECMist]

I've been bringing my Water Jasmine in for the winter for a few years, now I have two inside. They never drop leaves and actually grow like crazy. I use full spectrum LED's but they are so tall, the lights just shine up at them since they're at the top of the shelf. They get some light from an eastern facing window.

Wow, polar opposite from mine’s behavior

 

[ECMist]

You definitely need to change your watering habits for the different seasons. More in Summer and Less in winter. When temps and sunshine amount drop so does the watering. The leaf pic you posted looks like overwatering, and one of the reasons the leaves will turn yellow & black.

Have you checked it for pests? Mealy bugs, Aphids, scale insects, & spider mites can cause leaf damage. Look under the leaves, nothing stuck out to me in the photos.

Is there a cold draft by the window perhaps? Drafts can stress it out. It can handle 45F but prefers 65F to 80F.

Looks like you have a light already so I wouldn't worry about that. It doesn't look that bad in the pic, but put something (ceramic tile or coaster, etc) under those pots in the white tub. That way the plants don't sit in water after you water them. And just to be safe the Jasmine pot has a drainage hole correct?

I don’t see any pests. I have been watering less, but not to a dramatic degree which I could definitely be overwatering. I’ve just put things under the pot to help it dry out more, and it does have drainage holes. There’s no cold draft, but there is a vent underneath the shelf, which I covered partially to stop most of the air from irritating the plants…

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

I don’t see any pests. I have been watering less, but not to a dramatic degree which I could definitely be overwatering. I’ve just put things under the pot to help it dry out more, and it does have drainage holes. There’s no cold draft, but there is a vent underneath the shelf, which I covered partially to stop most of the air from irritating the plants…

That's a good dry heat delecftor. Sounds like you're doing due diligence, & keeping an eye on the issue. Watch the watering and report back when it starts growing new leaves. Good luck.

 

[Carol 83]

What temp do you bring them in? I've let mine taste 40F or so.

Same, maybe even a little lower. But they're close to the house so that probably helped keep them a little warmer. The first years I brought the tropical's in at lows of 50's and they almost all shed their leaves when they came in. Seems like letting them see some cooler temps keeps that from happening.

 

[ECMist]

That's a good dry heat delecftor. Sounds like you're doing due diligence, & keeping an eye on the issue. Watch the watering and report back when it starts growing new leaves. Good luck.

I would like to hope that it would grow more leaves, but it doesn’t show any sign of stopping with defoliating itself. I’m very worried and confused why it’s doing this so suddenly. Should I just let it dry out more and keep watering it in the hopes that it gets better?

 

[ECMist]

It’s dropped about 15 leaves since the last picture.

 

[ECMist]

I think I may have found the problem. Soon inspecting the bottom of the pot, I found that is was weirdly very wet. It turns out I used a sort of garden fiber as a substitute in order to keep the soil from falling out. I immediately removed the tree carefully to not disturb the roots, took it out, and placed the tree back in while trying not to disturb the roots too much. The bottom layer was very wet, so hopefully now that it can dry out better the tree will hopefully be able to make a comeback. Fingers crossed. Can’t believe I did that and it took me so long to realize…

 

[Michigan Tree Murderer]

It’s dropped about 15 leaves since the last picture.

I think I may have found the problem. Soon inspecting the bottom of the pot, I found that is was weirdly very wet. It turns out I used a sort of garden fiber as a substitute in order to keep the soil from falling out. I immediately removed the tree carefully to not disturb the roots, took it out, and placed the tree back in while trying not to disturb the roots too much. The bottom layer was very wet, so hopefully now that it can dry out better the tree will hopefully be able to make a comeback. Fingers crossed. Can’t believe I did that and it took me so long to realize…

Good find at that should help, I still think it may be the Semi-deciduous thing. But I could be wrong.

From google:
The water jasmine (Wrightiareligiosa) can be semi-deciduous in the winter if temperatures drop below 65° F

 

[ECMist]

That seems totally reasonable, and that’s what I want to think too. However, strange that it’s losing leaves now, and not earlier. The temperatures have been going below 65 more recently in the room they’re in, so it could be that. Maybe it’s the two together that are making the leaves drop and turn black at the tips?

 

[KateM]

Also remember we are talking about wrightia vietnamensis here...
I killed my 2nd one this winter. I think I am going to try one more before I quit...