Make sure to care for your plant roots
“My corn plant’s got rippled yellowing leaves, what do you think is wrong with it?” What’s causing all those funny looking yellow blotches to show up on your plant’s leaves. Don’t know? It’s time to look down below the moss. Especially when the plant is not showing signs of vigor, the water is running through the soil way too fast, and the plant has been in the account for over two years…it’s time to go look at those roots.
Take a peek down below!
If you have a plant whose roots are circling all around the outside of the grow pot (we call this a root wreath) and it’s showing signs of water stress, it time to perform a bit of surgery. Start by cutting off those exterior roots. Then, pull the plant out of its grow pot (go ahead make the big mess, just be sure to lay down a tarp first). Add an inch of fresh soil to the bottom of the grow pot, replant the plant and add fresh soil on top. Next take a short stake and push the new soil down firmly around the edges of the pot and throughout the root mass to make sure you have filled any and all air pockets.
The value of root pruning is that the plant gets its roots back into a soil filled environment. When roots are outside the grow pot they are alternately too wet and too dry. They have periods of the week when they are sitting exposed to the drying effects of interior air, which causes leaves to start to show signs of rippled growth in corns and mottled yellow/green growth in many others such as Ficus, Schefflera arboricola, fishtail palms and pothos.
So, if you are having problems with a plant, especially one that has been in an account for over a year and is in good light, take a look at those roots…Need a prune?