Image – Flickr / Forest and Kim Starr
The Brazil trunk, a plant that we also call water stick, is widely used to decorate the interior of a home, since although it can become very tall, it takes up very little space. Nevertheless, sometimes it’s hard to know what you need and/or whenso it should not surprise us that one day its leaves begin to turn yellow.
The leaves are the most vulnerable part, and therefore one of the first – often after the roots have already been attacked or damaged in some way – to show signs that something is wrong with the plant. That’s why, we are going to explain how to recover a brazil trunk with yellow leavesand we will do it talking about the possible causes and their treatment.
Roots literally drown
Image – Flordeplanta.com.ar
I have been writing on this blog since 2013, and more than once someone has said things like he had his Brazil trunk in water, or in a pot without holes. This is a problem, because the brazil trunk is not an aquatic plant; that is, we cannot put it, for example, in a container without holes and expect it to be precious because that is not going to happen. The roots are not prepared to live in an aquatic environment.
Nor should we make the mistake of planting it in a pot with holes, and put it in a pot or put a plate under it and always keep it full of water.because the result would be the same: the death of the root system.
But now let’s imagine that we have it in a suitable pot, and that we make sure that the soil is not always wet; In this case, how can we identify what is going wrong? Okay, what we will see will be the typical symptoms of excess waterto know:
- The leaves will begin to turn yellow, starting with the lower ones.
- The stems (false trunks) can soften and even rot.
- The plant stops growing.
- The substrate (soil in the pot) looks and feels very moist.
So, how can you recover a trunk from Brazil that has yellow leaves from excess water? Well, it’s not easy, but we can try. and for it what we have to do first is take it out of the pot and wrap the earthen bread (root ball) with absorbent paper. If it gets wet too fast, we’ll remove it and put another one. Afterwards, we will leave the plant in a dry and protected place overnight.
The next day, we will spray the plant, and especially the roots, with a systemic fungicide. We will put on rubber gloves to avoid direct contact with the product so that problems do not arise. Then, we will plant it in a new pot -or at least, clean- with a new quality substrate, such as the universal substrate of fertiberia o Flower.
And finally, we will water.
From here, what can we expect? The yellow leaves will end up drying and we can remove thembut if we have detected the problem in time, new ones will sprout. Now, it is important to reduce the frequency of irrigation so that it does not go through this again.
The plant is thirsty
Another possible cause that your plant has yellow leaves is that it is thirsty, and this It may be due to the fact that little water is irrigated, little water is added to it, or that the soil does not absorb said water well. In any of these three cases, we will see that the leaves that suffer first are the newest.
How to save the trunk of Brazil? Is this possible to do? Luckily, if our plant is getting thirsty, all we have to do is water it. But of course, if the soil does not absorb it, that is, if we see that when watering the water it goes quickly towards the space between the soil and the pot, and it quickly comes out through the holes in the pot, we will not be able to make the trunk from Brazil hydrate. In this case, what we will do is take the pot and submerge it -note: only the pot, not the plant- in a container, such as a basin, full of water for at least half an hour.
On the other hand, if we pour little water when watering, the roots that are lower down will not be able to quench their thirst either. So, every time we do it, we will have to pour water on it until it comes out through the holes in it.
The question that remains to be resolved now is how often you have to water it, and that will depend on whether we have it at home or outside and on the weather. But overall, It is important to bear in mind that the hotter it is, the less it will take for the soil to dry out, so the frequency of irrigation will be greater in summer and lower in winter.
Low ambient humidity – Exposure to drafts
These two causes, although they are different, are sometimes closely related, since even if the ambient humidity of a home is high, if we have the Brazil tree near the fan or air conditioning, said humidity will drop. And this is a problem, because forces the plant to transport water faster from the roots to the leaves, in an attempt to keep them hydrated. An attempt that, unfortunately, is in vain, because the air currents, if they are strong and/or constant, gradually dry out the environment.
Therefore, if we have our plant exposed to air currents and we see that the tips of the leaves turn yellow, What we will do is move it to another place.
Now, it may happen that the only problem is that the humidity is very low. In that case, it will be enough to spray its leaves with water -rain if possible, or one that is suitable for consumption- every day, in order to keep them hydrated.
Need more space to keep growing
This is a topic that does not seem to be given too much importance, but When we have plants in pots, we must bear in mind that, sooner or later, we will have to plant them in larger ones. so that they can continue to grow, especially if these plants can become very large, as is the case with our protagonist.
And it is that if we keep a brazilwood in the same container for years, we are going to reduce its life expectancy drastically, since there will come a time when it will run out of space and without nutrients. Therefore, if we suspect that what is happening to our plant is precisely that, we will see that apparently it is fine, but the leaves begin to turn yellow.
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In addition, roots can poke through the pot’s drainage holes, and we might even see that the soil is very worn. To prevent it from weakening, we will have to plant it in a pot that is about ten centimeters in diameter and deeper than the one it currently has, every 3 or 4 years.
The leaves are burning
Image – Wikimedia Commons / David J. Stang
Another possible cause is that we have the plant near a window, for example, and that it is burning. This is an easy problem to identify and also easy to solve, since damaged leaves will be only those that are most exposed. And to prevent it from getting worse, we will simply have to move the trunk of Brazil to a more protected site.
We will not get the yellow leaves to return to their original colorbut we will be able to make the new leaves turn out well, healthy and green.
The trunk of Brazil is cold
Low temperatures pose a risk to the life of the Brazil trunk. Being a tropical plant, we should not leave it outside if in winter the thermometer falls below 15ºCotherwise it will suffer damage that may be more or less important depending on how cold it gets.
In fact, that is one of the main reasons why it is considered an indoor plant in Spain, as well as in the other temperate regions of the world, so do not hesitate to put it inside the house as soon as autumn arrives.
There are several reasons why the trunk of Brazil can end up having yellow leaves. I hope that what we have discussed here will help you to be healthy.
