Problem with English Ivy Crisping

Hi,

A few months ago I purchased 3 mini pots of English Ivy from the grocery store. Then I repoted them all into one big hanging pot. I hung it in a corner of my bedroom that was above my computer. I normal leave my computer on for 24/7 so the heat that was generated was huge. About 2 weeks ago I noticed that the leaves of the ivy were drying up to a crisp. I figured that it was because the soil was dry and watered it. And cut off the dry leaves. Over the past week it had gotten alot worse, Instead of the one plant drying up, Its now two of them. I moved it to the other side of the room above my bed, Which is not as hot as above my computer. it also gets quite a bit of indirect sunlight. After I had noticed that it was getting worse I have removed the soil and attempted to see if it was root rotted. I am unsure of what the roots should look like. Some of the roots (On the thriving leaves) are white. The ones on the dying and crisp leaves are a darkish brownish white. I have noticed that the outer layer of the roots seems to slide off on these ones. Can someone help me? The plant is still out of its pot.

 

Hi Shelby,

I hope I can help you, can you tell me what the soil feels like, it should feel slightly moist and crumbly-and this may sound mad but how does it smell?-Good/bad/like soil, some ivy bought from less reputable garden centres aren`t the best.

 

Hi Claire

The soil was moist in some places and dry in others, As I said I have removed all the soil and cleaned the pot and added fresh dirt. The soil smelled basically like dirt. At the moment whats left of the two ivy plants are sitting on my table until I can figure out if they have root rot.

If you happen to have MSN messenger I would be great full if you could add me. [email protected]

 

Hi again,

don`t have msn set up, but the clue is that one is basically alright and the other isn`t. It is highly likely that the bad one has some root rot caused by over watering by untrained garden centre staff. They are dreadful for this and unfortunately all centres are up to it in one way or another. They often stand plants in water for unnacceptable levels of time whilst they go off doing something else. The display tables aren`t always level and the water can collect on one side of the table and drain from the other.

If there isn`t a bad smell-sorry I can`t describe it any other way other than a slightly rotten smell, the you might be ok and it will recover. If you have any fresh compost and ideally rooting powder then lightly dust the bad roots to hopefully (fingers crossed) stop any further rotting, and re pot using grit in the bottom to allow full drainage and fresh compost without watering in.

Ivy is a robust tough little fighter of a plant and you should be fine with what you have done-and don`t worry too much if you don`t have any rooting powder it helps but if the plant is dead then even that can`t save it.

You could also check the size of the pot, if there is too much soil in the pot (too large a pot for the plant basically), then the water can be slow to drain away.

Strangely maybe the warmth from the computer may have been good for it. You don`t need to water ivy when growing indoors unless the soil feels dry. It is dead easy to over water houseplants.

Any thing else just ask I will be on the forum for a while


Hope I have helped.

PS don`t put it back above the computer until you are sure you have the situation resolved

 

Hi Claire,

How can I identify if it has root rot? As I said on some of the roots the (Outer Skin/layer?) can be moved very easily. And as I have said, Only one or two roots are back in the planter, The rest (8 or 10) are sitting on the table with no soil. Is it safe to put all the roots back in?

 

Hi Shelby,

With indoor grown Ivy there is very little else that can damage them. They are very prone to over watering-even if the leaves look like they are dried to a frazzle they could still be getting over watered, you should only ever water them if the soil feels dry-not a bit moist but dry.

Don`t repot them into the larger pot and immediately remove the ivy that is in there, I strongly suspect this is actually the problem-you administer more water and it takes longer for it to drain away. But by all means repot the roots in a pot only just big enough for them.


http://www.ivy.org/care.html


Whilst away I have found a website I remembered( link above)-The American Ivy Society-it has a good way of explaining the problem-better than I have.