Advice to revive Pachira Aquatica

[Murphhy]

Hi everyone,

I’ve got this lovely plant as a rescue project.

As you see, it’s grown very tall but with a ‘bald’ stem which is not only aesthetically less pleasing but also makes it top-heavy and hard to manage.

My instinct say to cut and propagate from the stem as I would with a rubber plant, however, I’ve never dealt with this type before. The top is healthy and still growing, so I want to be sure my efforts are not causing any harm.

Any help would be great!!

 

[Tetters]

Welcome to the forum @Murphhy

I think your instinct is spot on, although the very best time to cut and propagate this on would be springtime. You can see how many times it has already been cut, and I suspect it started out with one of those plaited trunks. It seems to have been left somewhere that has a light source on one side, and it hasn`t been turned regularly to give it even growth.
You can do these cuttings either in compost or water, although the roots that emerge will be quite fragile if you root them in water, and will need care when planting up.

Jolly good rescue though

 

[Murphhy]

Thank you, super helpful!!

 

[ElenaDura]

Hi, I need some help with my Pachira Aquatica, is dying and I don't know what to do. I attach some photos maybe you can give some advice. Thank you so much

 

[Low Altitude]

Others may well know better (I could use some advice myself!), but that looks like too much water – indicated by the yellow leaves and what appear to be 'sweat-mold' spots, those white specs on the stems. These wonderful plants are close to succulents in their drinking habits: relatively little water and they can happily go 'dry' (i.e. dry soil) for several days before needing even modest watering.

The 'simple care' instrux on a pachira I saw bought recently (a smallish one, less than a foot high) said: "Water with three ice cubes, equivalent to 3 tablespoons of water, once a week). I had never heard the ice cube technique before. I guess it's a clever way of drip-watering the plant.

Maybe their tolerance for under-watering is what makes them popular as house-plants!

As to light, the grower's instrux continued: "place in a bright, well-lit location, but avoid direct sunlight for long periods of time".

Best of luck!

 

[Low Altitude]

Update: after two years now, growing two pachira aquatica idoors in a heated apartment, and finally seemingly getting it 'right' – meaning no significant dropping of leaves, no yellowing, no brown tips, reasonable growth, this is as close as i can get to a 'formula':

Light: only weak sunlight, so early-morning or late afternoon in most latitudes. Bright indirect light perfect.

Water and soil: keep the pachira in fast-drainer medium like a succulent formula. Water approx once a week, prefereably by immersion, irrespective of conditions. We are more likely to kill the plant (in the short run) by over-watering (roots staying continuously damp) than by over-watering. The roots of pachira are compact relative to above-ground mass, telling us that this is a plant that' not typically desperate for water.

Temperature: Not too hot, particularly if ithe air is also dry / arid.

Humidity: higher the better, within reason. Some growers surround the base with a terrarium moss like sphagnum and keep that miist by close-spraying every morning. Not essential, though, and a lot of work.

I've found pachira finicky – in my indoor space, heated and arid relative to the plant's indigenous environments – but in the right part of the room, they'll flourish and produce their attractive, almost spherical, star-burst foliage shape. They also grow slowly, so are ideal houseplants in that they are slow to outgrow a pot or a space. In that sense, they are low-maintenance.

Good luck, everyone!

 

[youngalistairyoung@yahoo.]

More indirect light maybe? That pot also looks pretty small maybe look at the root system see if it's crammed give it more nutrients? I found with mine that more light more water sat on clay balls stopped leaf loss. I found in u.k. it's too dark in most houses and 90 percent of problems I've had with my plants were due to insufficient light so I bought a grow light.

 

[Low Altitude]

Alistair, that is interesting about the light. Again, a bit finicky: they can't cope with serious direct sun, but they'll yellow and fail with inadequare indirect. Here at latitude 41ºN, I've put ours so they only get late-afternoon sun and that seems to have worked.

Of the two other pachiras I've seen prosper indoors (at this latitude):

• one used to sit on the top of a shelf unit at the local drugstore (chemist), I kid you not, and its light was an overhead fluorescent tube and nothing else, maybe 14 hours a day, and i was told it was watered once a week.
• The other one lived in a living room a couple of feet from a ground-floor, partially occluded. east-facing window, with no direct sunlight. I was amazed, but it was fifteen years old and had reached the ceiling: it was a tree. Leggy, but a tree.

The bigger of the two I have here is now a little over two feet high:

I looked at the roots last spring and there was nothing showing, but i looked again today before watering time and things have moved on:

It's not choking – I've seen worse – but I guess the time has come for a bigger pot and some fresh soil.

And i think I'm going to have to 'train' the stems if i want to get rid of that stake....

 

[youngalistairyoung@yahoo.]

Yes the plant you feature looks great I've only had mine about a year it's ok but top leaves seem to wither easily. I had so much of problem with schefflera affins dropping leaves that I decided to get a grow light that I'm trialing at the moment the plants seem better but I had so many different plants needing light attention that they crowded round the one light and get shaded out a bit by others. Everytime I watch you tube someone else has got a different idea it's hard to decide just a matter of trying out ideas but a grow light seems to work for me. UK is a dark place most old houses don't get enough light fine if you live in southern Spain but not our cold dark winters. I like destroying myths about plants that you read and I have come across plants too that are doing unbelievably well in shops with draughts and in situations that you can't understand.

 

[Low Altitude]

Pachira aquatica is indigenously tropical, so equatorial. At 51º north, Wiltshire experiences very different seasonal variation in light than at the equator. At a guess, its long summer days are unlikely to be terminal, but as you say, short winter days may well just not give pachira enough time to photosynthesise adequately. So I'll be interested to hear if your grow-light helps.

Relatedly, I have a Spathiphyllum, probably cochlearispathum, also indigenously tropical. Much less finicky than pachira, but the last couple of years, its 'spathing' (producing flower-like structures) has been zero. I'm now reasonably confident the problem is light, and specifically not enough hours of light, but i can't easily move it closer to a window. So I'm thinking about a grow-light myself, but I'm going to need to find a way to rig it, with a timer, that isn't so unsightly that it defeats the purpose.

 

[youngalistairyoung@yahoo.]

I was thinking of getting an electrician in to do some work so I can add another grow light and get rid of obtrusive power cables into the loft. I have a small windowed bungalow built in 1950s by the local council. The grow light I bought a large 120 watt fluorescent type with reflective shield 2x2 ft. It's just propped up against the wall at the moment to see if it worked. Its in a dark corner of the room it should be fixed to the ceiling so it spreads the light from above. I would say u.k. mostly cloudy except for 4 months in summer when we have our longest days where it doesn't get dark until 10.00pm in mid June then starts all over again getting shorter and shorter days until mid December shortest day. This means dark cloudy miserable days most of the time u.k. warmed by the gulf stream so it doesn't get too cold. I would say summer only lasts about 4-5 months at best.

 

[youngalistairyoung@yahoo.]

A lot of Brits live in southern Spain where you get up to 320 days of sunshine twice as much as u.k. Unfortunately since Brit exit you can now only stay in Europe for 90 days before leaving for at least 180 days. So my ideas of buying a cheap place in Spain have been thwarted.

 

[youngalistairyoung@yahoo.]

anaerobic environment could you explain this phenomenon? I got an answer from a guy about this affecting plants?

 

[youngalistairyoung@yahoo.]

Hope I'm not bothering you too much there a hell of a lot of stuff I don't know about growing plants indoors outdoors is easy!

 

[Low Altitude]

No bother, but I don't have a good answer. Any more detail about what's being referred to as an 'anaerobic environment'? Some soil? Not the air in your home, surely?