Ixora, transplant shock or water stress?
andremarron
Posts: 1
I transplanted a lot of dwarf ixoras 4 weeks ago in a new garden, and since then they lost its flowers, one died (completely dry), and most of them have some brown leaves (starting at the tip). Only a minority is showing some signs of new flowering. It doesn't look like they are dying, but it doesn't look they are going well either.
Some info:
I live in southeast Brazil, right now we are in summer, sunny, hot (75F average, but it gets as hot as a 100F) , humid, rainy (200mm month).
My soil is Sandy, acid (5.8 ph) and drains well. I ammended before planting with manure and compost.
I mulched with pine bark to retain moisture, and for the first two weeks after planting it rained heavily almost every day. The last few weeks the rain stopped and I applied a fertilizer ( 6-18-12 and micronutrients) as an attempt to give them some life back.
Since then I am monitoring humidity to avoid overwatering, and keeping the soil moist.
The plants receive a lot of clarity and direct sunlight from 10am to 3pm.
Since I am new to gardening, I am not sure this is water stress, transplant shock or both, and I would really appreciate some advice, because I really don't know if I should do something else or just wait them to recover.
I attached some pictures for reference.
From the first week:
h
From today:
Last edited: 04 February 2018 23:59:49
Posts
Hi andremarron. When you say 'transplanted' do you mean moved from pots and replanted into the garden or actually dug up from one area and moved to new spots in the garden?
If it is just moved from pots and placed into the garden then it may be that the plants are struggling to establish roots into the soil and I wouldn't have added any fertiliser until I was sure that the plants were settled. If they have been dug up and moved then it could be transplant shock as it is never a good idea to try to move plants when they are in full flower.
I would be inclined to remove all the flowers to allow the plants to get their roots down into the garden without the stress of producing those flowers.