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URGENT! Need Help Saving Portulacaria

DurrendalDurrendal Posts: 62
in Plants
So, I had a very very healthy Portulacaria Afra in a pot. A couple days ago there were really heavy rains. And now the Portulacaria is shedding lots of leaves that look like this.



To dry out the soil, I kept the plant in full sun but the remaining leaves in the plant are getting shriveled




What's happening? How to fix it?? Please help! Since it looks like rotting leaves as well as dried out(?) leaves, I don't even know if it is overwatered or underwatered. I know the soil is not ideal and I plan to switch it out but had to postpone it due to exams and the rains suddenly happened.

Please help me save it.
This is how the plant looks currently.


Posts

  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    Definitely too much moisture. Its a succulent from south africa so it can stand a lot of drying out and needs a lot of sun.

    What sort of compost is it in? A soil based with plenty of grit is best as it needs good drainage.

    I lived in south africa and they call this plant the Spekboom which translates to 'bacon tree'   :)



  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    edited June 2018
    On a second look at the photos it looks like the soil might be clayish and doesnt look very well drained. That would be a lot of the problem i think.

    I've also just noticed that you are in India so no problem with getting the sun. 
  • DurrendalDurrendal Posts: 62
    It's a very clayish soil. I did plan to put it in cactus soil with granite chips(The kind they pave roads with) and some assorted marble chip gravels, but didn't get time due to exams. What happened was, I forgot to sun it after the rains so it sat in shade for a day.

    Good news is, and I hope nothing changes, after putting it in sun, the soil dried out in couple hours. No new leaves have rotted/fallen and the shrivelled leaves were just due to afternoon sun, they plumped out again over the night. The plant is doing well right now.

    I swear, most people's cacti here survive because the sun dries out the soil pretty quick after heavy rain. No cacti mix is even commercially available. The only danger is however the infamous monsoons. Horrid things.
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