Dracaena drooping

kellygiachettoUmo7zU-1

I purchased this dracaena about 6-7 weeks ago and immediately repotted it. Half of the pot is filled with rocks for proper drainage. I've been watering very sparingly and only when the first two inches of soil are dry. The plant is going through a lot of new growth with new leaves popping out every couple of days. However, the leaves have completely lost their spiky morphology and have become very droopy. Any suggestions? It gets quite a bit of bright indirect sun where it sits at the window. Why is it growing so many new leaves? Is there a reason it's become so droopy?

Obelixx

How big is the pot it's in???  or do you have that big pot full of compost and no drainage?

kellygiachettoUmo7zU-1

That's the pot it is in (nothing smaller inside) but more than half of the pot is full of rocks. The amount of soil is pretty equal to the size of the original pot

JennyJ

How do you drain out the excess water? If it just collects in the bottom, it could be pretty stagnant even if the top few inches are dry. Better to have your plant in a pot with drainage holes, inside a decorative outer pot if you prefer.

Also, looking to the future, when your plant by exhausts its compost and needs repotting it will be impossible to get the rootball out of that pot in one piece. And come to think of it, unless it came in a tiny pot, the rootball would have been damaged squashing it through that narrow neck, which could be contributing to the droopiness.

Obelixx

Always better to have a plant pot within a decorative pot so you can rescue it for extra watering or to dry out depending.  Very easy to get it wrong and have sour, sodden  compost or else for it to die of thirst otherwise.   The neck of that thing looks narrow enough to strangle it too.

I would re-plant it in a conventional pot, just bigger than its root ball and with room for a bit of growth.   As to watering, the best method is to dunk the entire plant pot in a big bucket of water every 7 to 14 days depending on season and growth and wait for it to stop producing air bubbles.  Then let it drain excess water and out it back in its decorative pot.   If the pot is large, just bung it in the bath or shower and give it a good soaking then leave to drain.

kellygiachettoUmo7zU-1

Thanks for the advice. I removed it from the decorative pot. It's now back in it's original pot (within a secondary bucket). The root system seemed pretty injured (a lot of detached roots were in the decorative pot and the root system was a lot smaller). I'm hopeful that it will make a comeback especially since there is still new growth happening.

Obelixx

Hope it recovers.  Just leave it be in that pot for now and make sure it is not over or under watered.  The dunking method is pretty foolproof.   Maybe in a year or so you'll find roots escaping out of the bottom and that's the signal to pot on.   Give it some slow release feed for leafy plants next spring.

kellygiachettoUmo7zU-1

Thanks, I appreciate the help. How often would you recommend the dunk method?

Obelixx

Every 7 to 14 days depending on how warm the weather is and how much heating you have on.   You can do the finger test to see how dry the compost feels or just do the dunk till all air bubbles stop appearing and then let it drain again before putting back in its outer pot.  That way it will never sit in a puddle nor in dry dust.

Keep it in bright light but not direct sun and give it a regular misting with plain water in a spray bottle.  This helps with humidity round the foliage and reduces teh risk of thrips and red spider mite.

JennyJ

That looks much more suitable 🙂. It will be the root damage that caused the wilting. I think it'll probably shed some of the lower leaves - that's one way that plants use to reduce the burden on their root systems. Hopefully it will recover and grow new roots, then grow away and become a fine specimen.