Chinese sweet plum's rough arrival
#ChineseSweetPlum got this guy about a week ago he did not like the mail and dont think he'll be saved even though I'm trying hard. Luckily they are sending me a replacement. He's the reason I found this app
4ft to light, indirect
6” pot with drainage
Last watered 4 years ago
3
I’ve found this one to be a very finicky plant because mine also arrived in poor shape and it’s not forgiving about watering frequency. I honestly thought mine had died 2 months ago while I was out of town because the leaves were papery dry and didn’t come back to life after being watered, but it seemed to still be sucking water up. I started watering it more frequently for a bit but then I could see and smell that it was getting too much water. So I stuck a moisture meter in it and just started watering every time it appeared to dry out, being careful to not stretch it by a day or two like I might with my other plants. I didn’t see any obvious change in the plant, but the moisture meter kept telling me it was dry in near half the time as my other plants… indicating that the plant must be soaking up the water. I started testing the tiny peripheral branches to see if they would snap, and found them to be extremely pliable. Finally I forced a very thin branch or two to snap, and I found that there was a healthy green layer under the bark. My research indicates that this plant can go dormant for a few months in winter, and I think that the inconsistent watering and the period of time before I started giving it supplemental light just put it into that dormant state. I think your plant is probably fine, but it’s likely you’ll have to care for it diligently for a month or two before it starts looking like it’s starting to recover. It will take time and patience to get it to flourish. We’re so used to potted plants indoors looking so ‘alive’ all the time, it can feel really disconcerting that this one goes dormant and ‘plays dead’. Just keep taking care of it, and if you really start to doubt its still alive just check that the branches feel pliable instead of brittle or scrape a little bark from a branch to verify that there’s still a layer of green immediately under the bark.