Caladium - droopy and sad, can it be brought back to heal...
#Caladium Hello, so I’m fairly new to houseplants, purchased this from someone locally who said she just propagated it about a week before I bought it. This was about a month ago, and I’ve only watered this thing once about 2 weeks ago. It’s already lost a shoot after I watered it, am I under watering it? I thought I may have overwatered it at first. Help? lol is there anything I can do to bring it back to life.
2ft to light, indirect
4” pot with drainage
Last watered 1 year ago
4
I've been doing some reading on caladiums because mine are a bit droop as well. I haven't found anything definitive as to why mine may be drooping specifically so i may not be of much help. But i do know they like a very humid clomate so i agree with the other comment. I also know they HATE their soil to dry out and will be very dramatic and droop if it does. On the flip side they also don't like their soil to be extremely soggy or wet. However since you said you bought this and the person had only propagated it a week before, I believe if may have something to do with this. Propagation in my experience takes a lot longer than just week, especially if you are propagating in water. If this was propagated in water it probably has almost no root system and what root system it does have are water roots and not soil one. If it was propagated in water i would suggested switching it back and giving it some more time. If not it may just end up being a failed propagation as it's only been propagated for a week.
Yes thank you! I definitely think it was a combination of all you said 1) newly propagated 2) new climate acclimation (they were propped outside in FL, probably brought it inside too quickly) and 3) I think I may have underwatered, as you said they will get super fussy when dry. All of that was a bad recipe for the baby… so one shoot is still alive and upright lol, although a little wrinkly. I honestly think Greg helped me stay on a schedule and not kill it completely haha I also have a couple other caladiums, including a Florida “red flash” that never drooped on me and actually has another shoot coming out! Lol so maybe this one just didn’t take to soil well??
