You've found the famous Dave's Garden website! Join this friendly global community that shares tips and ideas for home and gardens, along with seeds and plants!
Check out the DG homepage for a brief overview of what you'll find in this gardening mega-site.
Login
If you don't have an account yet, visit the registration page to sign up.
I'm a beginner gardener and loving it too! I have a Chinese Toon that seems to be dying from the top down! The leaves are browning from the outsides in until they fall off.
Is this due to the wrong type of soil or bad drainage?
It's in a big pot on our deck in normal potting mix with lots of stones in the bottom for added drainage.
Any chance you can post a picture? Some more info would also be helpful...how much sun is it getting, is this a new plant or have you had it for a while, if you've had it for a while did you recently move it or repot it, how often are you watering, how are you fertilizing it, how long has it been in the pot that it's in now, etc.
There are a lot of things that could be causing this and the stones may not be related, but stones in the bottom actually do not promote drainage, if anything they hurt it. There's a great thread in the container gardening forum about this and the author of that thread (tapla) explains this way better than I can, but basically because of the way water flows through containers, the bottom little bit of soil is always going to stay wetter than the rest of the soil. When you put rocks in the bottom, then the bottom little bit of soil above the rocks stays wetter than the rest of the soil, but now that wetter spot is higher up in the pot so it's more likely to be in contact with the plant's roots. So unless this plant is one that likes wet feet that could at least be contributing to the problem (or may be waiting around to cause a problem down the road)
