Question

Impatiens3   QUESTION: Can you suggest any way to save this poor New Guinea impatiens? A photo is attached; it was taken yesterday.

Before bringing the plant inside for the season, I sprayed it with neem without realizing neem shouldn't be used on impatiens. Once I realized the error, I flushed the plant and soil with water and cut off the dead material down to just above the nearest growth node. Then I added about a teaspoon of slow-release fertilizer to the soil. I've been keeping it near an AeroGarden grow light, except for a couple of days last week when I had to move some things around. I've been giving it plenty of TLC (encouraging words, etc.) too.



The extremities appear to be further shriveling up (and the leaves you see are old ones), but the stem/core still looks and feels alive. I have not watered it in a week because the soil is still moist, but I'm wondering if some high nitrogen fertilizer might encourage it to produce new leaves? This was a mid-summer rescue plant from the sale rack at Lowe's and had been pretty robust. I feel just awful.


ANSWER: Fertilizer companies have programmed plantlovers to fertilizer at the drop of a hat.  Fertilizer is not vitamins, it is not air, it is not even GOOD for a plant that is growing in healthy soil and it can be BAD for plants.  If there is no shortage of, say, Nitrogen, adding more Nitrogen is not going to help a plant that needs, say, light.

In this case, your well intentioned use of Neem -- trust me, you are not the first, you will not be the last person to make this common mistake -- more or less poisoned your Impatiens.  Adding Nitrogen, Phosphoros, any nutrient whatsoever will help no one, and it may cause further damage, for many reasons but I don't want to get off on a tangent.

Your plant needs to repair itself.  Flushing the soil was a good idea.  But don't over-water now.  That'll just make it easier for the Fungi and Bacteria that like that kind of thing.

Fortunately, Cornell University discovered a few years ago how plants can be stimulated to repair cell damage and recover from attack by insects, fertilizer burn, nutrient shortages, bacterial blight, etc.  They took out a patent on their findings, and license the formula out.  You can purchase this stuff as Messenger at your local garden center, which I recommend you do YESTERDAY.

Read the directions carefully.  Make sure you have a spray bottle handy (you can pick one up that's totally clean and new at a place like Target or Walmart), so that you can spray as directed.

I'd like to know what you were trying to accomplish with that container of Neem.  This is a great product, but it has its place, and it is not something to use casually.

Give your Impatiens warmth and bright light, and DO NOT overwater, DO NOT fertilize, DO NOT kill this plant with kindness.  Get some Messenger and get it home asap and onto your Impatiens.

These are resilient plants.  It has a good shot at recovery.  rsvp,

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks very much for your reply. What I was trying to accomplish with the Neem was avoiding bringing in any pests that might be on the plant. We have pets, and I had spotted a lone flea a couple of days before and was on the alert. Soapy water obviously would have been better.

There is no Messenger to be found locally ?believe me, I looked. The only place I could find it online was Gardening Things out of NY state. Ordered yesterday, and the site offered no expedited shipping options, so it will be a few days. Do you think it will be too late? Someone at one of the stores I called suggested something called Earth Juice, but I think that's more of a fertilizer. Anything else I can do in the meantime, please let me know. Thanks again.

Answer
I agree, Earth Juice sounds like fertilizer.

The Messenger is patent-protected.  You won't find it sold anywhere else in any other form, and you cannot make this at home.  Cornell licenses the formula to Eden Bioscience.

Eden has a website.  You can order Messenger from them directly on the internet, which I have done when our local supplier was out:

www.edenbio.com/garden/

Note that the South's Great Gardener Extraordinaire, Walter Reeves, has posted a short column describing Messenger to the world:

www.walterreeves.com/tools_chemicals/article.phtml?cat=22&id=916

Make sure you have a spray bottle ready for the Messenger.  You can pick one up cheap at Target or Walmart.  Messenger must be sprayed onto leaves, above and below, to be at its best.

Any questions?

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER