Question
J creig
I have a Janet Craig plant that I saved from work. The plaint is about 5??tall there is two stalks in the pot. I think it is in an 11 inch pot. She is in the front window I think it is facing east. According to one of the women at work the plant was transplanted about 9-10 months ago using Miracle Grow potting soil. One of the stalk is thin and is binding and twisting. Is this normal? I water him about once a week with tap water about 28 oz and no we do not have a water softener but I do live in the city. Before I water him I make sure that the soil is dry.
Both of the Janet plains have brown spots on some of the leaves and some of the tips are truing a really dark burnt brown. Should I be concerned?
However since I have brought him home there is new growth on Janet.
AnswerBill,
Your Janet Craigs are a variety of Dracaena and since you live in a city that probably has flouride in the city water I suspect that is your problem. All dracaena plants hate flouride and get brown or black spots on there leaves from the flouride that almost looks like burn spots. Switch to distilled water that you can pick up at the grocery store or Walmart fairly inexpensively. Also in the shorter days of winter they do not use as much water and they absolutely must dry out between waterings so the roots can breathe for a coupple of days. They are not swamp plants and cannot be constantly wet. In fact an hour after you water them you need to empty the drain tray under the plant. If you can't lift it to empty it use a turkey baster to suction out the excess water. That will prevent deadly over watering. During the winter when it has been cloudy for a week I sometimes only water every 2 weeks here in north east Indiana. Also dracaenas do not lik a lot of sun so you may want to move it a bit to the side of that east window. Good luck.
Darlene
