Question
My plant is in a 10" pot.  I purchased it 2 months ago.  It is in a east northeast window.  Last repotted when I purchased it.  The leaves are dropping at a fast pace.  The dropped leaves are all colors: yelow, brown, green.  Even stems and leaves have fallen. What am I doing wrong?  I watered it about 2x a week until the leaf dropage.  Then I cut back on the watering to once weekly but no difference was observed.  Thanks for any help you can give me.  

Answer
Hi Pat,

Dwarf umbrella trees (Schefflera arboricola) do not tolerate soil that stays too moist. Unfortunately, the repotting and the 2X per week watering have done exactly that.

Repotting into a larger pot adds soil around the roots. This extra soil absorbs and retains water for a long time. Under ordinary circumstances, your plant would not need water more than once every 7 to 10 days. With the extra soil, it would not need water for two weeks or more.

When the roots are kept constantly moist, they gradually begin to rot. This is invisible until the leave start to drop and the stems start to discolor and fall off. By then it is usually too late. (I am sorry I have to be the messenger that delivers this bad news.)

If you are desperate to try anything to keep your plant alive, I can suggest the following. Unpot the plant and remove all of the loose soil around the roots. Inspect the roots. Healthy roots are firm; rotted roots are soft, dark and mushy. Remove all rotted roots. If there are some healthy roots remaining, repot the plant into a pot that is just barely big enough to accommodate the remaining healthy roots. Then cut back all of the healthy stems to a height of about 4 inches. Water only when the top quarter of the soil feels dry. If the roots remain healthty, you will see a gradual emergence of new growth on the ends of the cutback stems. It will take at least 6 months for your plant to begn to look healthy once again.

This is a lot of work and the chances of success are against you. Please understand this before you embark on this procedure.

You may simply want to discard the plant and replace it. For future reference, it is best not to repot a new plant for at least 3 to 6 months.

Please let me know if any of this is unclear or if you have any additional questions.

Regards,
Will Creed, Interior Landscaper
Horticultural Help, NYC

You can E-mail me directly at: [email protected]

If this information has been helpful, please remember to give me an AllExperts rating and nomination.