Kel from Poland has written into Carrot Tops again to find out what to do with her fantastic collection of houseplants!
Question 1
Will this poor coffee plant survive? After a long travel, we came home to dead coffee plants. I cut the dead leaves and these remain.
Question 2
Love this plant, really healthy in my opinion. It also has sentimental value to me because my mum had these when I was growing up.
Is it time to replant it to a bigger pot? Or should I grab small pieces and plant it elsewhere? My goal is to have several plants like these in small pots anyway. 🙂
Question 3
Had a couple of Fatsia japonica around the house and they’re all different.
This one in particular is on the droopy and yellowish side. What can I do to make it be as healthy as the other one?
The 3rd fatsia is the loser of the group.
Question 4
The leaves next for window are higher. Should I rotate this plant, and how often?
Do you think it will grow only as y’all as the ceiling and nothing more?
Answer 1
I think your coffee plant looks a little bit sad because it’s on it’s own and the others have been pruned. Looking at coffee plants online, it looks like they have several plants together in one pot.
The curling of the leaves toward the top of the plant indicate that they might be suffering from a whitefly attack or scorching, so I would try to limit that by moderating direct sunlight and employing a pest deterrent.
I’m curious as to whether the remaining plants are still alive? If they’re not, you may want to look about growing additional coffee plants from cuttings of the original.
Answer 2
Ah I know what it’s like for a plant to have sentimental value as we have aloe veras that my grandmother passed down. It’s very easy to treat such plants with kid gloves, but we must be brave!
I would take a look at the base of the plant and see if the roots have grown beyond the base of the pot. If they have this would be a good time to move the plant to a bigger pot. You might find when you crack it open that there could be several plants in there already, but you won’t know until you take a closer look.
Be brave and good luck 🙂
Answer 3
The first Fatsia japonica (this one) looks slightly yellow and this could be down to too much or too little watering. A good idea would be to compare how much water you’re giving this one against the other one.
If the other one is the standard to get to, and rightly so, then try and mimic the positioning for the third one. The third one is definitely the loser of the group as you’ve said, but thankfully you’ve got the other one to go by as a standard.
Positioning is very important, and often overlooked with house plants, so I’d pay close attention to what you’ve got right as opposed to what needs work.
Answer 4
The leaves that are higher have become leggy as they try to reach more sunlight because it looks like they’re above the window frame.
I’m not sure rotating the pot will do much good as you can’t really de-leg a plan. If you consider them unsightly, you could perhaps look to prune these altogether and take up rotating the plant every so often if you notice one side being bushier than the other.
Or you could encourage the other side by going leggy as well by rotating the plant a full 180 degrees from the light.
It’s a lovely plant and that stem is so funky looking!
Thanks for writing in again and good luck with the above 🙂
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