Don't panic - I've killed plenty of these (mostly through drying out). If you
ever get one to flower, you'll have more D. capensis's coming up than you know
what to do with... ;-)
>I started with three plants in separate pots. They were grown
>indoors close to fluorescent lights, and enclosed in clear plastic bags.
>They did great. When the outdoor temperature warmed up (70 F and more)
>I put them outside in full sun. They got sunburned, and what was once
>a beautiful specimen 4" in diameter and 3" high was reduced to mostly
>brown leaves with a small green rosette at the top. This happened to
>all three plants.
This could be a combination of sudden change in light & particularly humidity.
Always try to "harden off" plants by gradually removing the plastic bag, in the
case of humidity, increasing the light etc. so that they have a chance to adapt
to the new conditions.
>Don't jump on me yet, because they've recovered since! I put
>them in a shady spot and all three began vigorous growth in the top
>rosette. By this time the rosettes were atop an ugly stalk, so I repotted
>all three plants with the rosette placed just above the soil. They
>continued to grow, and I gave one of the plants away to a friend. This
>past Sunday I visited my friend, and I noticed that his Capensis was
>withered at the top, with few small curly green leaves. I mentioned
>that it might need water.
Older capensis's tend to from these bare, long woody stems. One approach to
the problem is to hack of the plant at just below groundlevel (if you have
spares...) and let it grow back from the roots, which it does happily.
>Well, yesterday I noticed the same thing happening to ONLY
>ONE of my remaining specimens. Both of my remaining plants have
>been treated identically--same size pot, same soil, same watering,
>same location on my screen porch. One is growing nicely and has
>a bushy rosette of leaves, with each leaf being about 2" long. The
>other looks like a dark stalk with teensy rosette at the top. The
>rosette is comprised of curly, twisted leaves about 0.25" long, and
>there's only about 5 leaves left. Note that the two plants ware
>are within one foot of each other, so if one has a contagious disease
>then the other is probably done for already.
Check for aphids or similar pests, if you haven't already done so - these can
cause this sort of growth. Another possibility is that the plants are
suffering from transplant shock or sudden change in conditions (maybe) or
simply lack of water. You could try putting a plastic bag over the plant(s)
which may help, but these plants are fairly hardy and will grow back from the
roots if the rosette section dies off.
Good luck
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| John Taylor [The Banshee] | Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology |
| rphjt@minyos.xx.rmit.oz.au | Department of Applied Physics |
| MOKING IS A HEALTH HAZARD. | Melbourne, Victoria, AUSTRALIA |
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