No photos of the baobabs today. It's blowing a blizzard outside, so the light is useless, and in any case, they haven't grown. One of Zadok's baby leaves is starting to turn brown as well. The first one is still on despite having turned completely brown, so at least it's probably not salt toxicity. Other than that, the differential for brown leaves includes, to the best of my knowledge, the following: fungus, wind burn, too much water, too little water. Of course this is only in general, as I have no information specific to baobabs, but it seems unlikely to be a baobab-specific illness, there not being another baobab within a thousand miles or more. Wind burn and fungus are also unlikely indoors, so that leaves too much or too little water. Unfortunately, the two often look similar.
Again, I don't know anything specific to baobabs, but in general, the symptoms of too much water include: soft, dark, curling leaves, turning yellow or brown from the edges; no new leaves; general wilting; and stems dark and too soft. Which is pretty much the same as not enough water, except for the curling. Though I haven't seen it on baobabs before, several of my plants are affected from time to time, and it's very characteristic. And I'm not seeing any curling on Zadok.
Accordingly, and since continued non-watering since the leaves started turning brown and it didn't make a difference, I made a graph, thusly:
Hmmmmm... It went from drinking 100 mL every four days, to nothing to drink from 39 days. Right. Well, I'd have to say "not enough water" seems more probable than "too much water" at this point. And maybe I should have looked at my water log first when making that decision.
So, today I gave it 350 mL. 250 mL through the pipe, for bottom feeding, and 100 mL from the top. I may be imagining things, but within a few hours, it seems the top leaf, which was sagging, is perking up. This would be consistent with the low-water theory, because water uptake is very quick, whereas trying to dry a wet plant is very slow.
All right then. We may be on the right track now. Maybe I should water Ahimelek as well; it hasn't had water in 17 days.
And in other baobab news, I got more seeds! Weeeeeeeeeeeee! More seeds! They just came in the mail this morning, so I haven't had a chance to see if they'll sink or float. There is a new supply of A. grandidieri and two species I didn't have yet: A. fony and A. perrieri. Also, because they cost $4.98 each and the minimum purchase from that supplier is $15, I got some Arisaema triphyllum, that is, jacks-in-the-pulpit. They don't look at all like the ones I had before, though. Not that it has anything to do with baobabs.
Again, I don't know anything specific to baobabs, but in general, the symptoms of too much water include: soft, dark, curling leaves, turning yellow or brown from the edges; no new leaves; general wilting; and stems dark and too soft. Which is pretty much the same as not enough water, except for the curling. Though I haven't seen it on baobabs before, several of my plants are affected from time to time, and it's very characteristic. And I'm not seeing any curling on Zadok.
Accordingly, and since continued non-watering since the leaves started turning brown and it didn't make a difference, I made a graph, thusly:
Hmmmmm... It went from drinking 100 mL every four days, to nothing to drink from 39 days. Right. Well, I'd have to say "not enough water" seems more probable than "too much water" at this point. And maybe I should have looked at my water log first when making that decision.
So, today I gave it 350 mL. 250 mL through the pipe, for bottom feeding, and 100 mL from the top. I may be imagining things, but within a few hours, it seems the top leaf, which was sagging, is perking up. This would be consistent with the low-water theory, because water uptake is very quick, whereas trying to dry a wet plant is very slow.
All right then. We may be on the right track now. Maybe I should water Ahimelek as well; it hasn't had water in 17 days.
And in other baobab news, I got more seeds! Weeeeeeeeeeeee! More seeds! They just came in the mail this morning, so I haven't had a chance to see if they'll sink or float. There is a new supply of A. grandidieri and two species I didn't have yet: A. fony and A. perrieri. Also, because they cost $4.98 each and the minimum purchase from that supplier is $15, I got some Arisaema triphyllum, that is, jacks-in-the-pulpit. They don't look at all like the ones I had before, though. Not that it has anything to do with baobabs.
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