Dracaena plants are popular because of their low maintenance requirements and distinctive appearance. However, what should you do if your low-maintenance plant needs your attention? What should you do if the striking foliage and traditional upright habit of your Dracaena begin to droop or wilt?
A watering problem is most likely to blame for a Dracaena that is leaning. Sometimes underwatering, but more frequently overwatering, is the cause of these plants drooping. Other possible causes include soil or pot drainage problems, temperature extremes, pests, or insufficient solar exposure.
It can be unsettling to see your Dragon Tree showing signs of stress, but the majority of Dracaena species are tough plants that will soon recover if the problem is resolved. The most likely causes of your Dragon Tree’s drooping, withering, or leaning as well as remedies you might apply to hasten the plant’s recovery are covered in this article.
Do dragon trees actually have to sag?
On the other hand, limp, drooping foliage may indicate that your Dragon Tree has been overwatered. Once more, you must test the dirt by inserting your fingers two inches into it. If the soil seems wet, carefully remove the Dragon Tree from its ceramic pot and check the moisture level of the soil in the plastic nursery pot. Is it completely soaked? Soggy? Do not forget to empty any water that may be sitting at the bottom of the ceramic pot. Don’t overwater your Dragon Tree, and if the soil is noticeably wet, let it completely dry before starting to water it again. When the top two inches of soil around the Dragon Tree are dry, only provide 2-3 cups of water at a time.
How is a Dragon Tree resurrected?
For a thriving, healthy dragon tree:
- Allow the soil to dry out between waterings and only water once a week or less. While you shouldn’t forget to water it, keep in mind that a dragon tree can bounce back from drowning better than it can from overwatering.
- Put your dragon tree in an area with strong, indirect light. Dragon trees dislike being in the scorching sun directly.
- Make sure the pot has enough drainage holes and that it is the right size for the plant. Moreover, select a potting mix with good drainage.
- Avoid overfertilizing while feeding and only fertilize a few times per year.
- Avoid letting your dragon tree get too cold; doing so will destroy it. Keep your dragon tree somewhere where the temperature stays between 65 and 80 degrees.
Why is my dragon tree loosing leaves and drooping?
A problem exists if a lot of dracaena leaves are dropping off the plant. But since the reason for the dracaena leaf loss is probably something you are doing on your own, it can be simply fixed. The main suspect in leaf loss on dracaenas is not bugs or illnesses. Instead, it’s the universal houseplant bane: overwatering. When a plant’s leaves start to droop slightly, gardeners grab the watering can. The droop, though, might have been brought on by too much water in the first place.
Dracaena plants can’t tolerate to be in moist soil, and they’ll let you know by shedding their leaves. It is highly recommended to avoid wet soil because it can result in rot and/or fungal problems. How can you detect whether too much water is the reason of dracaena leaves falling? Just glance at it.
- Planting the tree on soil that drains adequately is recommended. If a dracaena is grown in a pot, the pot needs to have lots of drainage holes, and any saucer underneath needs to be cleaned out frequently. Remove the pot from your plant and examine the roots to confirm whether it is receiving too much water. You’ve identified the cause of the leaves dropping off the dracaena if the soil appears to be wet and the roots appear to be rotting. Cut out the damaged roots and repot the plant.
- The first thing to check for when a dracaena is losing leaves is overwatering, but the issue can also be brought on by inadequate watering. You can check if this might be the case by touching the soil at the bottom of the pot.
- A cool wind or too much heat may also be the reason for dracaena leaf drop. Move the container away from a window or heater after checking its location.
How frequently do Dragon Trees need to be watered?
Between waterings, allow your dragon tree to dry out. Usually once each week, when the topsoil is dry, water well. Avoid overwatering, and remember that wintertime watering may require less frequent visits.
How can drooping Dracaena be saved?
The drought-tolerant Dracaena Marginata should be let to dry out in between waterings. Depending on the humidity where you live, it shouldn’t require more frequent watering than once per week or every 10 days.
Your Dracaena Marginata will droop and start to lose leaves if it becomes too damp or if the roots start to rot. Before providing it with fresh water, let the plant totally dry up.
Although this plant is resilient and resistant to drought, it is occasionally possible that you are drowning it.
Between waterings, Dracaena Marginata should be let to dry out, but not for too long. Give the plant a vigorous watering until water is pouring from the drainage holes in the bottom of the container if the soil seems extremely dry and the plant is drooping.
To avoid root rot, always make sure your Dracaena Marginata has drainage holes and well-draining soil.
I use a 1:1:1 blend of dirt. 1 part peat moss, 1 part soil, and 1 part perlite. This, in my opinion, maintains the plant’s health the best.
In order to ensure appropriate drainage, I have more drainage holes in the bottom of my Dracaena Marginata than in the majority of my other plants. Before it becomes a problem, overwatering may be fixed much more easily.
You might need to repot your plant to correct the drooping if you think it does have root rot.
When you repot a plant, use new, quickly-draining soil, and it’s okay to gently cut away any slimy or rotten roots with clean, disinfected shears.
In order to prevent fungus, repot it in a pot that is only an inch or two larger than the roots.
How can a sagging Dracaena be fixed?
A beautiful illustration of nature’s love of texture is dracaenas. Additionally, plants like the Dragon Tree, Dracaena Lisa, and Dracaena Compacta are excellent choices for difficult spaces like corners and hallways because to their distinctive leaves and vertical height. Although their tall, narrow trunks are a terrific aesthetic trait, there is a small catch: a slight lean. A bent or leaning plant is the most common type of plant in nature, hence it is OK to let it grow organically in any direction. However, you can easily stake it if your Dracaena’s drunken lean bothers you.
The Benefits Of Staking Your Dracaena
Staking your Dracaena has mostly aesthetic advantages. Plants enjoy expanding at their own tempo and in any direction they choose (often upward)! However, staking will not hurt your plant if a leaning trunk offends your sense of style.
Staking Your Dracaena
The finest options for staking your Dracaena are either a bamboo pole or a thin, green-toned garden stake, which is often made of plastic or coated metal. Both are easily available at home improvement and nursery stores.
Utilize Support Ties
No specific kind of support connections are required for staking your Dracaena. You can use cloth strips, plant tape, or twine. Just make sure not to tie them too tightly so as to injure the plant’s trunks when attaching the stakes to the plant’s trunk. Consider being securely fastened yet not strangled.
About 1-2 inches above the place where the trunk of the plant enters the soil, you can add support ties. Repeat at several-inch intervals (about every six to twelve inches, depending on the size of your plant).
What does a Dracaena look like when it is overwatered?
- The dracaena’s leaves become pallid and lose its green hue.
- They start to feel soft and limp and lose their clear, rather stiff bearing.
- They drop down and droop towards the floor instead of rising for the sky.
- At the center and borders of leaves that wither and dry out, yellow-brown patches appear.
- Compared to older, lower leaves, the highest, younger dracaena leaves are less impacted.
- The roots are swollen, transparent, and mushy or squishy to the touch when you remove the plant out of its pot. This is the beginning of root rot.
- Even the stems of the dracaenas begin to become floppy and pliable if nothing is done.
These alarming symptoms typically appear over the course of a few weeks to a month.
Be aware that plant necrosis caused by fluoride and salts in water is another issue unrelated to overwatering that may be causing the browning of the tips of dracaena leaves.
What does an Underwatered Dracaena look like?
The Dracaena may be one of the easiest plants to care for in terms of irrigation. It is extremely comparable to a succulent in terms of water requirements. Dracaenas only only a tiny amount of water, and an excessive amount can be harmful. Therefore, between waterings of the Dracaena, you should allow the soil dry out. Water them thoroughly when you do. But watch out that no extra water is left in the pot. In this case, a container with draining holes would be best, but if you don’t have one, you may just water it a little less.
Depending on the soil’s moisture content, you should water the Dracaena every two to four weeks during the spring and summer growing seasons. You should water the Dracaena every four weeks during the slower months. When you do this, make sure the dirt is fully dry.
Overwatering symptoms
The plant’s leaves will turn brown and yellow and eventually fall off if they are overwatered. Fortunately, this occurs early on, so you will notice that you have overwatered the plant very quickly. When this occurs, make an effort to drain the moisture and wait with additional watering.
Under watering symptoms
When your dracaena isn’t getting enough water, the stems will begin to wrinkle, and the tips of the leaves will begin to dry out and get crispy and brown. When this occurs, water your plant as soon as you can to see the dracaena’s creases vanish.
Why is my dragon tree acting up?
The plant may develop dry tips and edges as a result of inadequate watering or extremely low humidity. A dracaena plant with too much water may experience problems including abrupt leaf loss or root rot. Poor drainage can also result in root rot and leaf loss.
If you put these plants in direct sun, your dracaena problems can include round dry patches and streaks on the leaves. Overfertilization may be the cause of yellowing tips. An excessive amount of fluoride in the water may also cause this.
The most frequent insect pests of dracaena are scale insects and mites. They will be on the leaves, or else you will see yellowing. You can either buy a remedy at the garden center or wash them off with soapy water.
How can I tell if my dracaena is in trouble?
You must first identify the source of your Dracaena’s stress before you can address it. Next, consider what it needs and what may be absent from its existing care plan.
Some dracaena varieties need direct, bright light to grow. To keep them healthy, let the soil totally dry out in between waterings.
These plants demand well-draining soil, ideally a gritty mixture that is suitable for desert plants. Not a lot of fertilizer is required.
The greatest time to apply liquid fertilizer is in the middle of summer when the soil is at its most fruitful.
A Dracaena’s brown leaves will never turn green again, so keep that in mind. Any harm done is permanent.
A severely damaged leaf that has turned more brown than green can be safely removed. Remove the brown leaf from the stem with a sharp knife.
I generally don’t bother with vegetation that is mostly green. But let’s say the dracaena’s leaves are colored.
In that instance, they can be employed for photosynthesis, which turns air and water into energetic carbohydrates with the help of sunshine. For a sick plant, this energy can make all the difference in the world.
How to Save a Dracaena That Has Been Overwatered or Has Root Rot
Repotting is the first step in saving a Dracaena from overwatering. Your Dracaena can be examined for decay or other damage by being taken out of its current location.
Selecting a new pot and getting fresh soil ready are the initial steps. Make sure your new pot has at least two drainage holes because more are better.
It is best to use a coarse, free-draining cactus or succulent mix. (Click here to view Amazon’s price list.)
If infected or rotten roots need to be cut out, clean scissors or shears should also be available.
Inspect the roots for indications of rot after removing the ill Dracaena from its pot and thoroughly rinsing the old media with fresh water.
On your Dracaena, you want pale, fibrous roots. If they’re soft and mushy, or if they’re becoming brown or black, they’re rotting. To cut them off, you’ll need clean shears or scissors.
The Dracaena can then be simply moved to a new pot and placed back in its original spot.
No matter what kind of Dracaena you have, you must let it totally dry out in between waterings.
In the winter, when growth slows, you might find that watering once every two weeks—or even longer—is sufficient.
Even Dracaenas only require a couple thorough soaks per month if you live in the South.
For individuals who can’t bring themselves to leave their plants alone for extended periods of time, a moisture meter is a necessary tool.
With this useful tool, you can monitor the moisture content of the root mass, which might give you a sense of security. (Click here to view Amazon’s price list.)
Reviving A Dracaena That Hasn’t Had Enough Water
The best way to hydrate a dry plant is from below. Where it is most needed, the root mass, it delivers moisture directly.
For this method, a basin or tub is needed to contain the Dracaena’s thirsty plant. You will also require clean water, preferably rainfall, distilled water, or water that has been through filtration.
To the water below:
- Remove the Draceana from its saucer or drip tray.
- Put the plant in the basin after it has been filled with water.
- Water should be poured into the basin until it is halfway up the side of the pot.
- Give the Dracaena at least 30 minutes to soak in the water.
- Refill the water as necessary.
- Before putting your Dracaena back in its container, give it at least 15 minutes to drain.
No matter the kind, dracaena must be entirely dry before being watered once more.
Over time, dry growth conditions usually develop a hydrophobic surface. They are unable to hold water as a result and instead reject it.
Take your time while watering a dried-out mix from above. I just add about a quarter cup at a time, distributing it evenly across the soil’s surface and letting it gently percolate into the mixture.
Before the soil is ready for soaking, it may take a dozen of these tiny dosages in large pots. Just wait till you see tiny drops coming out of the drainage holes.
After that, add enough water to completely submerge the mixture. As soon as it drains, the dracaena should resurface in its original spot. Before watering it once more, let it totally dry.
Saving a Dying Dracaena from the Top Down
It is advisable to completely remove your plant if the crown is severely damaged or dead. Whatever the reason, a dead crown stops the Dracaena from growing new leaves, which ultimately results in the plant’s death.
Thankfully, Dracaena are hardy and can create new growth points after the old, dead one has passed away.
Simply use clean shears to completely cut off the point a few inches below the dead crown, removing the old, dead crown.
You just need to wait at this point. Assume that the medium is properly irrigated and that the light levels are sufficient.
In that situation, you ought to see the plant’s top sprouting new buds. The same trimmed Dracaena has given me up to three new shoots every spring.
How to Save a Soft-Stem Corn Plant
To save a Dracaena or corn plant with a weakening stalk, similar extreme procedures are needed. Most likely, the roots there are dormant or decaying.
By spreading the healthy portion, you can still save the growing crown of your plant. But after that, it’s time to remove the head and begin over.
It is necessary to have clean, powerful shears that can cut through the stalk. You might need to use a saw instead if working with larger specimens.
Additionally, you’ll require a clean water container big enough to accommodate the plant’s stem and crown. For little specimens, a jar or bottle will frequently do, but for larger ones, a bucket would be necessary.
To save your corn plant, take the following actions:
- Cut a few inches above the stalk’s highest point of tenderness.
- You’ll then need to immerse the entire object in water.
- Place the vessel in a room with good lighting that is not in the sun.
- You ought to see roots forming within a few weeks. When many roots are at least three to four inches long, you can plant it in the ground.
Before the roots have a chance to develop, some individuals pot their cut-off Dracaena right away.
I favor applying water to a sick plant. Water propagation actively discourages the spread of disease from the soil, and also allows you to monitor how the roots are doing.
You also have a lot less risk of passing the illness to the next plant when employing water propagation.
Dracaena grows slowly but contentedly in water. In actuality, plants in this genus, such as Lucky Bamboo, are frequently never planted in soil.
There is no need to transfer your water-propagated plant to the soil if you like it just the way it is.
This type of propagation can also help dracaena that have almost entirely lost their lower leaves as a result of underwatering. This shedding could make you look ‘leggy’ and too tall.
A base without a crown will just send out new shoots and resume growth; cutting off the crown and water propagating it can yield two new plants.
For good cause, dracaena are frequently referred to as “unkillable plants.” A plant will heal and grow better than ever with quick treatment, even if it is severely ill or wounded.