Houseplant Question

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

I have some Irish Clovers--not the plants from the lawn, the houseplants.

They need repotting, and they haven't done well.

Most of the leaves are dead.

Overwatering?
Under?

How to help it?

The planr belonged top my late Mother, & I would like to save it.

[the lone cashew]

Do they get plenty of light? About possible need for repotting, question: how soon does the pot they are in run dry/need watering again? Does the pot have drainage capability?
Are the clover leaves yellowing from the base of the plant upward?

If you're really serious about bringing them to health, you might consider this bulb, perhaps in a clamp-on type lamp. Ck out the one at the bottom of the page, the spiral compact fluorescent.
It's got a particularly good spectral output, a lot of blue light to encourage stocky plant growth. I have used these with a lot of success. But it's important to get one that emits plenty of blue.

Take a look at bulbs' Kelvin rating. Standard incandescents have a Kelvin of about 2700, a spectral output unsuitable for healthy plant growth. Many of the compact flourescent bulb models mimic this color. You need a bulb with 4000K or higher. So these 42 watt bulbs with rating of 6500K give off a nice color for healthy plants.
http://www.lightsofamerica.com/en/Pr...ories/CFL.aspx

[levdrakon]

Well, many times what is sold as an "Irish Clover" or something else along those lines is actually an Oxalis.

Losing leaves and going dormant is common among oxalises and sorrels.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Originally Posted by the lone cashew

Do they get plenty of light? About possible need for repotting, question: how soon does the pot they are in run dry/need watering again? Does the pot have drainage capability?
Are the clover leaves yellowing from the base of the plant upward?

If you're really serious about bringing them to health, you might consider this bulb, perhaps in a clamp-on type lamp. Ck out the one at the bottom of the page, the spiral compact fluorescent.
It's got a particularly good spectral output, a lot of blue light to encourage stocky plant growth. I have used these with a lot of success. But it's important to get one that emits plenty of blue.

Take a look at bulbs' Kelvin rating. Standard incandescents have a Kelvin of about 2700, a spectral output unsuitable for healthy plant growth. Many of the compact flourescent bulb models mimic this color. You need a bulb with 4000K or higher. So these 42 watt bulbs with rating of 6500K give off a nice color for healthy plants.
http://www.lightsofamerica.com/en/Pr...ories/CFL.aspx

No place to pug it in.

Light is moderate, but it thrived until a recent transplant to a l;arger pot.

Then, rapid & severe die-off.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Originally Posted by levdrakon

Well, many times what is sold as an "Irish Clover" or something else along those lines is actually an Oxalis.

Losing leaves and going dormant is common among oxalises and sorrels.

No.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

It really seems to be dying.

Any further input?

[Hedda Rosa]

How long have you had this plant? Have you watered it at all, and if so on what schedule? Have you amended the soil at all? Used any fertilizer?

When you late mother had the plant did it thrive or was it unhappy then as well?

How large is the plant and how large is the container it is in?

[jayjay]

Originally Posted by Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

No.

So what is it, actually?

[the lone cashew]

Originally Posted by Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

Light is moderate, but it thrived until a recent transplant to a l;arger pot.

Then, rapid & severe die-off.

The SD has many plant doctors. But it's difficult to help without being there and seeing the situation first hand.. and the info offered to work with here is not very specific.
So I can only lend you some general advice.

If it were me, I would dump the plant back out of the pot, breakup and remove the mass of roots that have begun to form a web (when they were in the previous pot). You should be able to do this with your fingers, get rid of all that webbed mess, gently pluck roots with your fingers so new roots have the chance to branch out again properly. You can use a carpet knife, just make sure you don't cut deeply into the root mass - limit your cutting to the root bound mess that formed from the inside wall of the previous pot. This may seem to fly in the face of common sense, but you'll be doing the plant a favor. Otherwise this mass will inhibit growth and roots will eventually strangle themselves.

Plant roots only elongate from the tip, increase in girth further back along the rest of the axis. So that means when a plant's growing in a pot, when root tips reach the side they'll begin to follow the direction of the pot and spiral. This pattern will continue. This spiraling mass left unchecked eventually becomes a dense network.

So when repotting it's important to free up those roots, since they only elongate from tips. Once they spiral - or what ever direction they grow - they will maintain this direction. Unless someone (or something) mechanically intervenes.

About watering. Let the plant start to dry out between waterings, then water to saturate soil. Then let it become almost dry to the point of moisture stress before you water again. Do not waterlog the soil, and make sure the pot has adequate drainage. You do not want plant roots standing in water.

And like Hedda Rosa alludes to, you might benefit from a mild solution of water soluble plant food. Get something like a Miracle Grow or Peters brand mix that has numbers on it that are as close to a 1-1-1 ratio as you can get.
I have found most Miracle Grow' mixes to be notoriously high (ratio-wise) in Nitrogen - the first number represented in the trio sequence. Peters "General Purpose" has a 20-20-20 formula - the 1-1-1 ratio that you want.
Don't mix it stronger than a teaspoon per gallon.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Originally Posted by Hedda Rosa

How long have you had this plant? Have you watered it at all, and if so on what schedule? Have you amended the soil at all? Used any fertilizer?

When you late mother had the plant did it thrive or was it unhappy then as well?

How large is the plant and how large is the container it is in?

Irregular schedule.

More than 7 years old.

Recent transplant.

Miracle-gro everty 3 months.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Originally Posted by jayjay

So what is it, actually?

Irish Clover

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Originally Posted by the lone cashew

The SD has many plant doctors. But it's difficult to help without being there and seeing the situation first hand.. and the info offered to work with here is not very specific.
So I can only lend you some general advice.

If it were me, I would dump the plant back out of the pot, breakup and remove the mass of roots that have begun to form a web (when they were in the previous pot). You should be able to do this with your fingers, get rid of all that webbed mess, gently pluck roots with your fingers so new roots have the chance to branch out again properly. You can use a carpet knife, just make sure you don't cut deeply into the root mass - limit your cutting to the root bound mess that formed from the inside wall of the previous pot. This may seem to fly in the face of common sense, but you'll be doing the plant a favor. Otherwise this mass will inhibit growth and roots will eventually strangle themselves.

Plant roots only elongate from the tip, increase in girth further back along the rest of the axis. So that means when a plant's growing in a pot, when root tips reach the side they'll begin to follow the direction of the pot and spiral. This pattern will continue. This spiraling mass left unchecked eventually becomes a dense network.

So when repotting it's important to free up those roots, since they only elongate from tips. Once they spiral - or what ever direction they grow - they will maintain this direction. Unless someone (or something) mechanically intervenes.

About watering. Let the plant start to dry out between waterings, then water to saturate soil. Then let it become almost dry to the point of moisture stress before you water again. Do not waterlog the soil, and make sure the pot has adequate drainage. You do not want plant roots standing in water.

And like Hedda Rosa alludes to, you might benefit from a mild solution of water soluble plant food. Get something like a Miracle Grow or Peters brand mix that has numbers on it that are as close to a 1-1-1 ratio as you can get.
I have found most Miracle Grow' mixes to be notoriously high (ratio-wise) in Nitrogen - the first number represented in the trio sequence. Peters "General Purpose" has a 20-20-20 formula - the 1-1-1 ratio that you want.
Don't mix it stronger than a teaspoon per gallon.

Recent transplanting did most of that.

Leaves yellowing from the edge inward.

[Hedda Rosa]

I'm not a fan of Miracle Grow, I think personally that it is better to use something like a fish emulsion with a compost or worm casting dressing on top than a man-made fertilizer but YMMV. But I wonder if you might be burning the plant with an excess of nitrogen. What kind of soil did you transplant it into? If it was a MiracleGrow potting mix with fertilizer already mixed in, that is possible.

the lone cashew makes an excelent point about watering; far better to underwater slightly than overwater. The problem is that both can often have similar symptoms, yellowing of the leaves can be one.

Can you post a photo?

Also, I'm personally answering because I like both mysteries and plants, but if you could be more forthcoming and provide more detailed answers it might be easier to diagnose what is going on...

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

No camera available.

What kind of infoi do you need?

[purplehorseshoe]

Originally Posted by Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

No camera available.

What kind of infoi do you need?

Googling "Irish clover plant" (and, for that matter, Google image search) brings up references to many things, including oxalis, which you already told us it isn't. So "Irish clover" is too common a name for too many disparate species to be helpful, since we can't see the plant itself.

Is there an old plant tag stuck into the dirt that identifies the proper name (Genus + species)?

[Dunkelheit]

Originally Posted by Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor

No camera available.

What kind of infoi do you need?

What do the leaves look like? What do the roots look like? What do the flowers, if any, look like? Size, shape, arrangement, colour, that sort of thing.

If it's what's frequently called a "shamrock", then it's a type of oxalis and should come back strong from a brief dormancy. Mine would thrive for a while, die back, and then resprout again after I'd let it sit without watering for a while.

I don't know of any actual clover species that would make an effective houseplant.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Originally Posted by purplehorseshoe

Googling "Irish clover plant" (and, for that matter, Google image search) brings up references to many things, including oxalis, which you already told us it isn't. So "Irish clover" is too common a name for too many disparate species to be helpful, since we can't see the plant itself.

Is there an old plant tag stuck into the dirt that identifies the proper name (Genus + species)?

No tag.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Originally Posted by Jeneva

What do the leaves look like? What do the roots look like? What do the flowers, if any, look like? Size, shape, arrangement, colour, that sort of thing.

If it's what's frequently called a "shamrock", then it's a type of oxalis and should come back strong from a brief dormancy. Mine would thrive for a while, die back, and then resprout again after I'd let it sit without watering for a while.

I don't know of any actual clover species that would make an effective houseplant.

3 clover shaped leaves.

I'm suspecting overwatering.