Maidenhair Fern Dying, Help

10 years ago

Here she is when I first bought her

Here she is now

When I first got her, her soil was very wet. Everyday I checked the soil, still wet. I got a little too lax, forgot to water her one day and it was a complete snowball effect from there. I put her in the bathroom where it's very moist, not much light if at all, just lightbulb light. I've cut back all the dead foliage before but she just keeps dying. Her soil was fairly soggy all over when I pulled her out of her original plastic pot. In this picture, you can see the new soil which I haven't watered because I've still kept the original soggy soil because I've read on other forums here that this fern's roots are very delicate and disturb easily and I don't want to risk absolute death.

I'm afraid now that what if I've overwatered her? I really have no clue, please help me.

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Comments (5)

tropicbreezent
10 years ago
What time period are you talking about? What are your temperatures like? It does look like your soggy soil could be the culprit. They like to be kept moist but the water needs to get away and not turn sour/stagnant around the roots.
User
Original Author
10 years ago
I can't remember although I'm also not sure what you mean by time period. It was more toward the beginning of Spring so it was a bit cold.
The soil is the original soil it came in plus all purpose potting soil. The pot used to have plenty of drainage holes but now it only has one that points to the side, not directly below. The drainage holes didn't seem to alter the situation.
For watering, I imagine I have to wait a few days between waterings like any other plant, but I don't understand that this plant doesn't want the soil to dry out.
I did just purchase a mist sprayer, hopefully this helps...
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tropicbreezent
10 years ago
I was just asking how long it has taken to get to its current state. If the issue is rotting roots as I suspect a spray mister won't change anything.
User
Original Author
10 years ago
Apparently it wasn't liking the darkness and the draft and the my touching it part so when I moved to my new house, I put it in the laundry room where it's not disturbed as frequently and gets lots of indirect sunlight on the windowsill and just look at her now

I'm really happy with this. Basically I had to forget about her, water her occasionally and wait. She still has quite a bit of bad foliage but i kept that because it looked healthy enough. I'm not misting her because there doesn't seem to be a point. So far so good :)
tropicbreezent
10 years ago
It's looking quite good now. I've got one, Adiantum philippense (different species to yours). I had it in a place where it was getting watered all year. It started to slowly fade away so I put it where it only got natural rainfall. During our dry season, no rain for about 6 months, it died back and the pot became totally dry. When the rains came back it sprung to life and each successive rainy season now it's grown bigger and bushier. They all have their own little quirks that you've got to work around.