I forgot to mention that I've bare rooted my other FLF (Banjo) in Al's Gritty Mix at the same time as Salma Hayek, and I never worry about over watering, but it used to spring up leaves every few weeks and didn't have any new growth after I repotted it in the Gritty in May. I do only water it when it starts to look like it's slouching because my wooden dowel always comes out dry even if I can feel the moisture with my finger. However, Banjo has never looked better; it's trunk has thickened and the leaves are very perky. I only mention this, because I don't know if maybe I just don't understand watering this mix or maybe my bark is too big? Is there such a thing as too aerated a soil?

Hi Jessica, sunburn/over-exposure is what comes to mind regarding the bleached leaves but that doesn’t seem to fit the history of your problem or the type of plant. I’d be very interested to know what’s going on though so hopefully my reply will bump your question up so someone who knows sees it!

Thank you Robin98; I appreciate the bump! I’ll post updates if it gets better :)

Hi Jessica, could you share more details on your gritty mix. I think I am seeing a lot of sapwood (light coloured ones) in the mix...

Thanks for responding, yenniesg! I ordered pine bark fines, cherry stone grit #2, and turface online. I didn’t order quite enough bark, so I had to mix in a little pathway bark I had on hand at the end.

You could read around in the forum how sapwood rob the available nitrogen from the surrounding and deprived the plants of nitrogen.

I have attached a link with good summary of bark vs mulch.

https://garden.org/learn/articles/view/195/

2 things to highlight:

"watered her with a tablespoon of miracle grow plant food fertilizer dissolved in a gallon of filtered water, then followed it up with another gallon of plain water. Almost 1 qt. came out the bottom, so she retained quite a bit"

I believe the correct sequence should be flush with plain water first before watering with fertilizer. Your sequence is actually flushing out the fertilizer you have offered to the plant. That may be one of the reasons Ms Salma is having problems.

Second, you did not bare root it. So I could imagine the root ball area that is nearest to the main root and trunk will be more water retentive relative to the rest of gritty mix. Over time the potting soil may compact, cause root rot, become water repellent, etc.

OK so I decided to bare root it, because I assumed the difference between the water retentive soil and the gritty was causing more harm that letting it wait. I used a hose and the soil was a little compacted but not as bad as it could have been. Upon further investigation, there is one thick root in a J shape right in the middle, so I'm assuming it was just potted up earlier on. Since it's already lost a lot of leaves, I was on the fence about chopping it during winter. I'm planning on doing more research and doing a proper root prune in June. It was looking perky the day after, but today (day 2) it's looking droopy again. However, the light green spotting has seemingly stopped; I'm watching one leaf to see if it continues, but so far so good!

Question: should I fertilize right now or let it rest after so much repotting trauma? The leaves are definitely drooping (I'm measuring the leaves up against the wall), but I'm concerned fertilizing it after bare rooting and moving locations would stress it too much.

While the roots are reestablishing fertiliser impedes the uptake of water, so it’s best to wait until you see new leaf growth (which indicates the roots have recovered), or at least a couple of weeks (which is often a similar time).

Have you ruled out light causing the bleached patches? Did it stop when you changed location?

Hi robin98 thank you for the advice; I'll wait to fertilize.

I think it was the soil. After I moved it, I still some saw leaf drop and spreading, but I really only waited one day between moving it to more sun and deciding to do a bare root re-pot, so it's hard to give a definite answer as to which helped most. One leaf that started turning has stopped exactly at the midway point of the leaf, so I'm keeping an eye on that. No movement yet so that's a good sign. But after day 2 from re-potting, it's starting to look droopy again. Fingers crossed it just needs a week to acclimate. Thank you for checking in!

11/1/17 update: it’s gotten much worse. The pale splotching has suddenly increased in frequency and spread. I’m noticing splotches on more leaves, and overnight they will turn completely.

Some of the branches look gray too:

Did I give it too much light too quickly after the transplant? Some of the fine roots came off during cleaning so maybe it has too many leaves in comparison to the roots? Also, the breeze has started to turn cold. It’s still 72 degrees F but the breeze in the house is definitely cool instead of warm now. Is it too cold in front of an open window?

I have a spot near my other plants where the light is bright, but it’s essentially where it used to be (on the catwalk) just with more air circulation.

The FLF I transplanted in gritty at the same time is looking very strong but hasn’t had new growth after its repot in May. It’s on the same wall just on the other side of the room. The brown spots were from previous root rot. They’re all about 10 feet from a wall of East-facing windows:

Here’s the soil now:

About 4 months after receiving, when I started noticing the hypo-pigmentation:

Right after transplant:

Currently:

Pale splotching/bleaching used to just be a few leaves at a time but now they’re in handfuls. So far, loss has been all lower leaves but the top is drooping significantly. Too much light too soon? Too cold with an open window even if it’s around 70 degrees F outside? Just normal stress response to changes? It’s been about a week. All thoughts appreciated!

Repotting plants that are already struggling can knock them back even further. Usually advise a warm bright spot out of direct sunlight or drafts for 1-2 weeks, you’ll need to judge that one. And because the fine roots have been disturbed you need to water differently initially, aiming to keep the zone the roots are in moist until they re-establish then you can let the mix dry out more.

I don’t use gritty mix (prefer 511) but it sounds like people who change to it have to learn how to water it properly (its dries out faster, especially the top layers, and can be hard to get evenly wet) and also be more on top of the fertiliser situation as it has no nutrients (need a complete fertiliser like Dynagro FP, I’m not sure the MG one is complete)

Nice plant corner you’ve got there. Looks like you’re keeping those ones happy! Are any of them in gritty?

Thank you @Robin98! I just wish I could figure out the sporadic frequency of this leaf bleaching. It’s ok for a few days then has a leaf exodus. I watered it again and 5 more bleached leaves fell off when I touched them. They don’t bleed milk from the stems so I’m assuming they were dead already. My husband told me to water every week and stop watching it so much. I’m trying to remember “plant time” is different than people time. I just hope I’m not killing it with kindness.

And thank you for the compliment! My plants in the corner came from a nursery and kept in their original containers and soils except for the small Pothos; it’s in gritty and after transplant, it lost most of its stems and quite a few leaves but the 3 surviving stems are very robust. I’m not having the best luck with this mix, but maybe my plants need another growing season to catch up.

Two thoughts on your results with this mix so far : firstly, you need to keep the roots wet during the whole repotting process as the fine roots die quickly if they dry out (mine are either under the tap with running water on them or dunked in a bucket, they’re never more than a few seconds in the open air)

Secondly, you may not have adjusted to watering this different kind of mix, either in the initial nursing-it-along phase post repot, or going forward from that. The point of such a free draining mix is that you can water more often without getting an overwatered soggy saturated mix. The catch of such a mix is you have to water it more often because it doesn’t retain water. And you have to take pains when you actually water to ensure the whole mix gets water, and gets it slowly enough to absorb it ie. dribble it on across the entire surface, maybe even repeat the process 10 minutes later.

It would be great if some gritty mix fans could help you out more here. You could also search old posts about problems with watering it. I agree about the plant time comment, but think you need to stop the decline first, then put yourself on plant time during the recovery :)

The latest post on a long thread called Good Growing Practices (on the Houseplants forum) has some dropped FLF leaves the same sort of colour as yours, have a look...

Thank you Robin on the advice and suggestions! I kept the roots in a bucket of water during repot (thankfully) so I think you were right on watering maintenance after. I’m watering more frequently and it’s looking firm. I bit the bullet and removed all the sad lower leaves and the remaining leaves really seemed to perk up over a few days. I know now I should have cut back from the top after repot but I know that for the future. Now I only have maybe 2 leaves on remaining branches so I’m trying to keep those going until I see some growth and can prune both roots and leaves in Summer (or next summer??). I’m still nervous about overwatering since it’s every 3 days which seems really frequent, but I think I’m just too accustomed to traditional soils.

@Robin98 you were absolutely right; it was the watering. After replant, I was so afraid of keeping the soil too moist because it was sitting in water before. I was watering every 3 days which seemed too often, but it really needed it! I started watering every other day and the droopy leaves are at attention now. THANK YOU for your help in bringing my tree back to life everyone! I look forward to more growth in the future!