changing locations can be very stressful ..

you missed the houseplant forum.. this is a very common houseplant for most of us..

take a tea or tablespoon and see if you can dig in there.. and find out how wet is is 2 or 3 inches down..

loss of older leaves is cyclical and annual....

fert is never a response to stress..

lack of less than perfect light will not show up inside one month... but a year from now.. you may have less leaves...

do you know anything about the history of the plant before you got it 28 days ago or so???? ... this type of stuff usually doesnt show up this fast...

ken

I don’t know much about the plant before I got it. She had told me she watered it once a week or so and it was placed in a corner with bright indirect light, she was moving and it had grown too big for her care. When I dig two to three inches down it kind of just feels cold but not moist, just not like bone dry. I’m pretty confused on how damage showed up this fast as well.

I also did not realize I posted this on the garden forum instead of the houseplant forum

Changing locations is only stressful if the conditions are closer or further beyond the limits the plant is programmed to tolerate. To whit, if a plant receiving too little light is moved to a site with more light, the move would relieve stress. If a plant is moved from a low humidity environment which causes water loss beyond what the root system can keep up with to a higher humidity location, it relieves stress.

I got it june 22nd and have watered it once between now and then which seems like not a lot but the soil still seems a little damp because the pot is so big. If you can go two weeks, or even 1 week between waterings, you're leaving a measure of potential (in terms of growth rate and vitality [health]) lying on the table that would be conspicuous it the limitation was suddenly relieved. Oxygen is a plant nutrient that is essential to growth as well as most plant processes and functions, not the least of which is root function. Too much water in the root zone limits root function which can rob the plant of as much as 100% of it's ability to grow. Should I water again? Water should be provided on an 'as needed' basis, and just because the surface of the soil looks dry, or the soil feels dry when your finger is inserted to the second knuckle (top 2" of the soil is dry), is no clear indication the plant needs water. In a 10" deep pot, when the top 2" of soil feels dry, the bottom 6" can still be 100% saturated with no gaseous oxygen available. What's important is the moisture level at the BOTTOM of the pot. Your pot does have a drain hole, right? I'll leave something about using a 'tell' below this post. It does not get very much light as well in the corner I have it in, can this damage be due to not enough light? Low light doesn't necessarily cause damage, but it does affect the way the plant grows, how fast it grows, rob the plant of potential, and limit the plant's ability to defend itself, none of which are considered undesirable but not necessarily damaging.A plant's growth rate determines in part how fast the plant uses water and reduced water usage increases the probability of over-watering.

Using a 'tell'

Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant.

Watering in small sips in order to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions - which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma and creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor.

In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water.

Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'.

One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell' (more reliable than a 'moisture meter'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) works better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half or in several pieces, depending on how deep your pots are. Sharpen both ends of each tell in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell's tip comes out nearly dry. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue.

Al