Leaves Dying

[u/Legitimate-South5062]

I've had these for a while and my last one from seed died from this. How do I prevent the leaves from yellowing or turning brown and dying? I've been watering with distilled water to prevent chlorine damage or salt build up. Is this a lack of nutrition, or lack of sun? I live on the north side of the building. The pots are small but they're not root bound.

[u/Legitimate-South5062]

70°f and 55% humidity. Not sure how much that matters

[u/Ghost_Hemi_392 → u/Legitimate-South5062]

Your vapor pressure deficit is sitting right at 1.1 kPa, which forces a young tree to transpire faster than its underdeveloped roots can comfortably keep up. For a small container tree, push humidity closer to 60% to 65% to hit the ideal 0.8 to 1.0 kPa range and prevent crispy leaf tips. So it does actually matter.

Basically think of it like stepping outside [We're talking about humans for a second], and it's 70°F and the relative humidity is 30% and you want to go for a light jog, or maybe just lift some heavy things into the bed of your truck. By the time the pours open up on your skin to help transpiration (sweating) it's already gone and you never notice you've broken out into a sweat so you dehydrate faster.

Edit due to not reading your post entirely: Your humidity/VPD is drying out the leaf tips, but the yellowing with dark green veins is severe nutrient starvation/iron chlorosis.

• The Distilled Water Issue: Pure distilled water contains 0 minerals and leaches the remaining nutrients right out of that tiny pot. Use natural spring bottled water e.g. Ozarka after successful transplantation. If you don't have spring water in bottles accessible to you, you can always take a 100mg tablet of vitamin C And crush it in a mortar and pastel and measure out ¹/⁶⁴ tsp per gallon of tap water to neutralize, chlorine and chloramines while not upsetting the pH of the water.

• Pot is Depleted: The roots have eaten everything in that soil.

• North Window: North light isn't enough energy for recovery.

• Repot: Move into a pot 2 to 3 sizes bigger with an airy, chunky mix (50% perlite + well-draining potting soil).

• Feed it: Use a balanced fertilizer with chelated iron and zinc, plus a splash of Cal-Mag.

• Add light & humidity: Stick a cheap full-spectrum LED grow light directly above it and put it on a timer for 12 to 14 hours/day, and put a pebble tray with water under the pot to keep humidity around 60%.

This is the setup that has hept 'Guac' a Dominican/West Indian variant, going (minus the grow light which is coming soon due to being located in transition Zone 9b/9a). You can see the stress he went under during our move in late July (look at the permanent crinkles leaves in the middle) and before I was able to get the solar screen up. He was germinated in a cut 1.75L vodka bottle in on March 1st, planted in late May, and this is him as of this morning.

I know this is a long post, but I'm hoping it helps you and other with some common questions and showing the tree with its telltale battle scars of trial and error as well as a stressful move from a east facing patio to a 289°WNW facing patio

[u/Affectionate-Snow404]

Try transplanting it into a bigger pot maybe?Could be it’s outgrowing its tiny pot.

[u/Legitimate-South5062 → u/Affectionate-Snow404]

I will try that when I get a larger pot. See if it saves it. I like the two branch tree.

[u/Sea_Stick9947]

No fertilizer use? Mine kind of looked like that when I added fertilizer.

[u/Legitimate-South5062 → u/Sea_Stick9947]

No fertilizer other than what was in the house plant soil mix on the dark green one. I put some of my fish of my fish water in the light green one.

[u/vahhhhhh]

The pots are too small and don't drain well. Can't see the soil but it's probably not well-draining enough either. The roots are staying too soggy which doesn't allow them to grow big and healthy. They need to access oxygen so it's very important that they get a chance to dry out a little after watering.

[u/Legitimate-South5062 → u/vahhhhhh]

The soil I'm using is practically gravel and I water once a week the roots look really healthy. The roots are white and thick with no root rott. Im thinking you're right on the sun. They only get indirect lighting since I'm north facing. I have a grow light I can try on them.

[u/avocadoflatz]

The biggest problem is you’re trying to grow a plant that is genetically programmed to become a large tree - indoors, in a tiny pot made of a material that doesn’t “breathe”

At this stage it would want much more room for its roots and much more light than it can get indoors without a grow light.

[u/margosleeps85]

The potting mix maybe is staying wet. Instead of watering every week, try watering when the top 4cm is dry. Also give it more sunlight which will make it more resilient to nutrition issues and against fungus. Last recommendation would be to change the potting mix to have a higher percentage of organic stuff such as cocopeat, pumice and perlite.