Distressed Cinnamon Girl

[Pachrian]

I have a Cinnamon Girl plant (a cutting from my original HVH plant) that is giving me a headache, ok a heartache too.

Over the winter I had it up against the house where the nights didn't get very cold (never less than 45F, it was a very mild winter) and the days were filled with sunshine. All the other plants in the same location are fine. This one, though, dropped leaf after leaf.

I finally bought the growth enhancer and applied it with regular watering. New glossy leaves formed and ... dropped   . So I decided to take the plant inside, out of the light breeze, and because maybe it would like to be warmer at night (temps still go down into the low 50s).

There aren't any spidermites that I can see even under a magnifying glass and I *think* the web-strands you can see in the pics are from a spider...not sure tho.

Any advise how I can get this plant back to health are sooo appreciated.

[Darkhorse]

It looks like to me that it's already on its way back.  Have you tried wake-up spray?  That's something you can use along with the growth enhancer that should help. 

I'd keep it out of direct sun in a warm location so it can concentrate on forming new, healthy leaves and not worry about trying to bud.  If there's any tip dieback you should prune back to where there's healthy wood.  If you do all this and keep it out of the cold you should be ok. 

[Pachrian]

Oh, it's so good to hear you think there's hope. I thought it was doing better too with all the new glossy leaves, but they end up dropping as well. Today I found a 1" leaf next to the pot

I will move the plant out of the sun then, slowly because I don't want to shock it. Right now it's behind the fly screen and gets filtered sun. Or should I just go all out?

Is spritzing the leaves with Supernova mix a good idea?

[Nievesgirl]

Hi Uli , I don't want to be the barrier of bad news but I think you have spidermites. ! Look at both of your pictures I see webbing on them , this is probably why the leaves dropped other wise the new growth and plant looks healthy.

[Charlie]

For sure figuring out whether spider mites are the cause is the first thing to do. The webs are suspicious and the plant looks like it might look after mites cause defoliation. Below is a photo I swiped off a university site (forget which one) that shows mites blown up big enough to see the details. They look like dots to the naked eye but become crab-like under magnification.

All the other stuff you are doing is good, and the suggestions others made are good, but if its mites nothing will help except to get rid of the mites. You don't have many leaves to wash or spray right now so it might be the time to do so, just in case mites are the cause. You can spray hort oil, soap, soap and oil, or just hot water from the tap and it will help with any mite problem.

Charlie

[Pachrian]

Those webs are from tiny baby spiders, they are all over my yard. I actually took some macro pics of the plant with a 100mm macro lens and 68mm of extension tubes, blew up the pics on the computer and still see no mites. Last time I saw mites on a houseplant (years ago) I was able to spot them with the naked eye.

The attached pics are of this morning's dropped leaf (I had it in a zip-lock baggie, just in case it is mites) and the place where it dropped from.

Just in case I will shower with it tomorrow morning

[Pachrian]

*Sigh* this morning I woke up and found that the two "big" new leaves that had been growing at the top of the plant (they are the ones in the close-up pic in post #1) have dropped.

What I don't get is that there is no yellowing, no mottling, no webbing, no creepy crawlies. Perfect little leaves just ... bam... drop.

At this point I'm really not sure what to do, I don't want to make it worse. Do I give my CG a hot shower/bath? Do I spray her with Bayer 1-3 or horticultural oil? Continue her the saucer treatment with triple strength Supernova? Maybe there's something going on inside the pot?

[Nievesgirl]

I just been showering my hibiscus and its seems to be working, I have use hort oil and it works great but I am just using water because when you have over 200 it is faster !

[Charlie]

That's pretty darn strange. I am thinking something else in the conditions is causing it to release a hormone that signals it to drop leaves. Is there anything special about the current location? Any drafts either hot or cold there? Any fruit stored nearby? How about light - is there any natural light? Hibiscus often show distress when being moved from one condition to a very different one and that may be all that is going on now. Keep observing and let us know if anything changes.

Charlie

[Pachrian]

Kerry, are you actually carrying all 200 plants into the shower? Whew, that's dedication 

Charlie, you bring up a great point: moving the plant. That's exactly what I did when it got so hot last week. I moved all my pots from their winter location (right up against the house, south facing with direct and reflected sun from first thing in the morning until about 4pm) to the backyard where they still get sun all day long but not the reflected heat from the house. The front gets so hot when it's warm outside it's unbearable.

So, maybe whatever caused Cinnamon Girl to lose its leaves out front had nothing to do with what's happening now. When I received the growth enhancer from you I applied it and thought I saw improvement. But then it got cold, nights below 50 again, days in the high 60s-low70s. My thinking was to take the plant inside so the pot would dry out faster and I'd be able to feed more of the good stuff. She's now sitting upstairs at a south facing window for warmth but with the shutter keeping the sun out and light in.

Btw, I tipped the rootball out of the pot and it looks beautiful. The soil is evenly moist but not wet, the roots are white and obviously healthy and growing. No new leaves have dropped since last night.

[Pachrian]

Update: CG continued to deteriorate on all the top branches. The lowest branch and the lowest cluster of leaves on the main branch seem to be ok.

I cut a tip off the top and it had a hollow center . After cutting back further and further there's now only the one sidebranch and about half of the main stem left. Hopefully I cut back enough, we'll see.