Curling leaves on shrimp plant

 Last summer I bought a Monrovia shrimp plant (justicia brandegeana).
After a while, its leaves started curling. I found one discussion
of the problem online that said it could be a buildup of salts;
the plant was in a painted ceramic planter, so I took it out of
there, put it back in its original nursery container, and gave
it a few deep soakings over a period of weeks. No change. :-(

Here's a photo from someone on a hummingbird forum who had the
same problem:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n287/littlebird94/2007%20Hummers%20Aug-Sept/misc/curlyleaves.jpg

(I found some other photos of the leaves turning upwards, but
mine are curling under just like that one.)

The folks on that forum told her not to worry about it because
shrimp plants do that a lot, but it wasn't like that when I
bought it, so I don't think it's normal. Any suggestions?

Thanks!


Patty

 
http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n287/littlebird94/2007%20Hummers%20Aug-Sept/misc/curlyleaves.jpg
I take it that the leaf is turgid, and not just limp from lack of water.

Patty, turn the leaves over and inspect the underside carefully for signs of
infestation.  I'm going to guess whitefly or aphics.  High N can do it, too,
as can some viral infections.

Monrovia is the name of a giant nursery company... not part of the plant's
name, fwiw.

Kay

 

I checked it for bugs when this first happened, but never found
anything. I'll get out a magnifying glass, but there's certainly
no visible infestation.

I assume that, unlike salts, nitrogen would not be washed away with
deep watering, so I would deal with that with the proper food?



?? I didn't say it was part of the name. I was indicating who
had bred the plant, in case people wanted to know whether it
was from a reputable source.


Patty

 
Actually, most of the N salts are quite soluble.  But without knowledge
of your soil analysis and fertilizer use, and how you've treated it
since it came from the nursery, I threw that out as a possibility.

Still, you might consider rooting a cutting, growing it in plain sand with a
low N fertilizer, and seeing if that straightens new growth.


My misunderstanding.  Since the capitalization and spelling of the binomial was
wrong, I didn't know if you knew it was a nursery as opposed to part
of the common name.

Kay

 
Repot into an adequately sized porous (unglazed) clay pot with new
high quality potting mix, a mix with no added fertilizer.  Place in
good light in a warm draught free location.  Water regularly,
sparingly, do not over water.  Over watering and fertilizing are the
most common causes of house plant demise.  Repot into a clean pot with
new potting mix every six months, never fertilize.