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Thank you for the detailed post. I will begin this ASAP.
This may be a silly question but am I looking for a particular type of soil?
For your purposes since it's for only one plant I'd suggest you go to a nursery supply outlet and ask them to provide you with some pre-mixed soil suitable for bird of paradise. You can also look at their products to compare maker's pre-mixed potting soils that will have all or most of the ingredients listed in the list below. Take a look at the brand recommendations in this website: https://gardenine.com/best-soil-for-bird-of-paradise/
Some of the below is basic information from the above website as well as from my own soil recipes. If I was blending my own soil mix I would try to include these in the mix as being essential in potting soil for the bird of paradise. It should have some compost like black mushroom manure, (I like to make my own compost) some perlite to help with drainage, and peat moss for holding humidity in the soil mix. Here are the main components that make the perfect soil mix for bird of paradise plants:
Peat moss
Peat moss is a dark brown fibrous material made from slowly decaying peat bogs through an anaerobic process. Peat moss is well-draining and aerating. It’s also lightweight and inexpensive, with a low pH of 3.5 to 4.5. However, it contains fewer nutrients and may need to be mixed with compost to make it nutrient-rich. You may also want to add some lime to raise pH.
Compost
Compost is another vital component of any potting mix. It’s usually made from decomposing organic matter such as blood meal, bone meal, rotted sawdust, rotted leafy humous, well rotted horse manure, worm castings. These substances add nutrients to the compost and allow beneficial microorganisms to live in them. The microbes later break down organic matter in the mix to release nutrients. Compost is also added because of its good water retention capacity.
Limestone
Limestone is naturally occurring rock mined and crushed into small particles. Its added to a peat moss-based potting mix to raise the pH.
Perlite
Perlite is a volcanic rock heated to form finer particles. Basically it's puffed up volcanic glass. It has porous spaces, thus increasing aeration and drainage in the potting mix. Perlite has a neutral pH.
Sand (not too much sand for bird of paradise).
Sand has widely spaced particles and makes a good potting mix ingredient to improve drainage and aeration.
Vermiculite
Vermiculite is made by heating mined minerals such as flakes of mica until they expand to form lighter particles. The fine substances are porous, thus increasing water retention of the potting mix. Vermiculite also adds calcium and magnesium to the potting soil.
Coco coir/fiber
Coco fiber is an organic waste material of coconut husks. It is lightweight when dry but dense when wet. I'm not keen on coir because it doesn't have much if anything in the way of nutrients, but some other people swear by it.
As an alternative to coir, I personally would prefer to include small chips of pine bark such as is used in orchid potting mixes.
If you can throw in a handful of living earth worms into the pot that would be helpful.
I just wanted to briefly follow up with what I've done and where we're at.
The day you send the message, I scooped out the dirt to expose the top of the root ball. There was about 2.5-3 inches of dirt on top of the root ball. I could not repot that weekend as I was traveling for the week.
Just this past weekend, I repotted the plant. The former owners had about an inch of pebbles in the bottom of the plant and the plant had about 2 inches of soil above the pebbles. The taproot was L shaped but looked to be in good condition. The new pot is only 16 inches tall as I could not find a suitable pot in the 18-24 inch range. The ones that size were monstrous - like the type of pot you would put a tree in outdoors. I followed the rest of the instructions so even though this pot is not as deep as you indicated the root has an additional 6-8 inches that it didn't have before. If I have to repot in 1-2 years, I will do so.
After repotting, I rubbed olive oil on the 2 unfurled leaves. The one that was partially unfurled fully unfurled within about 15 minutes. I clipped the brown tip off of the older unfurled leaf but it is still tightly wound. In a day I will reapply the olive oil to the strip of leaf edge and see if that helps.
Well done BoSox! That all sounds great and I'm sure you'll see a very noticeable positive response from the plant over the course of the next few weeks now. It sounds like it hasn't gone into any serious transplant shock either, so that's good too. I'm glad to hear that the partially furled leaf unfurled so quickly for you immediately after the first application of olive oil.
Regarding the older leaf, be a little more liberal with the application of olive oil this next time you apply it. Smear a small amount of olive oil onto your hand and apply that directly by hand to the whole leaf spike (not only on the leaf edge strip) by gently smoothing it in - as if you were massaging into your own skin a thin amount of healing oil onto the delicate skin around your eyes. If that doesn't do the trick and the still stuck leaf doesn't loosen within 24 hours after your second application of olive oil let me know and I'll tell you how to gently loosen and unfurl it manually (hopefully) without damaging the edge of the leaf. If it has to be done, it has to be done, otherwise you will end up losing the leaf anyway. It would be good if you can save it instead.
One question - when you removed the plant from the old pot to transplant it, did you take note of the condition of the soil, was it wet or damp or was it bone dry down around the bottom of the roots?
Thank you for your patience and instructions, I greatly appreciate it.
The old soil appeared to be damp all the way through, but I don't know what type of soil the prior owners used. When I took out the root ball much of the soil stayed attached to the ball. If it were bone dry I would assume a good amount would have fallen away. Basically when I took the root ball out it came out in a cylindrical shape, like it never grew from the original pot from the plant store, if that makes sense.
The leakage from watering that I noticed was because they used a pot that I'm assuming was for artificial plants, it wasn't the roots pushing against the sides. The old pot I replaced was 13 inch diameter and I'd say the root ball had a good 1-2 inches of soil around it before even reaching the sides of the old pot.
OK, finally getting back to this thread. I've been so busy here lately!
I applied oil to the closed up leaf and it still has not opened up.
Secondly, regarding watering, how much water is enough? And on average how often? (I know this can vary but I'm just trying to get a baseline). I went through the articles you posted one says "well talk about watering" then it doesn't (unless I missed it!) and the other only talks about winter watering, but neither say how much is enough. I read online somewhere that you should water until it flows out the bottom and I'm wondering if that's your experience.
Here's a picture of how we're looking today. You can see the recently unfurled leaf basically sitting on top of an existing one because that particular stalk is short. I also moved the plant to a wall opposite the window. It gets good light all day and some direct sun in the evening (the room faces due west).
OK, finally getting back to this thread. I've been so busy here lately!
I applied oil to the closed up leaf and it still has not opened up.
Secondly, regarding watering, how much water is enough? And on average how often? (I know this can vary but I'm just trying to get a baseline). I went through the articles you posted one says "well talk about watering" then it doesn't (unless I missed it!) and the other only talks about winter watering, but neither say how much is enough. I read online somewhere that you should water until it flows out the bottom and I'm wondering if that's your experience.
Here's a picture of how we're looking today. You can see the recently unfurled leaf basically sitting on top of an existing one because that particular stalk is short. I also moved the plant to a wall opposite the window. It gets good light all day and some direct sun in the evening (the room faces due west).
Thanks!
Sorry for the delay in response, I didn't notice your post until today.
That looks better and sounds like a good location. Regarding watering - the soil at the top of the pot should never be level. The stem of the plant should look like it's rising up out of the center of soil that is convex - that is a bowl shaped depression, a well whose soil is approximately an inch deeper in the middle of the pot with the soil that's against the sides of the pot being one inch higher. That way when you water the plant in the middle of the depression where the plant stem rises, the water is all going to stay in the middle and absorb straight downwards and spread through the middle of the pot and around the roots. It won't be running across the surface above and down the sides of the pot and immediately draining out of the pot.
When I water all container plants I do it slowly and always add water until I see it flowing out of the bottom into the individual drainage tray below each pot. Usually half an hour later I'll note that all the water that ran out of the bottom into the drainage tray has been absorbed back into the soil in the pot again. Then depending on the type of plant it is I might even add a little bit more water to the drainage tray itself just to ensure some added humidity.
When the soil becomes too dry the soil will normally begin to contract inwards towards the plant stem and the depression, away from the sides of the pot, and you'll see the air gap between soil and sides of the pot. Then you water it, ensuring you only water in the middle of the depression until you see water running out of the bottom of the pot. When the soil has absorbed all the water it needs it will expand outwards to touch the sides of the pot again.
About that stuck leaf - if you have read the directions that were given in the following website which I originally posted https://thehealthyhouseplant.com/why...an-do-to-help/ (maybe read it again to refresh your memory), and my own suggestion about applying olive oil hasn't helped, then it may be time for you to try to give it more of a manual head-start. So here is what I would suggest you do with your stuck leaf. Be patient as you work on it since it might be a bit time consuming and requires a steady hand.
Nip another 1/8th inch off the very end tip of the leaf. Use a fingernail to gently pick at and peel back just the top corner of the brown seam that you see spiraling around the closed leaf. The objective is to help to dissolve and loosen the hardened plant glue secretion on the underside of the seam without tearing up the leaf.
Use a cotton Q-tip soaked in warmed olive oil and apply that to the underside of the seam corner that you peeled back. Then gently use fingernail again to peel back a little bit more of that seam and apply more of the oil to the underside of the seam. Keep on doing that going down the length of the seam alone. As you progress you might find that you no longer need to use your fingernail to pick at the seam and can use the soaked Q-tip alone to work at the underside of the seam and cause it to loosen and peel back. All the way to the bottom of the seam where the leaf emerges from the leaf stem.
When you get to the bottom of the leaf don't try to unfurl the leaf, it's just the seam anchoring it in place that needs to be loosened away first. Once you have the entire seam loosened you can use the Q-tip to apply some oil to whatever leaf material has been exposed and you can apply a couple of drops of oil to the end of the leaf where you nipped the 1/8th inch off the tip. By rights, once that whole seam (which is of course actually the edge of one side of the whole leaf) has been softened and separated from the leafy material beneath it the whole leaf should begin to relax and gradually unfurl of its own accord. It wouldn't hurt for you to mist the leaf with warm water every day while you wait for it to unfurl as the humidity will help to soften the plant glue that has been holding it in place.
If it does not unfurl on it's own you may have to continue applying olive oil to the whole leaf to help soften it more. Be aware, it's not always easy to unfurl a stubborn leaf and sometimes it can become damaged in attempts to manually loosen it. And sometimes a furled leaf will just die from having been constricted for too long because although it's imperceptible to the naked eye, those leaves are continuing to grow even while they are furled up.
Hi Zoisite, so the olive oil treatment did not loosen the leaf. I looked at the leaf today and noticed the tip was browning. Last month I clipped the brown of the tip and another 1/4 -1/2 inch browned that I clipped off today. I unrolled the little clipping and noticed the middle was brown. So I just said well if it's dead inside what's the worst that can happen if I manually unfurl it? I ran my fingernail under the leaf and it loosened and it came undone.
I took a look at the inside and it appears that the entire inside is dead...or at least brown. Is this leaf going to eventually die entirely? If so do I need to remove the entire stalk?
One side of the leaf stem is green and fleshy and one side of the leaf is alive and looks healthy enough (the side you're holding up) so I think the stem is being supportive enough of that green side of the leaf.
I'd try to unfurl the other side of the leaf too and see what that side looks like when it's open. If the still furled side is badly browning throughout most of it I'd cut that entire half of the leaf off. Say about a 1/4" away from the leaf stem and straight up parallel to the stem from top to bottom. Then just wait to see how the healthy side of the leaf fares in the days ahead.
If the healthy half dies then yes, cut the whole thing off the plant. Cut the leaf stem off about half an inch away from the main trunk of the plant where the stem is growing out of. The little bit of stem that's left on the trunk will eventually dry up to a papery crisp and then it can be easily peeled away from the trunk without damaging the trunk.
When I unfurled the leaf, the other half was completely brown. I trimmed it off so we shall see how the other half fares.
Thanks again for all of your help!
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