plants are suddenly dying

orangetreedying · Fri Feb 25, 2011 7:44 pm

I am new to this gardening forum. Thank you for letting me post my question here. I am in desperate need of some help. My favorite plants are suddenly dying.

I have had many of my house plants for many years and they have always done very well. I have even managed to grow an orange tree indoors (through many Central NY winters) for over 10 years now and have been harvesting oranges from this plant for the past 6 years.

Suddenly over the past few weeks, many of my plants have started dropping yellow leaves. My orange tree is the worst (only a few leaves left) and my pomegranate tree and goldfish plants are all losing handfuls of leaves daily.

The only thing we have done different was install a propane heater in the basement (one level below these plants). The company that installed the heater came back and checked for carbon monoxide and found no traces. They said the heater is working perfectly and helping to warm our basement. We also have a carbon monoxide detector in the house that has not detected anything. So we are assuming it may be another problem.

I also (about a week ago now) re-potted the orange and pomegranate trees into fresh soil hoping it would help. They looked a little better for a day or so then continued to lose leaves.

We cannot figure out why these plants are suddenly dying. My Christmas cactus seems to be doing okay and the banana tree I have on the third floor of our home is also doing well. Does anyone have any idea of what the problem may be?

Thanks.

alaskagold · Fri Feb 25, 2011 7:54 pm

I have had problems like this.

Take the trees upstairs to the third floor for a week and see if that helps any. The new propane heater may be taking all the humidity out of the air that you orginally had. Do you run a humidifier in the home? Orange Trees and Pom do not like really dry air and usually will throw a major tantrum and drop leaves. It may also be taking added moisture from the soil out, which means you will have to water more as well.

So, either put a humidifier in your room in which the trees are or take them upstairs, where I assume you have a bathroom in which to shower. I bet that may be the problem, lack of humidity.

orangetreedying · Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:09 pm

We also have a wood stove going during the winter which has two pots of water constantly evaporating into the air to help with the dryness but you may be right, the new heater may be making things worse. I will try a humidifier and move some plants into the bathroom for extra humidity. Thank you very much for your reply to my post! I really do appreciate your help.