# Plant is dying, I think.



## MollyAttack (Sep 24, 2011)

I am having trouble with this Dischidia ovata. The leaves are starting to yellow in certain places. I recently planted this tank (about a week ago) and have been misting it twice a day (heavily in morning and evening), making sure to hit this plant every time. Is it being watered too much? It's right near the top of my terrarium too, so it is receiving high amounts of light, but it doesn't look like it's burning to me. I water them directly because the humidity in my tank is usually 40-50% during the day and then a lot higher at night (I keep geckos, not frogs). The plants do appear to dry out between the waterings. Anyone have any idea what I can do to save this plant?

Here are some pictures (these were taken before I watered everything):


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## slipperheads (Oct 17, 2007)

Only a week ago? It's probably just adjusting to the humidity of a sealed tank.

It likes it a bit drier. Can't say if that is causing the yellowing, but to protect the roots they should be draining out pretty easy. Ease up the misting on this one, id hit it maybe a few times a week.


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## therizman2 (Jul 20, 2008)

Like Will mentioned, D. ovata prefers it a bit drier, may want to ease up on watering it, or make sure it is planted in an extremely well draining substrate. It is probably also still adjusting. Is it only the one leaf that you see yellowing?


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## MollyAttack (Sep 24, 2011)

Alright, I'll do that. Thanks for the advice.

Well, there's the one yellowing leaf in the second picture and then in the first picture, it's hard to tell, but the leaf on the right is also yellowing. That's it so far though.


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## shutter (Mar 30, 2012)

I have dischidia in a rhac tank that I initially had mounted in a traditional epiphytic manner to cork. It didn't really do well that way for me, not terrible either, it was pretty static to slightly sad. I moved it slightly into the top of the cork round with some loose abg in there after I pushed some weed blocker a couple inches down. It's been doing great now, even though I water that abg only every week or a little longer. It gets ambient mist nightly, and a little in the morning. If you think it will drain well there, you might want to try something similar. I've found a little loose abg works well with some epiphytes in a gecko tank with a screen top. Not sure that's the issue here as it sounds like over misting, but this might help in the long run. Viv looks nice from what we can see of it


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## MollyAttack (Sep 24, 2011)

Thanks for the advice Shutter. It is bone dry whenever I go to water it at night, so I'm not sure what the deal is. It's just tacked to my background with a toothpick that holds it up there (the toothpick doesn't go through the plant or anything). So are you saying you've planted the root ball of it in substrate (ABG) basically? I wonder if that would help. It's just resting on background in a little crevice at the moment with nothing around it but the dirt that was still on the root ball and the coco fiber background. My other clippings of it are now starting to yellow too, so I've stopped watering all of them heavily, but I don't see how they could be over-watered if they're completely dry every time I go to mist. It's a mystery.


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## shutter (Mar 30, 2012)

Yeah, I don't have it planted too deep at all, but I think it helps maintain very light moisture at the base roots in a dryer viv and it seems to really like it. I've found abg to work best in the rhac viv because sphagnum will completely dry out on me if I'm trying to mount an epiphyte more out in the open, especially closer to a light. I tend to use well draining nooks for a little substrate. ABG remoistens much easier and has ground sphagnum in it anyways. It's thriving this way for me in very loose, well draining substrate, very lightly watered directly into the substrate maybe once a week, in similar conditions as yours.


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## MollyAttack (Sep 24, 2011)

Well, after ceasing the watering for a couple days, it appears to be getting worse. More leaves are dying and that giant one is getting more and more yellow. Anybody have any other ideas of what I could do? Should I remove the dying stuff or just let it run its course?


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