# Killing my Solanum Uleanum (Round 2)



## Anon123 (Jan 13, 2022)

Could anyone with more experience with finicky plants like the Solanum than me please help troubleshoot what I'm doing wrong with this plant?

So I've managed to get my hands on another Solanum Uleanum (good for me, bad for the plant it seems), and this one also isn't doing so hot either.

Picture of it one day before shipment:









How it arrived:
Shipping really jostled it around, but it survived. I did notice some things that looks like roots laying around loosely in the sphagnum the plant came in (bottom left of the first image). So it potentially lost some roots? I couldn't confirm exactly how many roots were left due to the sphagnum attached, but there was a bit of roots left. Hopefully no issues here?

















How it is after being planted:
Everything is fine and dandy. The leaves are green with some sphagnum flakes attached since I couldn't get them off and didn't want to damage the plant trying. The plant was planted with the sphagnum attached to the roots and some extra on top to fill in the hole. They were planted a week ago.









What it looks like now:
























Unfortunately all of the three immature leaves have taken a turn for the worse. This started with the smallest new growth and spread to the larger, but still immature leaf (circled in red above). The smaller growth had started turning brown and wilting in a deflationary way (getting smaller and smaller). Like they were losing water. The stem also turned green from purple. But I don't think water loss is the cause as it's planted in Sphagnum and I water for 1 minute in the morning (or more like 30 seconds in each spot as I hand mist) and 30 seconds in the afternoon, a total of twice a day. Humidity really isn't an issue as I have the AC on all day.

Thank you for your help.


----------



## Anon123 (Jan 13, 2022)

It should be noted that I did use a toothpick to rearrange the immature leaves a bit so that they would be on top of the mature leaves instead of under them. It couldn't be that little move that caused all of this, could it?


----------



## Harpspiel (Jan 18, 2015)

I know you said there’s a little sphagnum around the roots, but other than that what is it planted in?

And how are the first set doing?


----------



## Anon123 (Jan 13, 2022)

Harpspiel said:


> I know you said there’s a little sphagnum around the roots, but other than that what is it planted in?


I'm using gravel as substrate. The order goes something like this: sphagnum at the bottom around the roots, a bit of sphagnum on top of the roots and then leaf litter to cover up the sphagnum. This is all surrounded by gravel.











Harpspiel said:


> And how are the first set doing?


Unfortunately they've lost all of their leaves. They're still in the tank though as they have roots so I'm hoping they can rebound. One of them melted away though...
They're probably the plant that I'm having the hardest time acclimating. That an a Labisia/Aridisa sp. My Marcgravias are already sprouting new shoots in under a month.


----------



## Harpspiel (Jan 18, 2015)

Did you try placing a pocket of soil around the others as I suggested?

I really don’t think gravel is going to be conducive to growing many terrestrial plants, especially unrooted cuttings as this seems to be. But I don’t grow in gravel, so someone like @fishingguy12345 would have better info.


----------



## Anon123 (Jan 13, 2022)

Harpspiel said:


> Did you try placing a pocket of soil around the others as I suggested?


Sorry, forgot to mention that. There was some dirt there already from last time as this was the same spot as the one that melted away. I'll add some more now though.


----------



## Harpspiel (Jan 18, 2015)

Next question: does the leaf litter dry visually between misting sessions?

Pics of the whole tank when wet (right after misting) and when dry (right before misting) might help.


----------



## Dane (Aug 19, 2004)

A full tank shot with the location of the plant in question, and possibly some details as to humidity and lighting would be helpful. Sensitive plants usually show some signs of distress when introduced to a new environment until they are able to acclimate. I've had the same Solanum for a couple years, and while it hasn't been terribly fussy, it also hasn't grown very rapidly.


----------



## Anon123 (Jan 13, 2022)

Harpspiel said:


> Next question: does the leaf litter dry visually between misting sessions?


Yeah, for most spots things dry out but there are some spots where things remain wet. I've made sure not to plant anything where things remain wet.




Harpspiel said:


> Pics of the whole tank when wet (right after misting) and when dry (right before misting) might help.





Dane said:


> A full tank shot with the location of the plant in question, and possibly some details as to humidity and lighting would be helpful.


This is the state of the tank three hours after the 1 minute misting session. Unfortunately the wet picture will have to wait as I don't have any on hand. The plant is located to the right of the plant next to some pieces of driftwood. Humidity is uncertain, but probably in the 80s if not more? I run 4 80mm fans to make sure everything dries off in a timely manner. For lighting I'm using Chihiro's WRGB slim II at 60%, 6500k. Using a phone app, this translates to a lux of about 3000 hitting the plant.


























One thing I think I'll do is cover the plant up while misting and then watering it only from the base as per this website's advice:








Solanum aff. uleanum


Solanum aff. uleanum is a very rare and stunning plant. It has brilliant purple coloration with purple trichomes. It look incredible under 6500k LED lights. This plant can be finicky to root. It does not appreciate water on the leaves, or intense light when re-rooting. Allow for gentle...



frogdaddy.net


----------



## Anon123 (Jan 13, 2022)

How things look after a 30 second misting session. Once again, since I mist by hand (think of it as a moving single nozzle mister) it's more like 15 seconds per spot.

















I've also implemented the cup blocking system for now. I'll use a syringe to water the solanum at the base once a day with 10 MLs of water with a syringer.


----------



## fishingguy12345 (Apr 7, 2019)

I keep Solanum cf evolvifolium (I'm sure I've spelled that incorrectly) in one of my soil-less builds. I had gotten it rooting in a grow bin on sphagnum moss then I transferred the plant and the moss it had rooted in into the tank, it's "planted"  on a ledge where it gets some, but not much, water when the misting system runs. It's growing fairly nicely this way.


----------



## Verdant (Jan 6, 2022)

Solanum Uleanum only seems to develop very thin, thread-like roots. I grow mine in ABG or in pure spaghnum moss. It requires high humidity - like 80%+ in order to be happy. But given that it's very easy going.


----------



## Anon123 (Jan 13, 2022)

Verdant said:


> But given that it's very easy going.


How long have you had the Solanum in the first image? It's seem to have grown in quite a bit.


----------



## Verdant (Jan 6, 2022)

Anon123 said:


> How long have you had the Solanum in the first image? It's seem to have grown in quite a bit.


Maybe two or three months. It was a cutting that I took off a mother plant.

If you grow them in high humidity they put out roots everywhere along the stem, so they're very easy to propogate. I don't do anything special to propogate them, just take a top cutting with three or four nodes and pop it into some moist substrate.

They're VERY dramatic plants. When they get thirsty every leaf droops, but they bounce back right away when you water them. I've learned to just keep their substrate evenly moist at all times.


----------



## OneFroggyEvening (9 mo ago)

Anon123 said:


> Could anyone with more experience with finicky plants like the Solanum than me please help troubleshoot what I'm doing wrong with this plant?
> 
> So I've managed to get my hands on another Solanum Uleanum (good for me, bad for the plant it seems), and this one also isn't doing so hot either.
> 
> ...


----------



## OneFroggyEvening (9 mo ago)

I might be able to help. Got a small one in the mail and all the branches fell off in shipping so I was left with a tiny stalk. I didn't want to disturb the roots so I left the sphagnum it was shipped in and planted it in a substrate of coco fiber, peat moss, sphagnum, charcoal, and bark chips. I sprinkle distilled water by the roots every day and the sphagnum is dry by the time I water the next day. The humidity in the vivarium stays between 70 and 100% because of daily spraying but I NEVER let water get on the solanum leaves. I keep it in a dry corner of the vivarium with a Triolena sp Ecuador because they are both harmed by water on their leaves. In 2 months the stalk has grown another 4 inches and put out 8 new branches. It's happily climbing the back wall of the vivarium.


----------



## Anon123 (Jan 13, 2022)

OneFroggyEvening said:


> but I NEVER let water get on the solanum leaves.


Yeah, this seems to be the issue. I'd placed a plastic cup over it and things were fine, leaves and branches stopped dying on me but the moment I took that cup off again because I'd thought the plant had settled down and acclimated, it immediately started dying on me again. Now that some time has passed, do you water the plant normally and allow water to get on its leaves? Or do you still avoid that? If it's the latter, how long do you intend to keep things that way?

Thank you.


----------



## OneFroggyEvening (9 mo ago)

I read that it doesn't like water on the leaves and that it should only be watered from the base, but I think they were only talking about rooting/acclimating. I'm still watering it that way because it's working. I have a tiny branch that broke off and, as an experiment, I put it on moss in another, very wet terrarium. It's been sprayed a few times but it still rooted and sent out an offshoot branch. I suspect the humidity level around your plant doesn't consistently stay high enough.


----------



## Anon123 (Jan 13, 2022)

OneFroggyEvening said:


> I suspect the humidity level around your plant doesn't consistently stay high enough.


That's one possible reason, I did have some humidity issues when I'd first gotten the plant, but now that I've moved on to internal fans it should hopefully be fixed now (fingers crossed). How bright is the lighting for your plant?


----------



## OneFroggyEvening (9 mo ago)

It's a Nicrew Classic planted aquarium LED, 1160 lumens. My vivarium has a lot of moss on the ground and walls that I spray daily. That's how I keep the humidity high without saturating the substrate.


----------

