PlantAdvice.co.uk

Hiya, I was wondering if anyone could help me with the following -

I have a Solanum Standard (the white flowered one) and I noticed this afternoon that the leaves have started to fall off, quite heavily too as there are lots of them around the container I have it in.
I also have the purple flowered one and that is fine, I water both equally and they both get the same amount of shade/sun, I have done nothing different over the last few days than I have since I bought it approx 4 months ago.
I regularly remove the dead flowers but as soon as I touch it now, the leaves fall off, they are not discoloured in any way and look really healthy.

Thanks.*****

Hello Anita,

This is a strange one, not really sure what the problem is here.

Can I start by just checking that the poorly Solanum has drainage holes in the bottom of the container?

If the container does have good drainage we need to move on, firstly remove all of the dead leaves from the container, then if the two Solanums are close together move them far apart as you want to avoid the possibilty of airborne disease moving from the poorly plant to the healthy one.

If you can, remove the poorly Solanum from it's container and inspect the rootball, any sign of any pests? e.g. larvae or grub-like creatures.

Next examine the trunk/stem of the plant, any visible damage? If the plant is a standard, the method of propagtion may have been grafting. (The main stem and crown are two different plants) Where the main stem meets the crown there may be a point where the crown looks like it has been joined to the stem artificially, if there is, does it look a strong union?

If all of these checks are OK I think I would wait until next spring, then cut all of the shoots/branches hard back on the crown and see if you get a vigorous, healthy response.

Thank you for your response, I have checked that the drainage is good, I will have to wait until I have a day off work to check the root ball, I bought it as a standard one, but it has grown quite a lot and has both old and new stems coming from the bottom of it so now it almost looks more like a shrub, I did prune it once as it got really large and cut some or the really long branches off, although I did that with the purple one too and that is fine, Thanks for taking the time to answer, I will let you know what I find when I check the root ball.x