My planter is on my back patio, is about 1 ft wide and 20 ft long and about 18 in deep, and we have had beautiful flowers: vinca, and rain lilies and seasonal flowers for 25 years.
The planter gets full sun filtered through a screened in ceiling.
About a year ago everything started dying. Three old large vincas gave us beautiful flowers. Then they all died. I bought new ones, they started off well then they died.
Everything else we planted there, soon died.
My rain lilies are alive but not well. New leaves grow about 8 inches then the tips turn brown. Some new leaves turn brown at the base of the leaf and die.
Historically, the rain lilies and the vincas required very low maintenance, but we got tons of beautiful flowers.

What I have done:
1. There were some millipedes in the front yard and I found 1 in the planter so I treated and that eradicated them. Haven't seen one since.
2. Found many, very small snails around the bases of the rain lilies, all dead, but I have been sprinkling with Corry's slug and snail killer. Haven't found any live snails since I've been treating.
3. Here in Clearwater, FL we have been in a serious drought since the beginning of the year and I've been watering regularly with tap water. I just learned that my soft water (I have a whole house water softener) is very bad for the plants. So 2 weeks ago I stopped that. Now I get water from my shallow well. I read that soft water has no nutrients so I've added Miracle Grow, as directed, to my well water and watered with that.
I thought things were on the road to recovery, but now the rain lilies are back to growing leaves which turn brown at the ends when they are six to eight inches long. And some turn reddish brown at the base after they're just two or three inches tall.
I removed five bulbs from the planter a month ago and put them in a fresh pot with fresh new soil and put the pot far away from the planter. These leaves turn brown also.
I know that's a lot of detail but I didn't want to leave any stone unturned. Can anybody diagnose my problem?
Thank you.
Ray

Pics? Brown is either too much Nitrogen/fertilizer, or the roots are too dry. Is the soil from new product? Could it have been sprayed before being sold? ( there are weed treatments for pastures that keep the weeds dead and grass growing, and same for the forests- tho those are supposedly illegal) try a grass in that pot like corn, or lemon grass.
Yes, drinking water contains chloramines which plants don't like, and unlike chlorine, do not dissipate,

It may be a gradual sodium buildup in the soil from the water softener.

Images of the planter would help with formulation of ideas for resolution, but the elephant in the room is the sodium and chloride ions that replaced minerals like calcium and magnesium in water routed through your ionic exchange water softener. Sodic soils (high in sodium) can be leached by using gypsum and an appropriate measure of good quality water for the leaching process, but you should seek the advice of a local expert. Or, you could remove and replace the medium in the planter and take steps to avoid a repeat.

If you have a well, you might run into a similar issue with dissolved solids in the well water, but you might be able to resolve the issue from the standpoint of what's in the water by rerouting plumbing to your hose bibs and maybe a another spigot in a basement or over a laundry tub so it bypasses the softener.

I have a reverse osmosis filter that will work with well water or unsoftened water to produce water with no dissolved solids/ chlorine/ or fluoride. I use it to water about 100 plants in winter, and for all our drinking/cooking water. You'd especially appreciate the system if you're a coffee lover or use a lot of ice.

You can buy an easy-to-install system that makes up to 150 gallons per day for about $340, and they are very inexpensive to operate. Mine makes 75 gallons and it's adequate, but I'd but the 150 gallon purifier because it's faster when you're making the water. If you have a very large reservoir, it's a non issue. Any 5 stage system will work.
See here: https://www.bulkreefsupply.com...
Al

Hi Ray,
Welcome! You'll find lots of friendly gardeners here.

I'm curious- how was the planter watered for the past 25 years? Has the same growing medium been in it the whole time? What was it filled with, initially?

It's hard to say whether the softened water (which is for sure high in salt), the millipede poison, or the slug killer caused or contributed to the problem. What ingredients were in those 2 products?

Transplanting the rain lilies to fresh potting soil was a good idea. It sounds like poisoned or salty soil is not the problem because the symptoms returned. But it's hard to guess what is.

Some pictures would definitely be helpful.

Pat

Hortaholic said:
I'm curious- how was the planter watered for the past 25 years? Has the same growing medium been in it the whole time? What was it filled with, initially?

My questions as well.

When everything died... My first inclination would have been to dump all the growing medium.

All that poison that you mention as "treatment"?
Woulda been left at the store...

I've observed stuff get tired of growing in a spot where it's grown fine for years.

For me, that's an indication that the conditions have become unsuitable... NOT a reason to declare war on everything!

While salt buildup sounds reasonable... there is also a possibility of some essential nutrient(s) no longer being available...

Also... what about herbicide drift?

Any brown plants around the neighborhood?

When the problem may have been caused by chemical contamination... the solution is NEVER to add more chems.

REPLY
Snail treatment:
Sodium ferric EDTA 5%
Other ingredients 95%

how was the planter watered for the past 25 years?
Same soil, except we use new soil when we plant anything new.
I just remembered, when I separated those bulbs into new soil and a new pot, I was still watering with tap water for several weeks, before I learned that was bad, then switched to good water.
how was the planter watered for the past 25 years?
Almost never needed watering, but we would have used tap water.
what about herbicide drift?
I've never used an herbicide but TruGreen who treats my lawn might. I guess there's a possibility that if they sent someone new and experienced they may let the herbicide from their hose get on to my planter. I'll have to ask.
Pictures:
1. Rain lilies, before.
2. Rain lilies, now.
3. Ring lilies in separate pot.
4. Two bulbs I pulled this morning. One of the bulbs had that snail in the hole, it's dead.
5. The whole planter, the gaps are where vinca used to live.

Thank you, everyone, for your help.

No roots, no earthworms in those pots?

Thanks for your reply, kittriana. I'm guessing there are no roots because snails ate them.
Where can I get earthworms?

It seems that everyone else lost interest in my questions when I posted the information and pictures they asked for. Perhaps a different forum would be better for me.
Thanks again.

RayJJohnsonJr said:
It seems that everyone else lost interest in my questions when I posted the information and pictures they asked for. Perhaps a different forum would be better for me.

Probably not a loss of interest... but a case of nothing more to add.

I suggested emptying the planters...
I still think you should empty them after seeing the pictures.

Are those crinums (in the last pic) current?

Maybe just keep those, and just mulch the empty areas... or sow some seeds of low growing annuals, like portulaca or purslane...

Vinca? Madagascar periwinkle?

I can't imagine what could have harmed the rain lilies... those usually thrive in any reasonably moist soil... especially clay.

If you've been dumping toxins into these beds... I can't imagine that adding organisms back into the mix will be the best move... seems like a death sentence for the earthworms...

Thanks, stone.
The plants you see are oyster. Whatever happened to my garden didn't affect the oyster at all. The oyster grows like mad and multiplies.
I'm starting to think I overdosed the soil with sodium which made the rain lilies sick and the vinca dead. We watered intensely with very soft tap water due to the drought for 5 months (which is now over) and the slug and snail killer I used
is sodium. I'm not using that stuff anymore.
Thank you for your input.
Also, I only meant that a lot of people ask me questions and asked me to post pictures, and when I did, crickets.
No big whoop.

I had to search oyster plant...
https://plantcaretoday.com/oys...

Man in a boat plant... Usually only seen in pots up here.

When I searched Sodium ferric EDTA...
Plenty of online info about harmful to earthworms.

With your acknowledgement that salt killed everything.... Are you planning to empty the planter?

Maybe scoop up some of the soil from the yard to refill?

You didn't answer my question about what you are calling "vinca"?
Other plants also have that name...

The perennial vinca major & vinca minor are better off removed from the landscape...
The Madagascar Periwinkle is usually grown as a self sowing annual... Up here where we have winter...
https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/pl...

Certainly seems easily replaceable...

Re crickets:
We ask questions to drill down for clearer info about what's going on... If it's other than our immediate understanding, we have something to work with...
When the replies reinforce our existing understanding...Can be hard to add anything...
But... You have a point... we should have thanked you for providing the additional info.

Sorry, got really sick, earthworms aren't good in containers, their diet is decomposing materials and green plants when the compost is gone, they will happily eat the roots of plants.
It probably is sodium that is a problem, but our drinking water sources are now protected by 'chloramines' which do not dissipate as the old chlorine additives did. Many plants are super unhappy with chloramines. I hope you have found your solution!

Thank you for your help, kittriana.

Stone, here's exactly what my vinca looked like.


Here's a volunteer venka growing out of the wall of my planter. It flowered last week.
I can grow vinca out of the wall of my planter, I just can't grow it inside the planter.

Thanks for your help Stone and everyone else.
It seems changing the soil completely is the solution to my problem. Hope it works.

Any advice on what soil I should buy to replace the soil in my existing planter?
I need 50 cubic feet, or 1.85 cubic yards.
Potting soil seems too expensive.
What's best for a flower garden?

Did tree roots invade your planters from underneath?

@Rubi his soil is soaked apparently with salt, did you READ the above posts?

Potting soil isn't soil, by the way...That is a lot of soil, you need it by the dump truck full apparently - any places near you that sell dirt and mulches for landscaping? See if they carry a soil mix for veggies or flowers.

kittriana said: @Rubi his soil is soaked apparently with salt, did you READ the above posts?

I read the posts. I water with softened city water, and none of my plants die of salt. Was this confirmed by soil test?

Rubi, no roots from underneath. It's on a concrete slab.
kittriana, I'm calling some places that have bulk soil. They have topsoil, gardening soil, and some have mix, but it's high priced.
Walmart has Miracle Grow Garden Soil on sale 50% off. It's less than the bulk.
Also, I noticed this white fungi or mold on the roots of every plant I pulled:
Fern root:

Rain lily bulb:

Two oyster plant roots:

Molds, decaying plant. Bagged 'soils' aren't soils anymore, they are shredded woods, depending on brand and purpose, depends on the amount of shredding that went on. It will take one season for it to also decay to 1/2 of what you purchased and it turns into the fine sand the wood grew in. I do not honestly think true dirt is sold in bags anywhere in the USA. The landscaper yards will have the stuff mixed, but it will have dirt in it. (Avoid topsoil, sounds good, loses its name when not on the top of the soil, chuckl). How loose was the soil in those beds? Could it have been too loose to support roots? Plants need a place to hang on to their dirt. (In water gardens folks pay good money for clean washed clay to plant their water plant pots). Clearwater, hmmm, in full sun?