Hello! I am a novice gardener and need some advice. About 3 weeks ago I planted a 5 gallon Solanum navidad, jelisco in a spot that gets about 2 hours of morning sun and then bright shade the rest of the day. I thoroughly amended the soil with compost and quality potting soil first, and set the drip irrigation to five days a week.

The plant was quite rootbound in its plastic container when I planted it. I cut away the plastic pot and tied it gently to the trellis.

Now three weeks later, the leaves are yellowing and developing brown spots (see attached photos). Does anyone know what could be causing this, and whether there is anything I can do to help it along?

Two thoughts:

The root ball was so ingrown that its not able to break out of the original pot shape.

That's way too much water. But water may not be getting into the center of the root ball so not enough water. If its growing out of the rootball normally, watering 5 days a week will be too much. But water doesn't always manage to penetrate rootbound root balls.

The problem is that watering too much and watering too little look the same. As its been in the ground for only three weeks, I would gently dig it up and check to see what's up. It should have started making some progress on breaking out of the root ball by now so dig away from the plant.

If you discover plenty of escaping roots, water less. If the roots are still in a tight ball, try to loosen and gently pull them apart and replant. Than water less.

Thank you Daisyl! Really appreciate this feedback. Will take your suggestion. I am guessing it's just too much water because I was able to loosen the root ball quite a bit when I planted it.

Thanks again!

Did you get it at Annie's? Great place full of cool plants. I used to go there when we lived in CA.

Actually no, I got it at Ace Garden Center of all places. They actually have quite a nice selection. Annie's is great though - we got all our fruit trees there. :)

DaisyI said:

Did you get it at Annie's? Great place full of cool plants. I used to go there when we lived in CA.

Annie's is off limits for me. Just goes to show the Zone map problems. Her plants aren't ready when I need to plant, and every time I've bought from her, I no sooner get the plants in the ground, than we get a heat wave that fries them. I can find her plants at a couple local nurseries though. They have more controlled conditions than I do.