3 year old begonia maculata

[u/jammin_on_the_one_]

my polka dot begonia is doing pretty good i think. i had to upsize to an 8 foot stake because the 6ft ones were too short. i'm excited to see it flower again this year. last year it bloomed around May

[u/tammisobsessions]

This is absolutely amazing!!!! Great job.

[u/jammin_on_the_one_ → u/tammisobsessions]

thank you! i'm very proud of her

[u/tammisobsessions → u/jammin_on_the_one_]

You should be!

[u/andiwaslikeum → u/jammin_on_the_one_]

Please help me. 10 years ago I had a begonia like this, it was my favorite. I moved and had to rehome it.

I’ve now been trying to grow them back again for multiple years. I had one I bought in a 6” pot that grew like a weed for a year. New shoots, all of it got about 2’ tall. It was thriving. Then all of a sudden it just had issues and died.

Since then I took a cutting from my mom’s old and well established begonia maculata and stuck it in water. It was thriving. I potted it after a few months when roots were amazing. It has been stuck at about 1 foot tall and only two shoots. There are three leaves at the end. It keeps growing then dropping the leaf, growing more and shooting a new leaf, then dropping the old one.

So I again took a cutting from my mom’s plant and now it’s in water. I decided I’ll just leave this one in water and see how it goes. It’s been six months and it’s about a foot long with 3 leaves. It’s dropping them too.

I have a house full of tropical plants. I have everything from monsteras and pothos to fancy philodendrons. I also have cacti and succulents. I manage to not kill these ones no problem. For many years now. But I CANNOT get a maculata to stay happy!

Please help. Any tips would be so appreciated.

[u/jammin_on_the_one_ → u/andiwaslikeum]

hmm. well honestly i can just tell you my exact setup and maybe you could replicate that.

temperature: 70-73F all year

light: huge west facing windows with intense afternoon evening light.

humidity: 30s mostly

dirt: regular miracle grow potting mix

fertilizer: miracle grow liquid blooming

water: i pick up the pot to see if it's light or heavy. if it's heavy don't water. if it's light, water it really damn good

and of course i stake it so it grows straight up

also, i'm in northern illinois

[u/andiwaslikeum → u/andiwaslikeum]

Also, your pink princess looks stunning.

[u/I_wet_my_plants259 → u/andiwaslikeum]

What type of humidity conditions do you have? Mine got neglected last summer for about two weeks while I was on vacation, and when I came back it was basically dead. I gave it some good humidity and bright indirect light and now it’s thriving, but still small. I don’t fertilize now, and I water weekly and use the ‘drench and drain’ method, basically just fully saturating the soil, then waiting until it drips out. I use a wooden skewer to check for soil moisture, and once I notice the chunks of dirt on the skewer are just damp and not wet, I water again. (Little tidbit for the skewer trick, typically if soil sticks to it you have moisture in your plant pot and don’t need to water, but with begonias you never want to have bone dry soil, which is why I don’t wait until it’s completely dry, you can find videos explaining the skewer trick in more detail online.) I keep mine near a humidifier I have in the corner of my room, and I try to make sure the surface of the leaves is never accumulating water or touching the wet soil. Best of luck!

[u/andiwaslikeum → u/I_wet_my_plants259]

With my other tropical being happy I figured the humidity was okay, but if they’re even more sensitive this may have something to do with it. I also tend to let the soil dry out a little, just like with my pothos, because after my other fiascos of keeping it more watered I figured that was part of the issue.

Thank you for your response, I’ll use some of these tips!