# Hemianthous Cuba dry start turning yellow



## Jaap (Jun 24, 2005)

Hello,

My Hemianthous Cuba propagator started off really well and grew quite alot nut now it is dying off. The Andy's Propagator concept was used and is being hit by direct sunlight during the day. Any ideas why?










As you can see the top left corner has turned yellow and died. Please help!

Thanks


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

direct sunlight is too much light. Direct sunlight=lots of heat and it basically frys your HC. Just grow it under a cfl light bulb.


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## Jaap (Jun 24, 2005)

neilshieh said:


> direct sunlight is too much light. Direct sunlight=lots of heat and it basically frys your HC. Just grow it under a cfl light bulb.


So you believe is due to the direct sunlight that causes the yellowing?


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Not sure what exactly you are doing. Direct sunlight is indeed too much. Look at any picture of a hydroponic nursery or an aquatic plant facility and you will see some type of coverage over the plants to shield them from the sun to some degree.

But there is something else. If you planted the HC in some wet mud without much air and water movement through that mud you setup the plant for failure. Plant roots need Oxygen. The substrate does not allow much air to flow through. In Nature there is no plastic membrane 2 inches under the surface of the mud. Meaning that there is movement of air and water.

Another, very reasonable, possibility is that the mud developed fungus. You will not see it because it is a microscopic living thing. It looks like very thin white strands. But if you are able to see the strands the plant is long gone. Normally the plants start to die off for no apparent reason. The fungus kills the roots. Fungus is easily taken care off with daily "drowning" of the substrate with water. Just cover everything with water for about 1 hour a day and then drain it. But note that now you are doing full blown hydroponics.

As I said - I am not sure how exactly you are growing the HC. Maybe you haven't just plopped the plant in some mud and expected it to grow. Actually some people get lucky and do have healthy plants growing that way. But as soon as the plants start to decline there are no solutions because the setup was wrong from the start.


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## alanle (May 8, 2013)

The main problem for hc is humidity. 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

May also be a fungal issue if your water line is too close to the surface. Look and see if there are cotton like filaments on or around the dying HC.


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## Jaap (Jun 24, 2005)

alanle said:


> The main problem for hc is humidity.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk


There is plenty of humidity here 100% since the container's glass walls are always misty...


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## Jaap (Jun 24, 2005)

Zapins said:


> May also be a fungal issue if your water line is too close to the surface. Look and see if there are cotton like filaments on or around the dying HC.


There are cotton like filaments indeed. Also the water line is around 1cm below the substrate surface.


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## Jaap (Jun 24, 2005)

My HC is still dying off even when I moved it away from the sun. Is there a way I could save it since its quite rare where I live? Should I uproot it and place it in a bowl of water by the window to get direct sunlight (this time it will be in water though) ?


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Cotton like threads means it is being eaten by a fungus. This means the water line is too close to the surface. You need to lower the water line roughly 4-5 cm below the surface of the soil to allow proper dryness. This also means you can keep it where it was originally since it isn't being burned by too much light.

Try carefully remove the yellow plants and make sure they do not touch any healthy ones or the fungus will spread.

Here is the fungus up close:


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