ljos-alfar

Is this normal? I have a M. basjoo that's about 18" tall in a pot, and a friend accidentally bumped it the other day and a leaf broke off. I was pretty cross, but then this morning I was brushing past it and broke off another leaf and it seems very easy to do this.

Is that normal, or is there something not right with the plant?

pjkfarm

New leaves can be brittle, but older ones are pretty tough with ours (but those are all out of doors, so indoor ones may be different - probably less tough as they are not subjected to wind, rain, etc.

ljos-alfar

It's a shame because it was one of the newest leaves too. Ah well, I'll just have to be more careful. They'll be going out on the balcony soon anyway so they'll harden up.

cincinnana

pop off a pic???

The leaves are a bit touchy....

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cincinnana

Yes, it is normal....
Once the plant is outdoors and has a chance to harden off it will sort itself out.
Many of my plants will break leaves just moving them outdoors in the spring breeze and rain.
The subsequent leaves will be stronger and durable.

This is a photo of a plant after being indoors growing under lights for 7 months and brought outdoors in early spring.
After a few breezes this was the result.
Now I have found that having oscillating fan continuously running in the growing area helps harden the leaves over the winter.

Bent petioles by
Hostafarian,
on Flickr

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cincinnana

Sooo.... what is going on now??

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ljos-alfar

I'm just being way more careful now. I repotted the others recently and accidentally broke a leaf off my Abyssinian as well, which was sad. And then I screwed up and overwatered them all a bit, but they're bouncing back. I'm going to introduce them to the outdoors during daytime next week, once my big tray arrives that I can drag them all on at once .

Fwiw as well as the Japanese, I have two Himalayan, two Snow, and a tall Abyssinian, all of which i grew from seed last autumn. This will be their first time outdoors, so I want to take it gently.