Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster

How to grow a happy Red Jade Vine?

Q: My Red Jade Vine has the leaf tips turning brown. I water this plant four times a week and I am using a half a teaspoon of miracle grow bloom booster 15-30-15 per 2 gallons, every two weeks. In the beginning I had to water this plant off city water in South Fort Myers. Over the last two months I picked up a dechlorinator buggy plus threw that on my hose and I've been watering it with that but it didn't seem to make a difference. I put this plant in the ground last September. It has three shoots that run into the top of the tree, so it is growing but leaves seem to drop off down low at the base of the vine and the brown tipping running into the top of the plant. But not the newest shoot its leaves are solid green all the way at the top. Thanks for any advice.

A: Mucuna benettii - Red Jade vine - is not the easiest plant to grow, and we are glad your vine is growing well. For those who love this plant but not ready to face all challenges, we recommend its cousin - Camptosema grandiflora - Dwarf Red Jade Vine, which is much hardier and easier plant.
We looked at the photos and these are our thoughts.

1) The top of the plant with green fresh leaves definitely indicates that the plant is generally healthy and vigorous.
2) Dry tips of the old leaves may indicate excess salts in soil, in combination with the summer heat that it went through. Based on your feeding program description, that fertilizer may create a problem. Water soluble traditional fertilizers are EDTA-chelated which often causes nutrients lock up in soil and leaf drop. Try to stay away from that fertilizer for a month and let the rains and/or irrigation water flush the soil for a couple of weeks.
3) Red Jade vine is a very sensitive species. Normally, during hot season it is safe to use traditional fertilizers, especially slow-release granulated. However, with this plant we recommend you to switch to more delicate formula and use only liquid fertilizer.
SUNSHINE Megaflor - Bloom Nutrition Booster will be the best. It is safe to use it as frequent as with every watering! It is amino-acid based, and will be totally consumed by the plant without nutrient lockup.
4) Another cause of dry leaf tips may be micro-element deficiency.
Megaflor booster already has all necessary micro-nutrients in it, plus you may apply some extra: SUNSHINE Superfood.
5) You may continue using regular water for watering (including city water) as long as you use amino-acid based plant food and supplements: they improve soil acidity (what tropical plants like is acidic soil, and Florida soils are alkaline). Additionally, to improve soil acidity which can be critical for this Mucuna species, you may add 1"layer of pure peat moss on top of the soil around the plant. Please keep us in loop how the plant is doing. It is pretty rare species in cultivation and we will be happy to help you to keep it thriving.

Establishing Cerbera Manghas
after a long shipping trip

Q: I live in Hawaii. I purchased Cerbera x manghas - Enchanted Incense. I followed the repotting instructions but it looks like dying? Is the normal for all the leaves to fall off? I only use purified water to mist and water the plant. I let it dry between watering and still it looks sad. Please help!

A: Cerbera is very sensitive to shipping stress (in particular to darkness) and it often loses leaves in transit. Considering long trip to Hawaii, it had extra 1-2 days in transit, longer than to most of the states. Your plant looks very much alive, however we understand your concern about lost leaves.
You need to treat it like Plumera: keep on a dry side until it starts sprouting new leaf growth. Once it gets re-established, you may move it out into regular irrigation or rain.
We recommend to keep it under roof to control water input, but in very blight spot, preferably sunny.
Make sure the soil doesn't get soggy, too much water may kill the plant especially when it is leafless and hence doesn't consume/evaporate much water.
Water only when top of the soil gets slightly dry.
Do not put into bigger container until roots start growing. The plant should recover and start new growth under proper care. Keep us in loop how the plant is doing!

Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: James Coconuts progress report

Many people asking about James Coconuts who used to be in charge of our Office and Customer Service team. What is he doing now? Did he get a promotion? We addressed this question to Coconuts and here is what he's got to say:

"Hi folks, I am doing just fine. Yes, I got a promotion and currently working in Sunshine Boosters Lab together with Mr Booster (I just call him Mr B). We are developing a revolutionary Sunshine Plant Nutrition Program. It is important that your plants have good food! I can tell from my own experience. When these nice people at TopTropicals picked me up from the street couple years ago, I was nothing but bone and skin... not even much fur. And look at me now! I am still working on my work out, and my resolution for 2020 is to become even more fluffy, just like that chick in the calendar! I think everyone should eat good... and do good... Like someone said:

Check out and more Cat of the Day stories.

Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: Sonya, the Co-Author

In our previous newsletter, you met our editor/photographer tandem - Tilda & Marina. Today we introduce our columnist assistant - Sonya. For the past decade, this True Norwegian Forest Cat has been a great helper and inspirational co-author for Alexandra, TopTropicals website writer and social media blogger.

Alex has been with TopTropicals since Day One (2003). In 2011, she got Sonya, a 3-month old kitten that someone kicked out: at that young age she already had quite a temper of a real Wild Cat. No one wanted to adopt her and Sonya was doomed to suffer a street life... So Alex invited her in the house... and it took her many months to teach Sonya some good manners! And Sonya turned into a beautiful and affectionate Purrrson as well as became the Boss in the house (what a surprise, duh) and Alexandra's dearest life companion. Sonya also discovered her talent in writing plant stories for TopTropicals, sitting on Alex's shoulder and whispering into her ear while she is typing Sonya's horticultural tips. And when Alex stares at monitors for more than 5 hours, Sonya lays on her keyboard saying: "Now get up and get some stretch lady! Let's go re-pot some plants for a change!"

We will be following up on Sonya's creative work, and you will hear from her again soon...

Check out and more Cat of the Day stories.

Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: James Coconuts

Winning a Lucky Ticket for a Croissant

Many of you have already met James Coconuts who has been in charge of our Customer Service Team for a long time. After many years of hard work, Coconuts is now finally retired in a comfortable home but still does some consulting for Anna Banana and other office team members. So you will hear from him again in our Blog, helping with planting, and organizing holiday events.
Originally, Coconuts came from the Middle-of-Nowhere (what a surprise). Tenants from our old property in Punta Gorda left him behind when they moved out... So Coconuts lived in woods for a month and, considering being deaf (but not dumb!) from birth, living in the wild was quite a challenge for him. When he saw our car, he jumped right into the open trunk and never regretted that decision. We left us no choice but to take him into our big CatFamily. He had starved so much that he ate a whole croissant... as we had nothing else to offer at the moment... Since then, Coconuts went through lots of troubles including a minor stroke, being run over by a truck, lost in woods again for a month, and surviving a wild animal fight followed by a life-threatening abscess. Finally, he decided to stay away from trouble and happily landed on his couch with Margaritas and Nachos, getting chubby, singing his favorite opera songs, and writing poetry.