My pleasure!😀 Thanks for recounting your experiences - it does rather look like humidity might be the issue from what you're saying. I haven't done the experiment yet with one in the house as I'll only really get the dry humidity during the winter when the heating is on - that way I'll be able to do an 'almost' controlled experiment with them. I've recently had Tradescantia tricolor 'minima' on some capillary matting and they've been totally wiped out with brown spots - which again lends weight to the theory.

Yeah - the stems are so thick I think it's already outgrown this pot - despite only being in it for a few weeks!

Thanks Virginia! I'm honestly flummoxed with Trad. nanouk as my experiments have proved very inconclusive. I have plants that look OK in various conditions - high or low humidity, warm or cool temps, but then I have a plant that looks dreadful in the greenhouse. I'm wondering if all of them go bad with age - and the best idea is just to keep renewing with cuttings. For me at least, the jury is still out on the causes of the brown leaves and spots...Glad to hear yours is doing well!😁

Thanks for the tip, Richard. I agree it could be the cause. However in my case I use rain water anyway.

I'm hoping I get my answer with just the humidity experiment...🤣 After checking the house it appears that humidity is currently much higher indoors than I thought it would be - well over 70% no matter which room I try. Not surprising I suppose, given that it's hardly stopped raining this last 6 weeks! I'm going to have to wait till the radiators go back on which will likely be by the end of September before I make a start on this.

Yeah this is one awkward hybrid. I put everything I learned about this one into a single video you can watch here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jstlatCGnau7hZc.html

Yeah I'd definitely say, no direct sun - especially through a window - but as bright light as possible. And not in a really humid place like a bathroom or kitchen. Then pray to it 3 times a day and massage its leaves. (Maybe not the last 2! 😂)

@@Grow_Up_Man55 I'll give it a shot!!! 😂

Pleasure - glad you enjoyed it. I can't say I've solved this issue yet - but I'm still working on it!🤷‍♂️

Yeah I agree!😁

That's interesting Yvonne - as it shows another possible cause of brown marks - although all my plants only ever get rain water, so it can't be the cause in my case.

Yeah I had brown marks and a friend suggested my tap water might be too harsh. To be fair it is pretty hard, but none of my other plants seemed to mind it. At any rate I've switched to filtered water for everyone and there are no more brown spots (for now!). My working theory is it was either the hard water or thrips.... fingers crossed....

I'm hoping to make a start on this experiment once the radiators go on in the house - as that will guarantee low humidity.

I've been trying an experiment with humidity where I've kept some with low humidity and others with high - even misting them daily! No spots! It's not made any difference regarding the humidity. So I'm going to change the experiment into watering - by testing too much water alongside occasional watering - i.e. leaving them to dry out. Watch this space! In my case, we don't get much sun anyway so that's unlikely to be issue. Of course, it could be a combination of factors that are causing the brown spots. Good luck with yours too.

Sounds like they'll go well together. All 'nanouk' hybrids are treated with plant growth regulators to slow them down - they can also alter the colours and the leaf size - but once the PGRs wear off it should grow much more quickly. The question is how long does it last!

@@Grow_Up_Man55 well that explains why it's a slow starter! Thanks for telling me, I had wondered why it seemed so much slower than the others. :)

That's a new one on me. Perhaps it's true.🤷‍♂️ Would be worth an experiment.

Yeah this is exactly why I want to test it out. I'd be interested to hear about your results when you get any. Although it would also be useful to know exactly what the actual humidity reading is amongst the group of plants compared to away from them. I suspect it won't be big enough to be measurable - but there's only one way to find out for sure.

@@Grow_Up_Man55 I have a digital humidity reader in the room where most of my plants are. I can put it on the shelf with the group of plants and see if there’s a difference in the humidity reading.

@@StitchesbySharonH I'd love to know if there's a difference.

@@Shaylas There wasn’t any difference between the two locations. My friend has the other one now, but it seems like the older leaves are the ones that turn brown. The newer leaves are beautiful. 🤷‍♀️

@@Shaylas No problem 😊

Haha! I've not got that hybrid yet! Watch this space...

@@Grow_Up_Man55 you can meet some awesome plant people in Facebook groups, she posted looking to see if anyone knew what it was and when I noticed it was a bride veil I offered a trade she just got her box yesterday of all the clippings I sent 😊 I found a fb group of just tradescantia lovers too and the group owner just grows hers outside in her yard and sells the clippings as is or rooted too. I was not kidding when I told myself I want to try to collect as many as I can haha

@@mirasmiraculouscraft Which Bridal Veil do you have? I believe there are several.

@@Grow_Up_Man55 mine has purplish green leaves, skinny stems, and the stems around the nodes appear white then the rest of the stem is like a dark green. I honestly didnt know that there was different kinds I also didnt know til last week theres 3 or 4 kinds of zerbrina and mines the silver plus

I use rainwater. I've had people tell me to try using a clay pot which I'm going to try. Also I've heard fertiliser with urea could be the cause. I'm trying everything with multiple plants!🤣

Glad to hear it! I did make another, more up to date video about 'nanouk', which covers everything I've ever learned (from experience) about this plant - you can watch it here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jstlatCGnau7hZc.html

Thanks for your input - I've had a couple of people of say much the same thing. Although I've also had people tell me reducing humidity worked! In a greenhouse (in the UK) the humidity can be far higher than in a house - frequently approaching 100% regardless of the season, and for prolonged periods of time. Of course, that still doesn't mean that it's causing my brown spots and marks. The only way to tell is to test it - something I haven't got around to yet. I definitely don't have thrips so that's not the issue. Someone suggested fertiliser. It's certainly a mystery for many people - me included and I'd love to get to the root of it at some point.

Following on from what I said to your other comment, I'd wait and see if it starts to go downhill as the humidity might actually not be the issue. I'm now wondering if something in the water is affecting mine - I might try RO water and see what happens.

They’re such Prima Donna’s! Latest findings from my experiments: keep temperatures above 15 degrees Celsius, avoid large fluctuations, bottom water, use a clay pot, and expect that once the stems get to a certain length, you’re getting brown marks and dead leaves. Unless you root the stems along their lengths. Good luck.

Thankyou. I shall keep your great ideas! It is a beautiful plant and like to keep it that way. I was wondering about the clay pot so shall do that next repotting! Have a lovely plant day!

Although they're lovely plants (sometimes!), they're just a really poor hybrid and have no end of issues. As a rule of thumb I find bright light, warm temperatures, bottom watering with rain-water and daily worship to the Gods of nanouk can work! Seriously though, it's worth a try with the filtered water - but even rain-water can result in browning or blemished leaves as I've discovered to my cost. I put a video together of everything I've ever learned (mainly through experience) of Trad. nanouk - it might be worth a watch: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jstlatCGnau7hZc.html

I use exclusively rain-water. But this is what I've been saying all along i.e. high humidity can cause brown leaf marks. Your dry atmosphere seems to add weight to that theory, as our humidity is rarely below 75%. I'm currently some tests to determine if this is true.🤷‍♂️

I'm about to start an experiment with them so watch this space!

Ah that's interesting, Sma - someone else said something similar. I have fertilised mine. I'll try the humidity test but if that doesn't give me an answer I'll try something with fertiliser too. 😃

@@Grow_Up_Man55 is worth the try. Mine sits in 60-80% humidity usually, but if is a hot day the humidity will go down to 30, which is not happening to often

The conditions you describe do seem to back up the idea of humidity being the cause - but of course it could still be something else. I hardly ever touch it so I think physical damage isn't the cause in my particular case - that's not to say physical damage wouldn't result in something similar. The difficulty is that pretty much anything that can go wrong with a plant usually results in the same outward showing of brown leaves!🤣

You and me both! 😃

Alas, YouTUbe comments doesn't allow images - more's the pity. Proper prima donna's these Trads. It seems everything causes browning from water to sun to humidity! Try bottom watering with RO or distilled water to see if that makes any difference - that's if we're ruling out direct sun or high humidity. I would also leave it to dry out before re-watering as they are closely related to succulents.

I wouldn't know...🍷

Thanks Trish - and yeah the bathroom will likely be pretty high in humidity for the most part.But the only way to know for sure is to measure it with a humidistat. I genuinely thought inside my house would be low, but this week all 3 readings on the humidistats I bought are showing above 70% (not surprising really as it has hardly stopped raining for 6 weeks). I'm going to have to wait till the radiators go on which will remove the humidity for sure.

Give it more sunlight, the color will change.

What do you think is the cause?

Someone mentioned to me that the amount of fertiliser can affect spotting. So that's another factor to experiment with... 😂

@@Grow_Up_Man55 What then?! NOT fertilise? Or, fertilise? I started in June when I water it, every 2.5 to 3 weeks, I add Baby Bio to some water - which means I have to water from the top which shouldn’t be done in case you drip on the leaves, but I’m very careful - then, stand it in tap water, cannot get rainwater, to soak up what it requires, then drain it after an hour or so. So ‘brown leaves’? No, not leaves, but some spots on some leaves, but not enough for me to remove the leaves. It is ‘better’ looking Geoff than your new one you’ve shown us! But as you say, yours might be the previous brown spotted small leaves, just grown. And my plants leaves are giant! I wish we could put photos on here as my ‘mother’ was from 2 very tiny but well rooted cuttings in the teeniest of pots, I bought in Jan. Now, even after nipping out tips to root, it is big and growing sideways. And one stem-end to my delight, has got a little bunch of teeny pretty pink and white flowers. But why only one stem? I’m trying desperately to make it a trailing Nanouk. (Heaven knows what other species name comes after that ‘Nanouk’!). And I’ve found a way - sort of. An old holey silk pillowcase, I’ve taken off the stitched edges about quarter of an inch wide, and cut them to be about 9 inches long. Then I’ve draped them, only 2, over 2 end of stems of the plant and to weight it, I’ve got a line of clothes pegs clipped into one another’s ends! At first I tried garden string, but after an hour, found the tip on the floor as the string had cut right thru that thick fleshy stem! So then thought of the soft silk. Genius or not!! But I’ve now swapped the 2 silk pieces + pegs to other stems. And the 2 which were definitely hanging down to trail, their ends have turned up seeking the light!! It’s on a bathroom west facing windowsill so those trained stems were just below the edge of the windowsill, so I think they wanted more light. I don’t want it growing sideways from each leaf nodule, I want it to trail down, but that’s fighting against its nature.

@@margaretlavender9647 Sounds like you're doing just fine Margaret and experimenting like the rest of us! Everyone has different growing conditions, even if we lived next door we'd still have slightly different conditions. We can only observe and react to what's in front of us. Crossing fingers always helps too! 😀

Eventually I made an updated video on growing 'nanouk' where I combined and distilled all the info I know about growing it well. The link is here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jstlatCGnau7hZc.html

Thank you so much. That was most helpful. I’m in Wales UK so similar environment to you! I have another question. Do you have a video explaining the difference between quadricolour and discolor? I would be interested to know. Thank you so much. Love your channel. Emma x

@Emma Morgan My pleasure! I don't have such a video - but I can point you to this website which should show the difference: tradescantia.uk/ (I have both and they look very different to each other. There is no pink in discolor - to me it looks 'dirty'!)

Yeah I agree with all that Tracey. This video is 18 months old and I've lived with learned as time has gone on. I would add that whatever you do, all Trads end up with bare, leggy stems at their base just because of the way they grow. We try to grow them in a pot with a single rooting point - they want to scramble, rooting as they go. My updated care video is here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/jstlatCGnau7hZc.html I'd be interested on your thoughts.

@@Grow_Up_Man55 Agreed, Geoff! My understanding of trads deepened when I learned that in the wild, they creep along the ground, each node putting down roots along the way. So I guess that’s what we need to mimic indoors, right? A large diameter but shallow posh pot where the can do what the do in nature! Enjoy your plants!

Hi Jennifer! Thanks for sharing your experiences with this plant. Sounds (mostly) like humidity might be the issue in your case too. Of course, other factors do come into it - for instance, those plants kept outside get more light and more ventilation so maybe are more able to cope with it. Just conjecture of course, but it's fun trying to get to the bottom of it. Something is causing it for sure - as many people don't have any brown marks at all. (The kitchen one - did you have central heating going while you had the plant there?)

Possibly - I'm about to do the experiment so I guess I'll know soon enough. The problem is that practically anything that can go wrong with a plant results in brown leaves! These are related to succulents though, so you would expect them to be able to withstand lack of water for quite a while under 'normal' conditions.

Certainly - I use rainwater. I suppose testing different types of water would be another good test to do.

They're usually readily available on eBay or in Facebook Tradescantia groups.

One possibility is that - much like Tradescantia zebrina - the species this comes from is a scrambler, rooting at nodes as it travels along the ground. We're denying it the opportunity to do this, so it simply can't sustain growth along a stem for long before leaves start to brown and die off. Tradescantia zebrina does exactly the same thing - and I've proven by growing it in a form that enables it to root along its stems, the dying leaves stops. Here's the video where I set this up: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hZh5qs-X1MfYk40.html When I get around to it, I'll try something similar with nanouk varieties.

Thank you so much for the detailed answer 🌺

@@sarahhajarbalqis My pleasure. 😁

Put it in a clay pot - water VERY sparingly, give it consistent temps above 16°C. That should help. But inevitably, like all Tradescantia, the leaves will suffer at some point. In the wild they continually root from nodes, and we're not allowing that in a pot, so I think huge specimens of nanouk without any leaf issues are like unicorns! Good luck!

Glad it helped!😁

Haven't been yet Kathy. I'm still preparing for it!🤣

Enjoy