"Shrinkage" in plants adjusting to new c

My cycads have almost all gone through a period of \"shrinkage\" after I planted them outside in the garden.

The new leaves were tiny. The next leaves were a little bigger. And each new set of leaves seem to double in size until I reach , and pass, the original leaf size.

Now I'm noticing it on the mangosteens. Especially one poor little one that I passed off for dead and didn't water for weeks until I noticed tiny new growth...

Does this imply stress on the roots? Or is it simply because I took a plant from a very humid climate and planted it outside in a fairly dry one? Or does it have something to do with the amount of light?

<br><br>Post edited by: RichP, at: 2007/09/11 03:18

Hello Rich,
I see you posted this a while ago, and no one has said much yet. Cycads, in general, are super slow growing plants. In late fall and winter you can't expect much (or any) new growth if they are outside. Most put up new leaves only when it is warming like from June to August. Pehaps some will send up leaves in September too. Genearally Cycads only send up ONE 'group' (or cluster) of leaves a year. When they are small, like the one in the photo, they may only put out three or four leaves at a time. As they get older they will put out more leaves, and usually those leaves are longer. But this is a slow process. The photo looks like a quite young plant, probably only a few years old, but as it matures the leaves will get larger when they come out, the existing leaves will remain the size they are now, they won't grow and they won't 'shrink'. Most like warm sunny locations with good draining soil. Modest feeding with plant foods high in nitrogen, especially early spring before they send out the new leaves. As for the rest of this year, this is as good as it will get, you need to wait till probably July to see new leaves. This time of the year water about two times a month, deep watering. They don't need to be wet all of the time. There are many Cycad varieties out there, this is not the most common one, Cycas revoluta. It might be one of the Dioon's. Difficult to say for sure by the photo. What sometimes happens, when you say \&quot;shrinkag\&quot; is soil builds up around the base of the plant, you can remove this to expose more of the 'caudex', the base of the Cycad. I think you will find it has not shrunk, just got buried.