Are Your Leaves Yellow?

Is your growth stunted?

Are you wilting?

Are your leaves yellow?

Do you have delayed flowering?

If so, you could be experiencing transplant shock. It is something that happens to both plants and humans when they move from one place to another. It is normal.

It's defined as

• Having the inability to adapt to a new environment
• Being prevented from gaining needed nutrients
• Feeling weak or fragile for weeks or even years on end
• Giving up and withering away

It is a common experience when moving locations. Roots become so used to their little pot, that when the gardener decides to move them to a bigger one they have a hard time adapting to all the new dirt. Maybe it has more rocks or maybe it has less nutrients. The roots who once knew where each and every pebble, fungi, and ant nest lay must get used to a new pattern of life.

When we move to a new country or town we have so much new dirt to get used to. There are new streets to get used to. There are strange faces that we aren't used to seeing. Our new house smell, looks and feels different. Plus there is a whole new way of greeting others, visiting friends, celebrating holidays, and understanding jokes. 

Roots might also experience the inability to gain the nutrients they need leaving them weak and fragile. Maybe they were moved from an outdoor plant to an inside plant. Where they once had plenty of sun shining on the leaves which they support now they are left with only filtered light. Rainwater and bugs no longer provide nutrients to their home, now they only had strange blue water being poured on them. How will they find the food that they are used to?

In a new location it can be hard to find food, household items, and recreational areas that we were used to. The stores all look different with its food in the strangest places. Why is the rice with the sugar!? Parks that we think should be full of sand and playground equipment are instead a pretty lawn full of flowering trees and stone walkways. How will we find our daily necessities of life?

Some roots become so shocked from their new surrounding that they wither and die. 

However, there is preventative care to limit this intense transplant shock.

• Trim the plant of brown leaves to reduce the amount of leaves it needs to care for 

If I have just moved, I will take out as much extra work as possible. For me this looks like buying cereal for breakfast rather than making granola. After I have just moved, finding ingredients for granola is not on the top of my priority list. The most important thing is to eat something relatively healthy. Only when I have figured out the stores in my new location, then I can think about granola ingredients.

• Keep it well fed and hydrated

For a human I would also add, "Keep it well rested". I don't normally remember my first week in a new location. All those memories are fuzzy. My brain had so much new information that it was trying to process. It simply couldn't remember it all. During those first few months I need to be intentional about taking care of my brain. For me this doesn't just include food and water, it also includes getting outside and going for walks. I do this specifically before I know a lot of people, that way I don't start feeling like stale bread.

• Prevent further movement

I learned this the hard way. I had just moved countries and later needed to leave the house that I was in. I figured moving houses within the same city after only 3 months wouldn't be such a big deal. But it was. I had to do the whole process of moving. I packed my bags, re-arranged my things in the new house, explored my new neighborhood, looked for nearby shopping centers, and re-found my way to my friend's house and other places I had discovered within those few months. Moving is exhausting even if it is just within the same city. 

• Be patient

If you are experiencing Transplant Shock

 give yourself the time and care that you need.

*The information about transplant shock for plants was taken from Canadale and Theory Beyond Design

**You can find much more in depth and researched information on transitioning well between cultures and locations at TCKtraining.com and their workshops. I have learned a lot from them.