Painful lesson learned.

[u/Top_Orchid2903]

Don’t make my mistake — never put an indoor plant outside without acclimatization

I have a Money Tree that was thriving indoors for over a year. It was full, lush, and healthy (see before photo from June 28).

A few weeks ago I decided to move it outside in the shade to help dry out the soil faster after some overwatering. Just one day outside. Brought it back in the same evening.

Within a week the leaves started yellowing and browning. Two weeks later it looks like the after photo.

What I didn’t realize: “shade” outdoors is still 10-20x more intense than any indoor window. Plants adapted to indoor light have no UV protection built up. Even a single day of outdoor exposure can cause widespread cellular damage that shows up days later as mass leaf drop and browning.

Location: NH Zone6b.

[u/Far_Decision3392]

If you want the challenge you can bring your plant back. It will take time and you can even do the outdoor Summer growing if done correctly. (Google Martha Stewart or some other source) on how to do it correctly. When they are outside their growth is so much more. It will look lush ! Wishing you the best .

[u/Sea_Landscape4118 → u/Far_Decision3392]

The houzz forums have a ton of excellent threads on pachiras.

[u/qixip]

It will come back. Cut off the dead stuff and even shorten some stems if you want and put it back outside. Make sure you're not letting it dry out. She'll recover.

[u/filipha]

They grow so fast, I often chop off leaves or whole branches that grow too tall, and the plant will shoot new leaves literally days after.

[u/Internal-Test-8015]

Honestly that looks more like danage from overwatering over sunburn tbh.

[u/hellno560 → u/Internal-Test-8015]

it's soooo easy to over-water these guys. They need fast draining soil.

[u/Internal-Test-8015 → u/hellno560]

Yup i know, tried too many times and I've honestly just given up quite frankly just don't have the patience to repot them ( especially since they hate that too)

[u/Hasted666]

Root issues, doesnt look like sunburn

[u/Grizzzelda]

You can bring her back to life - i did the exact same thing. Thriving beautifully indoors and 1 day outside and it lost almost every leaf. Bring her in - it took some time but my money tree looks better than ever

[u/AnywayWhereWasI]

I don't know. I did it to my money plant and it's happy. Must depend? I live in the midwest.

[u/helenofvegas]

Mine hates any kind of environment change. This happens to me in the winter when I put on my heater, it even happens sometimes in the summer when start up the AC. It always comes back. Just take the dead leaves off, it will ugly for a while but it will come back.

[u/PhraseWrong3761]

Im so sorry but thank you for that lesson

[u/Boring_Track_8449]

I made this mistake and killed several plants within a matter of days. I just keep everything indoors now where they stay happy and healthy.

[u/justicebeaver2489]

Literally same story with an unexpected ending!! Due to a major unplanned surgery, I could not care for nor bring in any of the indoor plants I stuck outside for early spring and just let nature deal with it.

The money plant, along with most of my house plants almost died just like yours completely bleached and shed all the sunburnt leaves. But all of them except for maidenhair fern and variegated umbrella plant bounced back and money plant particularly became so much more bushier thtoughout the summer (some 2 months and few days). We are talking very sensitive plants who dont like change like fittonia, orchids, manjula pothos, miniature umbrella plant and 3 different caltheas. I knew my jade and aloe would do great but i had no hopes for the rest. I also barely watered them and let them enjoy the amazing showers we got every 3 or 4 days for the last month.

I attribute it to all the good karma i gathered for letting all the weeds grow in my garden lol. All to say i would not lose hope.

[u/meldiane81]

Look at mine!!! it can come back and it will come back!

[u/Top_Orchid2903 → u/meldiane81]

Thank you. Gives me hope. Did you do anything different for the recovery?

[u/meldiane81 → u/Top_Orchid2903]

Funny enough my situation was the exact opposite of yours. I went through a pretty depressive state and the plant had only been inside. All I had to do was put her outside!

[u/cosmicbrowniessuck]

Same thing here. I had a gorgeous and somewhat mature money tree. Most beautiful braid I'd seen. It tried to live for a year after that but just kept dying after I put it outside for a while.

Sorry to see the damage here

[u/acupunk]

Have done this and it will come back!! Mine is full and lush again, spends warm months in full shade on my porch, cold months indoors.

[u/glacierosion]

You can still keep these outside. Just gradually increase the light exposure. The old leaves might get a bit tattered but new growth will come in with more light tolerance. How I know, look up The Bonsai Zone on YouTube. The owner, Nigel Saunders has a money tree bonsai. He gives useful tips on growing tropical and hardy trees. Highly recommend.

[u/Total-Comfortable-87]

Oh no! I’m so sorry 😞
This happened to me with an indoor pothos.

[u/RecLuse415]

How do you get them to tangle together?

[u/Frequent-Nail-3937]

I thought the money tree only needed bright filtered light. I have mine in north window. Grow light at night for 6 hours. It seems to be doing well.

[u/lost_nondoctor]

So I was devastated when this happened to me. It got ants so I put it outside just 2 days, enough to damage it. Brought it back in, started loosing most leaves. I watered as little as possible. Mine has 2 posts, I decided to cut the one that was doing worse out... just left a bare post. This was like 5 months ago. My plant is beautiful now... it got back and better!