This has been an ongoing, and worsening issue. My collection is at almost 50, with a variety of monstera, pothos, philodendrons, snake plants, and alocasias.
My watering schedule has not changed since I started my collection. Once every other week during the hot months, once a month during the cold months. They are in a South facing room in nice lighting, and also have grow lights that are on for 14 hours a day. Most are in direct lighting, and they loved it. (My pothos started giving me HUGE leaves they are so happy with that amount of light) All of them are in heavily mixed soils (mostly perlite and orchid bark with maybe 20% soil) are not root bound, and do not have signs of any root rot.They thrived for a very long time,(all of them were clearance saviors I was so proud) and then something changed about 5 months ago.
I noticed it in a few pothos plants first. They went 100% yellow began splotching brown and then died off. And it began to spread through my collection like wildfire. I first checked the roots (so many times I did this) and there is 0 sign of root rot. This also began to affect my water props too, which alarmed me.
I cleaned all the pots, changed out the soil, and continued to watch them degrade. Neem oil and diatomaceous earth were my next line of attack, and I saw no changes. Decreasing light made them wilt. Increasing the light did nothing.
Then, my marijuana plants got sickly and died within a week for unknown reasons. It was very spontaneous – but it was after they came into direct contact with another houseplant. (Damn roommate thought they were helping give it more light, cause my weed plants get insane lighting)
At that point I thought "even though I don't see any pests it's gotta be thrips" – because the damage looked akin to that on the mj plants according to google. By this point I have not had any pest issues prior. Had fungus gnats a little during last fall but fixed that easily with the diatomaceous earth. So like that had to be it, right?
So I switched to Captain Jacks Dead Bug Brew. Did a 14 day treatment, reapplying thoroughly to every plant and their soil every 3 days. I did not miss a spot. I used the entire bottle in a week to insure I got every last book and cranny. Also during this time I made sure to coat my plant room in diatomaceous earth so if there were any pests residing on any surfaces they would be taken care of.
For like 2 weeks there were no changes that I visibly saw
They looked like they were beginning to regrow and then this morning I go to look (watering day) and I'm starting to see similar degradation signs in my collection. (Leggy plants, yellowing leaves with browning on the edges, new leaves coming in warped, one water prop lost every leaf it owned they all withered and fell off) I was also paranoid maybe this was a fungus, so I also treated them with captain jacks copper fungicide (not at the same time as the pest treatment, after that was done)
At this point I am lost on wtf to do. My heart is breaking. My babies are dying and I have no idea how to fix this.
by justwannabe_loved_
10 Comments
Check for spider mites they like to spread from plant to plant ! Also make sure each plant is getting their own specific needs (sunlight exposure, watering times ,fertilizer etc)
Do you have pets? Is it possible they could be damaging the plants somehow. You took the right course of action for pests so I’m not sure what else it would be. I would definitely be in panic mode and maybe even propagate some of my favorites and separate them from the other plants. Rinse off the roots and the leaves if you do this , the monstera looks like there’s lil white dots which could be dust or a sign of pests. Just in case the potted plants don’t recover. I had a pest problem that spread to ALL of my plants. I repotted all of them in new soil after rinsing the root ball and leaves. Then sprayed the new soil with neem oil and added sticky traps. I had fungus gnat larvae in the soil but I didn’t have any obvious signs of distress on the leaves before I noticed. I would also recommend a moisture meter if you don’t already have one it really helped me with water my plants when they needed it instead of sticking with a schedule like 1x a month etc.
u/shiftyskellyton it won’t let me respond to you. Says you deleted the comment.
She is directly under a Sansii grow light for 14 hours a day as well as being in the direct path of sunlight in both morning and afternoon light in the south facing room. How is that not enough light?
Are you sure it’s not thrips? Because the monstera has something that looks a lot like them.
I know they don’t usually cause brown edges, but that splotchy yellowing made me say “ok, where are they” right away. Maybe I’m wrong, but check that plant very closely.
Gosh you’ve tried everything I would have tried, aside from bonide (edited for clarity) granules instead of diatomaceous earth or the dead bug brew.
My only other guess is dirt acidity. A lot of plants, monsteras included, like their dirt slightly acidic. It helps with foliage AND color and prevents burnt leaf tips.
I’m going to say the obvious thing: not all plants require the same treatment so their recovery will also be different. They have similar issues so I can see why you might want to swap dirt on all plants but that might shock them if doing it too often.
The other trouble is your leaves won’t recover, only new growth will be positively impacted so no change is better than increased issue. No news is good news, ya know?
Back to the acidity thing…. Fertilizer can help with the ph balance of the dirt but also so can diluted black coffee water….. yellowing can be overwatering, underwatering, or lack of nutrients to turn green and stay green and grow healthy!
I know this is kind of a non answer but will hopefully trigger a “aha!” moment for you in something else to try.
Are you watering them all on a strict schedule or are you checking the soil before watering ?
They all look really dry
Idk, this looks like a watering issue to me. I know we all want to jump to the conclusion that its pests or broen leaf or a fungus, but sometimes the simple explanation is they are asking for more water. If you have truly tried everything else, then maybe it’s time to try watering more frequently since that’s all there is left to do. They just look dry and thirsty to me.
if I was sure it wasn’t sunburn, I’d flush their dirt and change their places
Check the Ph of the soil