Please help! This is my very favorite plant (rhaphidophora tetrasperma) and it’s such a big part of our dining room decor.
I’ve had her for about 4 years and shes been in the same spot since. Ample light, I water once per week with filtered water. It has been warmer here and my watering has been a few days off over the summer (work is hectic) but the soil is never fully dried out and it has a drain hole at the bottom so I feel like it couldn’t be soaked (root rot).
She used to produce a new leaf regularly but hasn’t done so in about 6 months. She dropping leaves rapidly and it (yellowing and spots shown in pic 2) seems to be moving up the vine leaf by leaf. No pests in sight.
Could this actually be from irregular watering? Is it an infection? If so, what do you recommend for treatment? Since it’s attached to the wall, I can’t re pot or propagate very easily.
Thinking it could be a fungal infection, I started a neem treatment on Sunday on the soil and infected leaves.
Thank you!
by ApplicationEntire251
11 Comments
Have you ever heard the term “don’t keep all your eggs in one basket”? Yeah well that applies here too. If something were to go wrong at the base of that vine, you’d have to cut the entire thing off. I suggest that you take multiple cuttings and root them in water, then add them to the pot.
Looks like fungal infection. Really difficult to treat while you have the vine climbing like that.
You could chop from the top and propagate it first just in case.
Make sure to have at least five leaves and that they are not affected by the fungus yet.
Try water propagation with leca balls in your container. Always work for me with rhaphidophora.
Fungus. You can treat with a systemic fungicide like Thiomyl (read the label; use appropriate ppe). If you propagate cuttings you can treat those as well.
This happened to my tetrasperma as well. Like you I attempted to have one long vine which I had growing like this.
I tried and tried to treat it without propagating but in the end I had to cut it all off and replant the props into the same pot.
It was sad at the time but after a while and a bit of fertilizer it took off and now I have the option of braiding the strands together loosely for a fuller vine.
Looks fungal, watering once a week is likely too much water. You may need to pull it down and repot into a fresh, chunky soil and spray with a fungicide.
I hate to say this because it’s such a lovely piece of work and is always fun to have a long runner, but in this case, I would absolutely be chopping her. The pot should be in a slightly sunnier spot so that it can thrive, which I fear could be part of the problem with leaf drop.
Chop and prop, then stick into the pot with fresh soil, and next year you’ll have a new, fuller version of your plant 🙂
I’ve found these guys finicky with water propagation. Just had to chop my lovely 5 year old plant this summer due to root damage equalling in death after a repot and after some research I propegated a bunch in sphagnum moss. They rooted crazy well.
lol. take cuttings, root them, buy a grow LED, and try again. But stop this endless string of whatever this is, along the darkest part of the room 😀 It needs good light and better support to thrive the way you want it.
You don’t have to (but you definitely should).
Would probably benefit from a gentle soil refresh as long as it isn’t known for sensitive roots. You maybe have been overwatering if you are on a weekly schedule instead of watering by feel.
Could be fungal, but that’s not the main issue, that’s a side effect. It looks like edema has destroyed some of the plant tissue, the roots are staying moist for too long. The plant isn’t designed to maintain long vines like that without something to sink their adventitious roots into to help feed the length of the vine. Also, watering without measuring soil moisture isn’t a great idea.