The plant is a dieffenbachia, I bought it from a garden centre on the 29th of December (shown on that day in the first picture). I have since had to take in on a crowded train, where it sustained some damage to a couple of leaves.
It’s kept in lower light levels than I’d like due to the poor winter weather and has only been watered once in the weeks since I bought it, after checking the soil was dried out almost completely (no fertiliser added). It’s been sprayed twice now with Provanto Ultimate Bug Killer, as I’ve dealt with a recent thrip invasion and wanted to be on the safe side introducing new plants.
The issue:
The first thing I noticed was the stem seen in the second picture had a small section of brown on the side about a week ago which I removed thinking it would be dry and crispy (I was thinking of the brown skin you get at the bottom of Monstera leaf stems, which I often remove) however it was wet and soft, and since then the brown section has spread across the whole stem, and upon turning and checking the plant I’ve found other leaves with soft brown sections at the edges, as well as a few dry brown circles on otherwise healthy leaves and one leaf completely yellowing.
If I hadn’t been so careful with watering I would’ve said root rot, but I know that the soil was very dry before I watered, and dried out again shortly afterwards. The plant was never sat in wet soil. I’ve also never seen root rot damage halfway up a stem like that when the rest of the stem and plant below is absolutely fine.
Does anyone have any ideas what this could be and how best to treat it? Should I cut off all damaged leaves and stem sections in case it’s a fungal infection? Any help would be appreciated, I hope I’ve given the right amount of detail.
by Lara-Tiegan
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