I have 30+ houseplants and everyone’s doing great except for this spritus sanctii. I used to have this plant in my Ikea humidity cabinet (fluctuates between 47% and 75% depending on time of day) under a grow light with 6+ other philos. But I started to notice this plant getting some yellowing, while the other plants did not.
I was watering it once every other week, doing the finger test, sometimes once a week but never more than that as I do with my other philos in there. My other philos are all growing lots and look good but this one started getting yellow spots and later yellow veining and is the slowest grower ever.
I’ll admit the grow light setup wasn’t strong in that cabinet (cheap amazon strip grow lights), so a few months ago I bought a Barrina T5 and have it close to my plants in there. The cabinet is in front of an east-facing window (like 10 inches away) but where i live the winter is so rainy and dark the window is pretty useless honestly.
I got worried that maybe it was thrips so I moved this plant into isolation a few weeks ago and have sprayed it down with Jack’s deadbug and watered in the bonide systemic granules. I’m watering it once every 1.5 weeks, in isolation now it is in lower ambient humidity (probably 35-40%). I know this is low but giving it a dedicated humidifer I have to refill daily sounds exhausting right now. No bugs on the sticky trap and no visible bugs on leaves.
When I moved it into isolation I also added this little moss pole because this plant has looked so floppy and depressed.
After the yellowing started back when it was in the cabinet, I started watering with diluted compost fertilizer because I hadn’t fertilized it since I bought it about 8ish months ago.
It didn’t grow all winter, now it is very very slowly growing a new leaf after probably 6 months of no growth.
Do I need to give it succulent/monstera levels of light? Was I underfertilizing?
The soil mix has been chunky aroid mix for months. It used to be in more of a leca clay ball mix but I ditched that composition some months ago so now it’s more orchid mix and some soil. Its root system is substantial and healthy with visible firm white roots which gives me hope!!
Almost all my other philos grow fast and are fine under grow lights, but this one has given me trouble.
My question is: Is this yellowing bacterial? Fungal? Some weird plant disease? Was it thrips? Underwatering? Underfertilizing? There are no pests on the leaves from what I can see and it’s had systemic for weeks now.
When can I take it out of isolation and put it in a brighter light environment?
Photos taken right after watering. Sorry for the essay but it’s a rare plant that’s hard to replace!
by valrianax
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