I inherited this plant from my dad a few years ago and it's steadily been going down hill. It used to be completely full of fat leaves but now it's all leggy and covered in this white fungus?
It has improved since I gave it a window all to itself but the white stuff hasn't gone.
Any help would be very appreciated, this plant has huge sentimental value to me and I couldn't bare to see if go.
by belikor
39 Comments
Looks like !Mealybugs !
Edit: I thought it would trigger the bot but well, it didn’t
Mealy bug infestation?
Put it outside in a shady spot, hose it down good, and leave it there for the summer. Nature will fix it. The hands down best cure for mealy bugs is the ferocity of outdoor bugs.
that’s a tough one ! looks like a lot of mealy bugs, they have their adult form above ground feeding on the plant tissue which is all the white fuzzy bits, and they lay eggs in the soil which is where the young ones live. to take care of the adults eating up your plant, take 91% isopropyl alcohol and a q-tip, soak the q-tip then use it to gently wipe away the mealy bugs. they will desiccate from the alcohol and die.
this is not a permanent solution, these pests multiply fast and can become a problem overnight so i suggest steady and prolonged cleaning on your part, maybe take some time every day to wipe away as many as you can w the soaked q-tips. they like to hide in crevices and in between nodes and any leaves so it may take a while to truly get them all. but that’s the thing w pest maintenance you can never eradicate them fully you just need to manage the population better.
if you want to get rid of them all for the long run, i suggest cleaning the above-soil plant tissue as well as you can to get rid of all the adults, and then eventually repotting the soil so that no eggs remain to repopulate.
Oh god
Step one: take a q tip with alcohol and remove every large area of bugs and residue
Step 2: submerge the whole plant in water with neem , isopropyl alcohol, and Castile soap
Step 3: repot into fresh soil , make sure you get the roots in the solution above . When repotting, use systemic granules in the soil to prevent further pests.
Tip: this will eradicate most of the bugs, but mealies are notorious for hiding in small parts we can’t easily see. For the following couple of weeks, keep a close eye on the plant and spray it down with a plant leaf cleaner solution or insecticidal soap every few days. If you see live adult bugs again, use alcohol.
This is a super thorough approach to mealies, but since this is a keepsake of a deceased family member I’d suggest doing it. This is the method I use that gives me results 100% of the time.
Good luck, be patient, and it’ll probably be fine 🙂
Definitely mealy bugs! Spray it down really well in the tub to knock off the bugs you can. Follow the other advice here of spraying with alcohol.
Looks like bad mealy bug infestation.
I would actually recommend putting it outside where other native insects can kill them.
If it’s at all warm enough where you are. Ideally in a shady, grassy place with very little to no direct sun. Bring it in at night, particularly if it’s getting too cold. Even 4 hours can do a lot to introduce natural predators.
Gradually introduce more sun and maybe even later nights if climate permits. Jades love the sun but it has to get used to it. The tips will naturally turn red from direct sun but if they get really red back off as you don’t want to shock and burn them.
By the end of summer (I hope it’s summer where you are) it will be cured and very happy, probably with tons of new growth.
Other treatment methods like heavy applications of alcohol, need oil, and insecticidal soap, would be slow and tough and may hurt the plant more. Seeing it’s already in bad shape I would go outside.
As a Canadian with a jade who’s fought mealy bugs I hope this helps. Looking forward to your jades summer glow up.
After you get this cleaned up I reccomend you at least inspect your plants once a day. I get mealy bugs on my window plants since they don’t get predators protecting them like my outside plants. As long as you keep an eye on them they’re easy to mitigate.
Neem oil, get neem oil or another insecticide and absolutely drench the thing in it. Let the mix sit overnight and then take the poor thing outside and hose it down. Rinse and repeat (no pun intended) for a few days until all the bugs seem to be gone, then give it one or two more rounds for good measure. Jades are hardy, and yours looks to be in decent condition all things considered
I had mealys on my jade. I literally just put 99% alcohol in a spray bottle and sprayed it down. This was a last ditch effort after cleaning it with qtips for over a year. Works great. No harm at all to the plant, kills them on contact. I did it about every other day for a few weeks.
I had a jade infested with mealybugs! You have to be aggressive.
Spray off most of them with water.
Then spray with an insecticidal spray every day.
Once you see less, spray less. But don’t stop for awhile. Like 4-6 weeks.
Be persistent!
mealybugs, spray with pesticide and introduce a systemic pest control for it
Thank you to everyone for the advice. I’m going to war with mealybugs in the morning. For good or bad it’s nice to have some direction to try and help my dad plant out. Win or lose at least I can say I tried my best.
Try to remove as many bug as possible with a wet towel and the use soap insecticide!
https://preview.redd.it/im646edfpd6f1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b609bd7195feaa95b3eb1a67e471617835198fbf
You might need to do it few times! Good luck
Omg! I’m jealous! And what a great way to honor, remember, and keep your Dad’s obvious love of plants, or this plant, in the family! My mom threw away my grandmother’s plants after she passed, and they were over 120 years old! From her grandmother! I always think how I wish I’d known then what I know now about plants because I would definitely have them! ♥️
My say is same as most others- clean it up, repot in new soil, stick it outside in the shade and keep an eye on it. Repeat the inspections and regular cleaning of larve and in a year or so, it will be huge and beautiful again
After 12 working with plants professionally, my preferred method of attacking mealy bugs ( which this most definately is) is using dr browsers peppermint castile soap, rubbing alcohol and water in spray and spraying it down good once or twice a week. I think I used to use up to a tablespoon of soap and alcohol in 12-16 oz spray bottle. Start with a teaspoon and a half. For me this usually worked better than Safer Soap. In my accounts plants were clean and pest free. Co-workers loved taking over an account or route from me. I would do a little pruning too after a couple of weeks.
I spray my plants down with a mix rubbing alcohol, warm water and dish soap. Then wipe the leaves down with a brush. Lastly rinse down the plant (mine are small so they go into the sink) and I spray neem oil just in case but I’m starting to think it’s not good for much.
I’ve done the above method for a spider mite infestation I haven’t had mealybugs but have seen in other posts that manual removal is often necessary.
Lastly ladybugs (and maybe lacewings) eat mealy bugs so if one just happens to be outside maybe put it on your plant for awhile.
Here’s a link to the video the method I use comes from.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PJDLK7Tc8q0&pp=0gcJCf0Ao7VqN5tD again it was for spider mites but considering mealy bugs need physical removal I think it would work wonders.
It has a bad case of mealy bugs. There’s beneficial bugs you can buy to take care of them, can use rubbing alcohol on them or simply boot the plant outside and let mother nature do the work to get rid of them. It also helps blasting it with a hose to remove a lot of them first
This may be a radical solution, but you could just chop it off at the base, clean the roots real well, and repot. Jade is notoriously into that kind of abuse. What doesn’t kill it, makes it stronger.
It looks like mealy bugs for sure. I also have had a jade plant with mealy bugs, but jade plants are SO RESILIENT!! If it’s not possible for you to take it outside and hose it down, just do it in your sink with the hose and then the Q-tips and rubbing alcohol. The alcohol will turn the bugs brown and that’s how you know you got them. They’ll probably reappear a few times, just every time you see them, get them with a dab of alcohol! You can definitely get them cleared up.
A lot of my plants come from people who have passed away as well, I like keeping their plants alive in honor of them. I didn’t know the lady whose jade plant I took in, but I have a spider plant and an aloe from my brother.
OH GOD
When you scrub it down is it okay if all leaves fall off?
If you have access to a systemic pesticide such as imidacloprid , go for it. Some flea treatments containing imidacloprid can also be turned into a home made soil drench. I am only suggesting this because the plant is indoors and won’t affect pollinators. To anyone reading this: please use systemic pesticides responsibly.
If not then the alcohol and Qtip technique is your best bet but it’s a lot of work.
I suggest giving it a very good pruning to go along with your treatment. Wherever you snip (do so just above a node) the branch will likely begin developing two branching forks out of the snipped node.
This will mean you have a little less to treat.
I’ve also heard that it is good to remove all the soil from the plant during treatment, since mealies will be there as well, then replacing the dirt.
The only natural method I’ve ever found to work against mealy bugs is rubbing alcohol. Use cotton buds soaked in rubbing alcohol to kill all the mealy bugs. It takes a while as you have to go over the plant bit by bit, and you’ll need to do it several times, but it does work.
Is this what’s on my crabapple?
https://preview.redd.it/4cmrjt6pud6f1.jpeg?width=1868&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba1a886c9e84505800fc60697262ca6c28d16e7d
I love Dr bronners peppermint soap for this. Dilute it, then DRENCH the jade with it. Spray the dead mealies off with the shower or kitchen sprayer. Do that every few days until you don’t see any more white fluffs.
You can totally spray the sucker down with alcohol. For a bad infestation just spray it! Don’t leave it in the sun afterwards though. I have done this consistently with my jade and other succulents. Had a bad year with mealy bugs. I also used systemic insecticide granules in the soil. Just water a little more often for a few weeks to make sure it activates the granules and the plant sucks it up. You might want to take a few cuttings and clean them real well and root/plant them in isolation so if doomsday happens to the mother plant you have some as backup.
You can kill them with rubbing alcohol!!
Spray down with water outside, then buy some neem oil spray online and douse the plant with that, including tops and bottoms of leaves, stems, base of the plant/dirt. I also add cinnamon in my soil to help the roots and prevent bugs
Jade plants are very hardy. Do a heavy pruning and it will reshoot harder than ever. They will focus on stem and root growth for a bit.
https://preview.redd.it/v27gkdwx0e6f1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9b7bc467b69a073a7c58d9e5fc42ab7419592949
Safari 20sg for mealy bug and thrips and many other sucking bugs…but be aware it can kill beneficials too so i never, ever use it outside!
It looks like white fungus is growing from the inside out?
A lot more sun.
I’m rooting for you that thing is beautiful. As soon as you throughly get the bugs off of it get it into a slightly larger pot with soil that is suited to a succulent and be slow with the water and heavy on the sunlight.
Oooff….if it was me I would knock all the soil off the roots, fully submerge the plant in water for about 20min, repot in succulent/cacti mix, water thoroughly and give a good spray with insecticidal soap. Check every few days and good luck!
Definitely a species of mealy bug. The white fluff is a mix of waxy fibres and their eggs. I’ve dealt with these pests for decades in greenhouses. There have been a lot of good suggestions using alcohol, horticultural oils and soaps and systemic insecticides like imidicloprid. One of the key things I learned is that it is possible to eliminate them, but it takes time and consistency. Whatever treatment you choose to use, if you take a break, they will be back. Mealy bugs never take a holiday. One other thing to check which makes control even more difficult is that they can move down and infect the root system as well. You think you’ve got things under control and then they move up from the roots and carry on with business. I pull infected plants out of their pots and inspect the roots. If I find them there, I’ll wash the old soil and mealies off the roots and then do a transplant, something that old jades generally need anyway. Most suffer from salt buildup after sitting in the same pot and same soil for years on end. Big jades can tolerate this sort of treatment and will usually come back fairly quickly. I’d advise getting the mealies under control on the leaves and stems first and then attend to the roots. There will most certainly be some broken stems as these plants are quite brittle, but they will flush out new growth in short order. Good luck.