My philodendron Mexicanum has grown like a weed the past year. It spent the summer outdoors and just when I thought the leaves wouldn’t get at bigger…they did! The plant gave me two lovely massive leaves, which you can see in the photos.
However, after those two, it has now given me three funky looking deformed leaves in a row. Any ideas what caused this?
It is in a chunky aroid mix and has a moss pole. I usually just water the moss pole when it’s dry, which was sometimes every other day when it was outdoors this summer. I didn’t fertilize much the first half of summer (laziness lol) After the first deformed leaf, I thought perhaps I was just needing to fertilize. So I started adding fertilizer in maybe once a week since those moss poles lack nutrients and it is a fast grower. But, as you can see, now the last three leaves are deformed and odd looking.
As far as light, it was under a deck that faces north all summer with a hundred other plants. So bright indirect light. When it’s inside, it’s under a strong grow light 12-14 hours a day (it literally just came back inside though so these deformed leaves occurred outdoors)
My anxiety says it’s mosaic virus but I know that it’s actually pretty rare in houseplants. Thoughts?
by Happytequila
7 Comments
Could be lack of humidity making the leaves harder to unfurl.
I’ve noticed my philos tend to do this if I let them dry out too much while the leaf was developing
It’s because the thrips are damaging the cells while the leaf unfurls. Treat the plant with systemic pesticides to kill them
Mine did exactly that when I didn’t water enough as the leaf was forming. Unfortunately, you don’t find out until it unfurls, sending hugs
Unfortunately it’s because your plant has thrips 😢
https://preview.redd.it/bdm12e6x50of1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=729f2f40f7b7405c7677e0569f1d7bed949d3c00
Definitely thrips! From the photos I can see the larvae, their poops (very tiny black dots), and also the bite marks.
I grow hydroponically and when I start seeing deformed leaves, it’s because there is nutrient buildup in the soil.
Flushing the pot with tap water would fix this.