My elephant ear's leaves are looking discolored. It had been an outdoor plant but I brought it inside several weeks ago due to the cold weather. I keep it in a high humidity room with a south facing window. There is diatomaceous earth on top of the soil to try and prevent insect activity. Can anyone identify the source of the discoloration and how I might treat it?
by Helpful_Ad_4580
3 Comments
It’s always spider mites with elephant ears! So I would check that first. If you see any, just shower it and blast those effers off.
It could also be going dormant if you had it outside and the nights started to get chilly. It’s natural for them. If it loses all the leaves just let it rest and barely water it until you see leaves again.
Also the leaves are stretched towards the light, so just get it a little more light in the meantime.
Yeah that looks like light stress from moving it inside. Elephant ears love to throw a fit anytime you change things up. Those pale spots usually mean they’re adjusting to lower light or got a little sun kiss through the glass. Pull it back from the window a bit and keep the humidity nice and high. Once it chills out, the new leaves will come in smooth
That damage on the leaf in the first photo is spider mites.
Wipe down the leaves with soap and water then rinse the whole plant.
Spray with insecticidal soap a couple times a week and I recommend using spinosad or spinetoram 1x per week for 3 weeks as well.
You’ll get them quite regularly on alocasia so you have to be meticulous about regularly looking for webs or new spots like you have there.
The best preventative is just thoroughly spraying down the leaves once a week or so since the mites don’t like water