Beginner Gardening: Is this from low humidity?, 0 by tapla

tapla wrote:
The blotchy brown spots on leaves look more like cold injury than anything - maybe exposed to rapid chilling when you transported the plants from their former home? Plants don't need to be exposed to freezing temps to experience chill injury; it can occur at temperatures as high as 45* if the temperature drop from, say 70*, is sudden. The rapid change causes phenolic compounds to leak from cells into the spaces between cells, resulting in symptoms like those manifest in your plant. My second guess would be that you might be looking at evidence of photo-oxidation (sunburn), but the brown blotches would have been preceded by grey or silvery coloring very soon after over-exposure to sun, before they turned brown. It's possible you might not have taken note of the initial chance in coloration. Did you move the plants into direct sunlight after bringing them home? it doesn't appear as though the brown blotches are disease or insect related, and I'd doubt it would be anything cultural other than what I mentioned unless you are severely over-watering.

The misshapen leaves are almost certainly related to a nutritional deficiency. My first guess would be calcium, and that squares with the fact that it is occurring in new leaves, indicating it's one of the immobile nutrients. If it's not calcium, it's one of the other immobile nutrients, which points to a micro-nutrient deficiency - zinc very often causes misshapen foliage in schefflera.

I can help you get the plant back on track if you're willing to follow instructions & go about it systematically?

Al

One of my scheffs: