Wandering Jew Disease Question

The leaves on my wandering jew (Tradescantia Zebrina) are becomming blotched and discolored. I've done some basic research and think it might be scale, but am not sure. How can I tell for sure? I can post a picture later if needed.


This message was edited Sep 1, 2011 6:06 AM

Posting a picture would help. If it's scale, you should see brownish bumps along the stems--those are the scale insects. They don't really move around much so if you don't see the brownish bumps then you don't have scale.

Here's a pic. You can see where the leaves should have a green stripe, they are getting a splotchy purple discoloration. You can also see some white specs that look like they might be aphids, but I don't think they are, but what do I know (novice houseplant person).

The leaves on the left of the picture look like there is white fly on the plant, the lower leaves on the right look like they have been too wet. also you can just snip off these leaves and with this plant, new growth will be back there within a few weeks, other than that, the plant looks healthy to me, but I cant see whats going on back of the leaves, or under the growth in the pot area, don't have these plants in full sun as the leaves go brittle with being dried out. I give my plants a mist every time I water them as they like a kind of humid air while growing in the summer months but lay off come the colder nights,
to take cuttings, remove some stems, pull off gently the bottom leaves about 2 inches up from bottom stem, pop the stems into a glass jar of cool water and watch the roots appear in about 6 weeks, pot these rooted cutting up and you will have new plants to give away, you will need about 8 stems per pot to make a nice bushy plant such as you have now.
Good luck. WeeNel.

Thanks WeeNel. I know a little about these as this plant is a start from a much larger one that I have in the next room. I did exactly what you described, ~8 stems in a glass jar for a few weeks to get the roots established. It is in a southern-exposure bathroom on a ledge just above our soaking whirlpool bathtub so I am sure it gets plenty of moister when we get steamy baths going. The big "mother plant" used to be in this location and I moved it since it was taking over the tub; literally we would have to push it out of the way to get in the tub. The big plant started getting these symptoms first, but now that it is moved, the leaves seem to be normal again. It is in a room that is not quite as bright or steamy. I'm thinking this is just a bad location for this plant. What do you think?

it may be from the steam, might be too much moisture. my wj sat outside all summer, in 6hours of sun and its never looked better! It was super dry here. bathrooms tend to create mold thats's why there is special drywall for bathrooms, it may be too humid for the little guy.

I agree. The "parent" plant that I moved ~1 month ago looks perfectly normal and healthy now. I just moved this one also, to the same/dryer location. We'll see how it goes.

the bathroom may have made the plant too wet, I only mist my plants when watering, so rest of their time the foliage dries out completely, but the foliage does like a little moisture but not soaked, perhaps the plant outdoors is getting humidity in the cooler evenings but my thoughts are, if a plant likes the treatment we give, continue, the plant will soon tell you it is not happy, no 2 homes or gardeners can create the exact same environment so go with what you find is right, the basics are the same for all just the administration can vary as we all know. good luck. Weenel.