Sick plant needs help. Yellow spotty leaves.

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BlueLuvBug Brampton, Canada Apr 16, 2013

Hi, I've been trying to find out exactly what kind of plant this is and I think it is from the schefflera family? Anyways, the leaves were getting spots and some turned completely yellow and fell off. I repotted it, bought a meter to check when to water it, and have now seen new growth coming, but the leaves are still looking really spotted. I sprayed all the leaves down with mix of dish soap and water in case of mites, but haven't seen any evidence of them. If anyway has any advice, I'd love to hear it. Thanks.

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Diana_K Contra Costa County, CA(Zone 9b) Apr 18, 2013

I do not think that is a pest problem.
I see several possibilities:
1) Nutrient deficiency. Perhaps an imbalance. Usually the symptoms are a bit more uniform, though. What fertilizer have you been using? Most of the Scheffleras are un-demanding about the exact balance of nutrients, but they do need a little of each now and then. N, P, K and trace minerals.
2) Hebicide injury. A tiny dose of herbicide can make odd effects in the leaves.
3) Sunburn. The one spot in the second picture looks like a brown spot in the middle of the yellow areas. This seems typical. The rest of the yellow blotches are irregular, and sometimes sunburn can do this: The most exposed part of a leaf turns yellow. The most exposed part is not always what we think it is. Perhaps some sun reflects off a wall or something and hits the plant in an odd location.

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ficuswrangler St Petersburg, FL May 18, 2013

Your plant is a schefflera amate.
You've taken some good steps to find out what's wrong.
I would have to ask you a couple of questions: what kind of light do you have it in?
because there is so much space between the leaves, i tend to think that it needs more light
also, what kind of fertilizing have you been doing? If you've been fertilizing a lot, like every month, or every other week, even weekly, that would be a lot. Have you ever leached the soil with water, i.e., run a volume of water thru the plant equal to about 5 times the volume of soil - even more water if you can. The purpose is to rinse accumulated salt out of the soil, which is often the culprit for all sorts of plant problems. The other end of the spectrum is mineral defficiency - too little fertilizer. Some of your leaves actually look like a manganese defficiency. If you think that could be the problem, get a fertilizer with micro-elements. A vitamin supplement like SuperThrive might be a good idea too.

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purpleinopp Opp, AL(Zone 8b) May 19, 2013

These grow in the ground in FL, doubt it's getting sunburned in Canada. How long ago was it repotted? Are you sure the dish soap you used is safe for this plant?

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