Peperomia...

What would cause my peperomia to suddenly turn black? Would it be suffering from transplant shock? I potted it prob about 2 weeks ago. Plus, I keep it under artificial light every now and then, could it be too much for it?

How's the soil? Soggy, dry? Usually the soil is too wet when a plant turns black (drowned and rotting) unless it was put out in some freezer or freezing weather. If it turned brown then I'd guess the soil was too dry.

I doubt it is the light although that helps it grow and thrive.

What kind of Peperomia do you have? By artificial light, do you mean fluorescent or incandescent?

I have tried to be careful not to over water, I know they usually don't like being very wet. The cultivar is 'Rainbow'. Do you think I should trim the black leaves off? Here is a pic...

This is a succulent form of peperomia and should dry out some between watering. The rotted/dried up portions should be cut off. Give this plant more light and watch the watering.

This is not the easiest plant to grow. Mine continued to drop leaves through winter but never showed signs of rot. I put it outside for the warm months and I don't give it any attention.

Image 1 - indoors under shoplights
Image 2 - shares time with a lot of my houseplants (mostly begonias) outside under high canopy
Image 3 - cropped from Image 2

Thanks so much for the advice- I confess that I "over-love" a lot of my inside plants. I feel neglectful if I don't fuss over them everyday, but the happiest plants in my home are the ones I forget I have-haha!

hcmcdole- I love your picture! Those are all houseplants!? Beautiful!

All houseplants except the hostas on the right front corner. Those are just some of the houseplants - maybe half but I wouldn't swear to it.

Here is a cool peperomia - puteolata

How long did you have the peperomia before you repotted it? What kind of potting medium did you use when you repotted? Did you use a much bigger pot for the repotting? If you didn't have a problem with blackening leaves before you repotted, one might speculate that the repotting has something to do with it. These plants would prefer a coarse, free-draining soil as opposed to a heavier, "moisture retentive" medium. Also, a pot that's bigger than the one the plant came out of can easily stay damp too long.

If you already know that you have a tendency to fuss too much over your plants, I would suggest that all you need to do is to find ways to fuss that don't involve the watering can. Things you might do everyday include test the soil moisture all the way to the bottom of the pot with a wooden dowel or kebob skewer ( a video that shows more about this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-8InSamYQ ) This would be good, because then you could only water when the soil is barely damp to almost dry, depending on the specie.

Some other things to do every day would be to check under the leaves and along the stems and leaf axils for bugs; remove any dead bits; dust gently with a big fluffy duster (as long as there are no bugs); turn clockwise so leaves share light equally; clean area around the plant - pots, floor, window sill or table; mist - it doesn't really help the plant, but if it fulfills your need to fuss, go for it.

I'd really love to hear back from you on how this all goes, if my advice was any help to you.

Does that pot have a drain hole? That soil looks like pure peat. Since getting rid of that stuff, hardly any plants have died here. Something much more chunky, porous, that dries much more quickly would be a lot easier to work with because there's so much less risk of rotting roots - and then they need watered more often, so you can indulge your fussing/watering with much less risk of foul results.

ficuswrangler- I am so glad I glanced at your response tonight, because I bought some moisture control soil and was going to re-re pot it tomorrow! So thank you!! I have it in a good draining, pretty light mixture, there is some peat, and a few pieces of bark in the bottom. Since my last post there are no new black spots and the leaves it has left are healthy. I never thought about turning them-that's genius lol! I do every couple of days rotate them all so they all get some exposure to light, and I try to keep a watchful eye out for pests! Thanks again for your advice!
Thank you as well purpleinpopp!!