I have a small plant that I Love but don't like these spots that have come up...Can anyone please tell me why this happens and How do correct it?
...and another that use to be huge but is now very sad looking-I am afraid to mess with it as it is special to me, any help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
I have an almost identical problem, also with a pothos. I was told that the issue is caused by salts accumulating in the soil, or by poor drainage. One person told me to leach the soil and use bottled water. Another said that switching to a soiless growing medium would work.
The curious thing with mine is that the affected plants were rooting in plain water. There might be some truth to both their assumptions though because I've learned that the well water here is high in iodine, among other things, and it leaves a white film on washed cars, dishes, windows, etc.
Someone with more experience will be able to tell you more, I think, but thoroughly leaching the soil, and using filtered water thereafter might be necessary. I'm moving my plants into filtered water. Meanwhile, this is what mine look like.
Thank you kwie2011
You're welcome. It's 2nd-hand info, but I hope it helps.
You might also try emailing Tapla from his home page. He's an expert in container soil hydrology and soiless mixes. He's usually happy to help.
Thank you
To leach out the salts that may have accumulated:
Fill a bucket or other container deeper than the pot with pure water. Rain, reverse osmosis, distilled or similar.
Soak the container until it quits bubbling. Then allow it to drain, and do not retain the water. You can soak several plants in the same water, but eventually there will be too many salts in the water from the soils,
Depending on the quality of the tap water you might have to do this monthly, or just a couple of times per year.
If the soil shows white, crusty stuff I would repot the plant in as much new soil as you can. Pothos have coarse roots that do not form a fine web, or grip the soil very much. Should be easy to remove 75% or more of the soil.
If you can find out what is in the water, then use a fertilizer that does not have that element. There is already enough (or even too much) of that for the plant. But it still needs the other elements that are not coming in from the water. A fertilizer that is not a salt sort of formula is best. Most commercial fertilizers are a form of salt. Not sodium chloride, but a different sort of salt. If the water did not also have too many minerals or salts, then the water would wash away these salts, leaving the fertilizer for the plant. But when the water already has a high content of minerals or salts it cannot do this. I would use an organic fertilizer, perhaps fish emulsion (if you are OK with the smell) or something like that.
In fact, this is what I do: I grow Golden Pothos in aquariums, roots in the water, stems and leaves outside the tank, supported from nails in the wall. It grows rampantly under these conditions.
This message was edited Aug 15, 2014 5:58 AM
Diana_K, do you have a picture of you Pothos setup that you could share? It sounds fascinating and I haven't heard of it before.
I was describing a set up I had a few years ago when I had several aquariums in one room. The Pothos made a couple of laps through some windows looking out into a sun porch and back in, and a lap all the way around the room. The largest leaves were almost a foot across.
The plant went up and down, in and out of the aquariums.
Bad pic, but here is all that is left after I changed the arrangement of the tanks. It covers about half of the tank. The tank is 6' x 18" and the Pothos is draping over both ends and climbing the wall (and window) behind it.
This message was edited Aug 15, 2014 5:00 PM
First of all--I DO hope your pot has drainage holes. If not--there may be your problem
Pothos is a plant that does not like wet feet. Over watering will create
all kinds of problems. Allow the soil to dry out before watering it again.
In pictures #2--your plant looks perfectly OK to me. In 3--4--and 5--it looks like
you have potted up cuttings. Yes? No?
Did you roote the cuttings in water first? Tell me if i am wrong, OK.
Then you potted them in the soil? Sticking them in too deep in the soil
from where the roots grew on the stems (in the water) may also be the problem.
Newly growing roots need Oxygen to thrive. and a light, soiless potting MIX.
Also--on new cuttings you need to always use something like Pro Mix. (no soil)
That is the soil all plants are potted in when you buy them--the fluffy stuff
with Perlite in it. This is VERY important! Do not use something like "Garden Soil"!
IF you did not root them in water first--but just planted the cuttings in the Mixl--
then they cannot survive and grow at all if the soil is too heavy or too wet--
as there are no roots to absorb the moisture. So--they rot.
I cannot help you with the holes...maybe someone else could.
Hope some of this helps. Gita
The sticky at the top of this house plant forum page should answer most of these questions.
Thank you for all your help.
The pots do have holes, they are both over three years old.
Diana your set up does sound amazing! and the soaking pot great advise-I have never heard of this but I will try. I will also switch to watering them with distilled water. Gita I have not plant from cuttings although I would LOVE to! this plant was a gift and came in this container, it seems not to have enough soil?
and now a few leaves have turned yellow-too much water? I am so afraid to mess with it. but I don't want to lose it.
Thanks again.
As the leaves age they will turn yellow. The older leaves will age, but not too fast, there will be more newer ones growing than old ones falling off.
If newer leaves are turning yellow, or more leaves are being lost compared to new ones growing then there is a problem.
Overwatering is one such problem. Plants need a thorough soaking when they get watered, then allow to dry between watering. This allows oxygen into the soil. Some plants need to go very dry (Cacti) and some prefer to stay at least somewhat moist between watering.
Golden Pothos is best somewhere in between. Moist is fine, with good drainage, so the individual soil particles hold some water, but the spaces in between admit air. A container with drainage holes is always preferable to one that does not drain.
When I have plants in non-draining containers I will soak them, then tip them upside down to get rid of the excess water. Obviously this is only possible for small plants, and I prefer using a pot with good drainage, so have removed from use any that must be turned upside down.
Lack of fertilizer is another reason plants turn yellow. Depending on how they are turning yellow you might figure out which fertilizer element is missing.
Old leaves or new? Are the veins or any part of the leaf staying green?
What fertilizer are you using? Is it a complete fertilizer?
Diane, I used to have a bunch of pothos growing the same way - out of my fish aquariums. Singonium podophylum grows well that way too. I think I'd just stuck some in to root, then discovered they liked it and left them. It eventually became too crowded with roots to see the fish. I was a little aquarium plant crazy then, so I had aquatic fertilizer, aquarium grow lights, and a CO2 setup. The terrestrial plants took full advantage.
I have a lot of house plants growing like that, now. But they need light above the aquarium, and most of my house is pretty dim. I have that sort of set up in a greenhouse.
Yes, Syngonium is great. I have one coming out of the top of a 72 gallon bowfront, reaches the floor and goes back up. It is growing in a window, so just keeps going up and down.
