Help, Strep leaves getting soft (squishy) any ideas?

This is my first strep and I'm getting nervous because the leaves are getting soft suddenly. Not all of the leaves at once, just one or two at a time. It will seem just fine for a while and then one day I will notice a whole leaf that is soft. They pull off easily and if I leave one it eventually turns brown. Sometimes it's a big leaf and sometimes a tiny leaf. Yesterday a flower stalk that was just about to bloom did the same thing. There are six or seven rosettes on the plant and the droopy leaves have appeared on almost all of them.

When I bought the plant two months ago I put it in one of those two part ceramic planters with the water reservior at the bottom. It gets fed a little bit now and then but not enought to cause salt accumulation. The only thing I can think of so far is a disease but there are no signs of fungus spore bodies or hyphae. Has anyone else had this problem?

The rest of it is still blooming and seems happy enough.

One important thing about Streps is they like it dry . If you over water them the leaves will turn to mush and die if you under water and they wilt and you water them they will come back to life. They are not forgiving of over watering .
In the first two threads in the forum are stickys with lots of links and info. The second one is Gesneraids. There is a lot of info about Streps.
I'm sure others will be able to help.
I like to grow Streps in shallow plastic pots roots are shallow and water just when dry.

first guess would be too much water. Streps like a lot less water than african violets, and in fact can be allowed to wilt a little between waterings - they will perk right back up, even from a mound of flop.

I would take it out of that pot, and sit the roots on a towel or something to sop up the water. Then pour some water+hydrogen peroxide (from the drugstore) on the roots (or dip the root mass in it) - I would go with about 30% peroxide... (I've been known to pour it straight from the bottle too - the drugstore bottle is only a 3% concentration anyway). Hopefully it won't fizz- if it does, you have some serious root rot.

Let dry a bit again, and then repot into a pot that is just the right size for the root ball - not too big. Then add some hydrogen peroxide from the drugstore to your watering for a while. About 10=20% would be fine.

If it really goes down hill, cut off the flowers so it can concentrate on recovering.

I agree that your strep is getting too much water also. When you have it in a selfwatering container, I add a lot more perlite to the soil.
Nancy B

Yes all the above :))

Thanks everyone,
I think I will just let it dry out between refills (and smaller refills). It's so dry in our house it's hard to believe anything is getting too much water :)

You may want to do like Keyring mentioned to take out of the pot. Streps do not do well in two piece pots. Their tender roots are shallow and when we say dry we mean dry. Or your plant will continue to die :((.
A small shallow plastic pot proper size and roots not planted low will make your plant more happy !

I never had a lot of luck with streps until someone in my AV club told me to use clay pots. They love it.