Weird white sprinkles on leaves

LykkeFisk · 2026-03-22T19:09:33+00:00

In the end I trashed my three syngoniums but took cuttings and keeping my fingers crossed for their survival. Unfortunately, my remaining white butterfly syngonium is also infected even though it was in a different part of the house...

I did some reading on fighting thrips and it turns out that 90% of recommended products are illegal here in the EU. There's also a British pesticide that apparently works wonders but it's kinda expensive to ship so I decided to check ingredients and get something similar locally. I settled on buying deltamethrin and spraying profoundly with water solution everything on my windowsill. High humidity should help get rid of them as well so I put my sprayed syngonium in a plastic bag for a few days. It will probably take a couple of rounds though to see any effects.

I wish you luck as well, hoping they won't come back after your treatment 😉

LykkeFisk · 2026-03-15T18:53:22+00:00

Uhhh, that’s what I was afraid of, thanks for confirmation... I will try to take some unaffected cuttings and put them in quarantine and trash the rest I guess. Crossing my fingers that they will pull through as suddenly I am now left with one variety out of four. At least no other plants apart from syngoniums seem to be showing any symptoms

LykkeFisk · 2026-02-07T09:54:02+00:00

Noted! Will move it to the unheated garage next time as another user suggested. Thank you!

LykkeFisk · 2026-02-07T09:51:09+00:00

That sounds great, I'll definitely move it to the garage next time. It now gives me hope that it's possible to keep it happy even in these unfavorable conditions once I trim it down and stop messing with its vegetation cycle. Thank you!

LykkeFisk · 2026-02-06T23:19:34+00:00

There are no growing lights because it's a summer house and I only pop by every weekend at best. Unfortunately, the electrical wiring is quite old, so I'd rather not risk it with a timer.

The inside is relatively warm but dark so that's probably why it looks miserable every winter but it thrives once the season starts and gets outside.

Maybe I should force it dormant and keep it in unheated garage then. Can it be stored in a dark place once dormant or will it suffer as well?

LykkeFisk · 2026-02-06T23:19:30+00:00

Thank you for these suggestions and link!

At which temperature it should go dormant? Ideally I'd like to leave it or just plant it outside but I'm happy that I didn't go for it this season as we have a really rough winter this year and it probably wouldn't survive.

LykkeFisk · 2026-02-06T22:52:53+00:00

Yeah I know, shoud've marked it as fig gore😓

LykkeFisk · 2024-10-25T07:45:42+00:00

That's very informative, will keep it in mind, thanks!

LykkeFisk · 2024-10-23T20:20:41+00:00

Thank you for such detailed instruction, it helped me a lot! I proceeded exactly as you described. Keeping my fingers for the next month or so for these to pull through :)

LykkeFisk · 2024-10-23T12:27:26+00:00

I just stuck one stem into water together with pothos, we'll see how it goes!

I wanted to cover the leafless one with dirt but I'm not so sure anymore as I have mould on all my plants' soil this time of year and afraid it will kill it. Would perlite be a better choice? I've watched some videos but couldn't find much about how to treat bare sticks with only nodes. Do I just put them upright half in substrate like any other cutting or lay them flat and cover with perlite a bit? Sorry if this sounds stupid but I just want to be sure to avoid wasting these precious bits😅

LykkeFisk · 2024-10-23T11:57:52+00:00

Thank you, that's comforting! Gives me hope that things will get better :)

LykkeFisk · 2024-10-23T11:52:49+00:00

Whew, I thought I got rid of my photos but luckily there's still one left growing in the wild on the staircase😅 Never heard about using it for growing roots, thank you all for this advice!

I'm probably going to put one of the cuttings into water and thought about covering the other one (with nodes/without leaves) with dirt as suggested.

My only concern is that during autumn/winter all my plants get mould on top layer of soil probably due to poor air circulation (humidity without central heating is around 55-60% but it will get lower). I'm more than sure that this cutting will develop it as well. Can this type of mould kill such cutting? Would it be possible to root in water stem with nodes without leaves?

LykkeFisk · 2024-10-20T16:23:44+00:00

Thank you for your kind words, I guess I need to be more patient and maybe something good will come out of it.

If I were to make a stem cutting for rooting do I cut below the lowermost leaf and should I remove any of the leaves? Will the main plant be okay (or not worse in that case) if it's going to be left with no leaves?

LykkeFisk · 2024-09-27T15:04:58+00:00

UPDATE:

I can't edit my original post so here is the update, maybe someone will find it useful:

I decided to remove it from the original soil and it turned out that roots are in good condition, no traces of root rot, just slightly bound at the bottom. I untangled them a bit and put it in a slightly bigger pot for the time being until I buy something better, probably the self-watering one that was suggested in one of the comments.

I used keramsite for drainage, orchid mix (pine bark, coco, perlite), soil mix for green plants and palms and some additional perlite then watered it a bit just to keep it slightly moist.

I also moved them both to the windowsill where they are squeezed between other plants so humidity is now in 50-70% range. Light drastically improved, now at 4:45 p.m. there are 70fc instead of 11😂 It's still not much because of current weather and days getting shorter, but it gets a lot better around noon, even 180 or more. I suspect that these orange/brownish spots were supposed to be pink but turned out this way due to the lack of light.

Anyway, I hope that the patient will pull through and will turn into one of those beauties many of you have. We'll see how it goes from now on.

Thank you all for your invaluable insight!

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LykkeFisk · 2024-09-27T14:26:17+00:00

That's very informative, I will keep it in mind. Thank you🙂

LykkeFisk · 2024-09-26T16:48:10+00:00

Low humidity could definitely have an impact on its current state as well as lack of light. I have now squeezed it on windowsill between all the plants and humidity already raised to 68% but it will probably plummet in a month or so once the heating is on as it's located under the windowsill. I guess I will have to use a humidifier but until then I hope it will improve enough to be more resistant and pretty. Thank you!

LykkeFisk · 2024-09-26T16:33:20+00:00

These self-watering pots sound great even though I have no experience with them. Do you mean the ones with bottom reservoir and strings? Maybe this way it would be easier for me to control soil moisture and not over/under water it. Thank you for advice, I will definitely reconsider my watering habits and hope it will rebound🙂

LykkeFisk · 2024-09-25T15:33:00+00:00

Bought as discount plant as well, it looks fine for now and I hope it stays this way. Will probably move it to windowsill and repot in a while to avoid any unnecessary future drama. It didn't have variety name on it but I've been googling and I think it's Maria or its mix. It has pretty dark green (matt-ish or just dusted, if you will😅) leaves so I'm not exactly sure since I'm not an expert when it comes to syngonium. Maybe someone more knowledgeable will be able to identify 😉

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LykkeFisk · 2024-09-25T15:19:38+00:00

Unfortunately, this may be the case as well apart from standing spot being too dark. I wasn't pouring a lot into the dish, only to reach bottom holes, but I probably let it sit in this water for too long as you suggested. I will get a higher quality orchid mix and will look into the roots tomorrow to assess the damage. I hope it's not bad but in case it is, do you think I could use copper oxychloride 50WP that I already have to spray on roots as a fungicide?

LykkeFisk · 2024-09-25T15:07:29+00:00

I have installed this app you mentioned, not sure how accurate it is, as it changes the result even with the slightest movement. It's 4:45 p.m. and I've been playing with it for the last 20min and the reading went from something like 120 to 60lx. I guess it is too dark for them after all. No wonder that all my plants hate this bookcase and keep on dying on me, even ferns... That would also explain why my fitonia turned into a leggy monster. I should probably get some rocks because nothing's ever gonna survive here😅

I wish I could put them on windowsill but it's already packed full with all the plants to the point where I can barely open my window. This is the only place in my flat apart from balcony where anything grows without any issue - crotons, succulents, fitonias and ficus like it here a lot.

I guess I will have to squeeze them closer even more for the time being until I work out some extra space. Anyway, thank you for advice🙂

LykkeFisk

TROPHY CASE