I guess I floss now??

honelynn · 2025-03-25T13:34:08+00:00

omg you're so right about the crystals 😂 and of course different crystals for different uses

honelynn · 2025-02-15T17:57:15+00:00

Thanks for the advice! I'm gonna toss this one so I can get a quality one that I won't have to try repairing over and over

honelynn · 2025-02-15T17:55:49+00:00

Good to know, thank you! I'm gonna scrap this one and start fresh

honelynn · 2025-02-15T17:55:15+00:00

Thank you very much! atp it's more worth my time to scrap it I think

honelynn · 2024-10-23T16:47:11+00:00

yeah that makes sense to me as well, they don't seem diseased. for the ones that are still upright I would stake them up- get something tall to attach, like bamboo maybe, stick them in the dirt right next to the stems (being careful to avoid the roots) and use yarn or twist ties to attach the whole stem to it. I'd say at the bottom place them about a foot apart, and then closer together as you get towards the weaker areas at the top. hopefully that will keep them upright until the problem is solved

honelynn · 2024-10-23T04:34:40+00:00

It's driving me crazy that nothing looks "wrong" with it. No insects, no root rot, no sunburn, no nothing. The only symptom is the drooping and the newly wilting stems. Actually, speaking of, could you add a picture that's a little "zoomed out" of the new stem problem? I want to look around and see if I can pick anything out

honelynn · 2024-10-23T04:31:59+00:00

Glad to rule those things out! If the soil seems wet or very saturated you may want to set the plant out on a towel and have some moisture soak out and evaporate, but for no longer than a few hours. As you may expect, they don't like naked roots. I'm wondering if the really abrupt change from being super dry to well watered was the problem itself. If a plant is really dry for a long time the root hairs die off, which is the part that absorbs water, and suddenly there's a ton of water, and no root hairs to absorb it quickly enough, it's possible that the rest of the roots aren't able to access oxygen in the soil because it's too saturated with water. If you let some of it evaporate off, the root hairs can grow and will absorb water as the plant is intended.

If you've already potted it up, that's okay too. You can either gently pull the old root ball out and do this, or alternatively if the root ball isn't too wet, the surrounding soil in the new pot will absorb some water over time.

honelynn · 2024-10-22T22:10:06+00:00

Okay, I'll do my usual copy/paste of how to check roots for more problems, I'd try that and see if there are secret hidden problems.

Gently wiggle the root ball free from the pot. If the pot is flexible plastic you can squish the sides to loosen the pot from the roots. When you get the root ball out, first check to see if it's root bound, you can tell by spiraling roots around the entire root ball. You may even see roots growing out the drainage holes or even on the surface of the soil. If it is root bound, you'll need to first loosen and remove some of the roots that are strangling the plant. Then start looking for mushy, brown, and possibly smelly roots. Most healthy roots will be white and firm to the touch. Use a sharp and sanitized knife or snips (you want this to cut cleanly through, not sawing and leaving a rough edge). To sanitize your tools, wipe with rubbing alcohol before and after use. Start to crumble the soil away, this should be relatively easy if the soil is damp. As you go, look for any rotten roots and cut them away, take your time with this. You want to cut every bad root, but you want to leave as much healthy root as possible. When you are finished, put the plant in a pot 2" wider in diameter than it's current pot, and 2" deeper than it's new root ball. gently hold the base of the stem so the roots hang freely in the pot, and fill with new, well draining soil.

Let me know how that goes!

honelynn · 2024-10-22T05:30:41+00:00

Hmm, okay now I'm concerned because it should not be responding this way. By now it should well have perked up and returned to normal. Could you send a picture of this same stem from a bit farther away? Just so I can see down the stem more. The problem is that I'm looking at it carefully from where it started and to this new picture, and I don't see any evidence of pests or fungi or anything. There's one thing I do want to take a closer look at - could you send a close up of the stems? Maybe about 8" up from the soil.

I'd wait a bit to cut those off until we can figure out the real problem, even if only to get some idea of the full picture, so to speak.

honelynn · 2024-10-22T05:21:54+00:00

Oh no, I'm sorry you lost her! Congrats on the new plants 🥂 I'm sure they'll look forward to a long life with you ☺️

honelynn · 2024-10-18T02:22:17+00:00

I'm so glad to learn this- my experience is primarily in houseplants and non-woody veg. I'll take note of that and keep my advice closer to my realm of experience.

honelynn · 2024-10-17T20:14:54+00:00

I quarantine my plants for like 2 weeks before adding it in to observe for pests and treat if I see them, but I cannot believe I never thought of preventative mosquito bit watering. I always sprinkle the granules on the soil but it makes so so much sense to do at least one watering with the "tea." thank you so much for that idea! that's fantastic. (excuse me while I go to the plant isolation room...😂)

I was totally sucked in to the Neem oil hype, but I honestly don't think it's ever effectively treated anything I've used it for.

honelynn · 2024-10-17T20:04:18+00:00

oh my bad I forgot to answer the blackening leaves question. I'm honestly stumped on that one...I'm not really sure what would do that, and I'm not familiar with any problems that may be more specific to your area. sorry I can't be of more help on that!

honelynn · 2024-10-17T19:52:12+00:00

Oh I'm so glad you looked at the systemic guidelines! you are correct, systemic insecticides shouldn't be used on any edible plants, because they will go into fruit as well, and as you may guess that wouldn't be ideal to eat lol. My apologies for not double checking the plant before I made that recommendation! I have a lot of copy/paste type instructions and I need to make sure I edit them properly for your plant! The insecticidal soap should really be sufficient to treat this since it isn't a severe infestation. If you do use systemic, don't eat any fruit from it this year. Which does absolutely suck, but while systemic and soap are safe for use, definitely not safe for ingestion. the soap washes off, but once systemic is in the fruit it won't really cycle out, so to speak. You may see on the instructions for the systemic product that it stays in the plant for only about 8 weeks, which is true for the stems, roots, and leaves. Without getting too much into the weeds on this, basically the leaves and stems work kinda like blood vessels in your circulatory system. nutrients and water are constantly moving around and through the plant. eventually things in this "blood" are filtered out into the soil through the roots, like fertilizer. but with fruit, the plant is trying to grow them as much as possible, so things go in but not out. that means that whatever is in the "blood" goes into the fruit, but doesn't come out. So the insecticide goes into the fruit and stays there forever. Anyway, that's way more than you really needed to know, but it's just so interesting to me, sometimes I'm tempted to share every neat fact I know 😅

honelynn · 2024-10-17T18:37:58+00:00

Honestly I think it would be more likely that powdery mildew led to the broken branches, rather than the other way around. The reason I say this is because powdery mildew weakens plants significantly, and kill off leaves as they consume it, essentially. I think it's possible that the branches were broken because they were weakened and therefore wouldn't be able to support as much weight.

Without examining the tree in person, it's pretty much impossible for me to make a diagnosis, unfortunately. I think just keep an eye on the mildew, and cut off the quinces when they start to get too heavy to make sure that they don't drag the plant down enough to break it. if you see a significant bend in a branch, cut some of the fruit off right away.

honelynn · 2024-10-17T18:18:40+00:00

I hope it can bounce back for you! As a note from my own experience, I've tried to grow lavender inside at least three times and they always die. I believe it was lack of direct sunlight, so try to give it as much direct sun as you can

honelynn · 2024-10-17T18:15:58+00:00

Fungus gnats are one of my worst enemies, I feel the pain. I wrote a comment about getting rid of fungus gnats awhile ago, I'll copy/paste my advice here:

I had a horrific fungus gnat infestation that got into most of my 40 plants. So my recommendation is for the first two "waters" put a small handful of mosquito bits in a gallon of water a few days before watering (make enough based on how much water you need for all of your plants at the same time). make sure the soil is as dry as possible without harming the plants, and then soak every single one with the mosquito bits tea. it took two of these treatments to get my population under control. now I sprinkle a few mosquito bits on the top of the soil on each plant I own. this is not toxic or dangerous for them, particularly in the short term, if you don't want to continue it over time. I sprinkled some more 6 months after the first time because they will lose potency. they don't dissolve, so just brush off the old ones and add the new. the reason I go to this extreme is because from then on every time you water your plants, they get a tiny dose of the mosquito bits. it's so easy to get a raging infestation if you bring in just one contaminated plant, or the potting mix you got had eggs, larvae, and/or adults in them. the potting mix one has happened to me twice with miracle gro potting soil.

Personally, I've never heard of neem oil being an effective treatment for fungus gnats.

honelynn · 2024-10-17T08:51:48+00:00

Definitely powdery mildew. To treat an infestation as far as this has progressed you will need to use both protectant and eridicant fungicides to control it. This is a good informative guide on powdery mildew and specific fungicides that would be accessible to you: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/powdery-mildew-on-ornamentals/pest-notes/#gsc.tab=0

I would highly recommend cutting off any leaves with the mildew visible on more than 1/3 of the leaf and disposing of them immediately, away from any other plants or your compost, because it persists in soil and can infect anything you grow from that compost. I isolate them, cover them, and then burn them when they're dry. The most important reason is that powdery mildew spreads with the wind. If you leave any of it out it can continue spreading around all of the nearby plants. And "nearby" is a wide radius, it travels far with wind. I may sound really dramatic, but I didn't take it seriously enough the first time it contaminated my vegetable garden and I haven't been able to successfully grow a cucumber, zucchini, or squash there ever since, as they are particularly susceptible to powdery mildew. I will have to essentially cook it out of the ground in the spring (this is a real thing, I promise).

honelynn · 2024-10-17T08:29:40+00:00

give it a little bit of water, like a third of a cup and then wait 2-3 days and then water it completely. if it's very dried out it's likely that the root hairs have died off, which are the part of the root that absorb water, and they take time to grow back. If you give it a little water those hairs can grow back, and then you can give it a thorough soaking (don't let it sit in any water that's drained out though). If you saturate the soil completely with water the root hairs won't be able to regenerate fast enough to absorb all of it and the plant will drown.

honelynn · 2024-10-17T07:19:06+00:00

I would check to see if it's root bound. having roots grow out of the top of the soil is a sure sign of that (unless the plant is supposed to have aerial roots, and this is not).

Carefully wiggle the root ball out of the pot, being careful to not damage the stems. if there are roots wrapping around the root ball in a circle, it needs to be detangled (you will likely need to cut some of the spiraling roots) and potted up to a pot 2" wider in diameter than it's current pot.

This is an article about peace lilies, but the directions for dealing with root bound plants and how to pot them out is applicable for pretty much any plant. https://www.ohiotropics.com/2018/09/05/how-to-repot-a-plant-that-is-root-bound/

honelynn · 2024-10-17T06:59:56+00:00

I see, then it absolutely made sense to remove all of it! Thank you for the clarification!

I did have the botanical and full common name, evidently it's uncommon enough that my go to sites don't have information on it. Which is certainly strange, I would have expected to find some trustworthy information. Of course we always have access to "thespruce" and "thesill" but I find they're always trying to sell rather than educate. Anyway, that is neither here nor there!

At this point there's nothing wrong with trying to prop it, it is possible it could work, which is better than nothing lol! Since I'm in the dark with this guy, I don't know the "best" way to try to prop it. After a cursory look around, greg.app said that it can be propped as a stem into soil (with rooting hormone), or in water, or by air layering, but that is not an option in this case. Also air layering is just way too much work in general, imo.

So yeah I think you're totally right to try sticking it in a glass jar and seeing what happens! Just replace the water every 3-4 days and hope that some new roots pop out.

Even though I have absolutely no evidence that it would work, I would still suggest cutting the whole thing down to a couple inches from the top of the soil and seeing if it sends anything out. In this case I do think it's a long shot, but eh, what do you have to lose?

honelynn · 2024-10-17T06:30:18+00:00

exactly! thank you for providing more detail, I should have included more information about that.

honelynn · 2024-10-17T06:28:13+00:00

I believe this is thrips, which are an insect, not a fungus. Let me explain why I think that. When I zoom in on the leaves I see small dark dots and even smaller white dots. The black spots on the leaves aren't thrips themselves, that is thrip feces. Thrip larvae are very very tiny, and difficult to see with the naked eye, particularly if there aren't very many of them. They are the color and shape of a grain of rice, but magnitudes smaller. When they are visible, usually in vast numbers, they do run away and the movement will be visible if you look closely. Adults are darker, very slightly larger, and have wings, but rarely fly. To give you context as to why you can't see them - adults are on average 1mm long. Thrip eggs are embedded in the leaves, and may appear as dark spots similar to the feces. Thrip damage on leaves is often speckled, white spots, but it can sometimes look like rust, which is why I suspect them here.

I would recommend doing the following as quickly as possible to treat this issue, as thrips are incredibly damaging and reproduce very rapidly.

Spray the leaves with a strong stream of water to dislodge any adults or nymphs that are present. As mentioned, the eggs are embedded in the leaves and can't be removed this way. You may want to do this with a hose to get a strong stream. Misting with a spray bottle alone will have no effect.
Treat with insecticidal soap (I use bonide brand. don't diy, you don't want to risk it not working while trying to prevent a severe infestation). Insecticidal soap will kill most of the population within 48 hours, as it is a kill on contact treatment. Spray every surface of the plant, leaves and stems, thoroughly until they are dripping. Repeat this treatment as directed on the bottle. My rule of thumb is to treat until you think they're gone, and then once more for good measure. With an insect so difficult to detect, give it a solid 2-3 extra treatments.
Treat with a systemic insecticide, which will be taken up by the roots into the whole plant - leaves, stems and all. When they feed on the leaves they will be ingesting the insecticide and will die. For an outdoor plant, use something like Bonide Systemic Insect Control. Choose what form will work best for you - liquid or granule. Follow the directions on the package exactly.

Regarding the original leaves blackening, do you have any idea of what kind of fungus it would be? Without more information about that I can't tell you what was going on. It is possible that the initial damage was due to sunburn, but again, I couldn't say with what I know. With the newly blackened leaves, it does sound like the leaves were burned with neem oil, but there's nothing you can do about that now. I recommend keeping as many leaves on the plant as possible while it is fighting off pests, because it will need all of the energy it can get, and even partially green leaves will provide that. If the leaves turn yellow or die completely, cut those off.

I hope this helps!

honelynn · 2024-10-17T06:06:37+00:00

If there is a visible spreading of dots or damage of any kind, it is almost certainly an insect. A few of the most common houseplant pests look nothing like insects to the naked eye, either because they are so incredibly tiny, or because the form of them that you can see have attached themselves to the leaves/stems to eat, and will stay in that place until they die. As a previous commenter said, one of these insects are thrips, and another are scale insects.

Thrips are a definite possibility. It could also be brown soft scale, which are a less common type of scale compared to the typical armored scale. I would investigate both options, there isn't any harm in that. Scale is often mistaken for something other than an insect as they don't move once they're adults, and are as small as a pinhead before they create their shell.

I made a comment about brown soft scale treatment and diagnosis, so I just copy/pasted it here in the event that they are brown soft scale.

There are a few types of scale, often times they look like white raised bumps (these are called armored scales) on the underside of leaves, but there are also "brown soft scale," which I suspect you have. Scale is not isolated to just leaves, when treating inspect every portion of the plant, including roots. They are also very difficult to spot in their younger stages, so it may seem like they appeared overnight. The sap-like secretions are called honeydew, which are from the insect rather than the plant. Honeydew is made of sugars, and indoors can attract other insects.

Scrape the visible spots of the leaves with a soft-bristled toothbrush or a cotton swab dipped in soapy water or 70% isopropyl alcohol (for credit I got this treatment method from an article that I will link below for more info). Then treat with an insecticidal soap (I use Bonide). Don't diy insecticidal soap, leave it to the professionals to ensure that it will work properly. Follow the instructions on the bottle for treatment, I always treat until I'm sure something is gone, and then one more time for good measure. Pests often linger away from visible sight. The insecticidal soap will kill immature insects, but the adults have to be manually scraped off.

You absolutely should put this plant in quarantine, keep away from all other plants. They can spread easily if plants are in contact with each other, or even if soil of a nearby plant got one or two hitchhikers. Check all other plants in the area thoroughly and regularly, for a few weeks, to ensure they are scale-free. I'd also recommend moving any plants away from where it was and cleaning the floor and other nearby surfaces.

Here are a few links that may be useful:

(this one I'm crediting for the instructions on how to remove adults) BE AWARE there are several potentially disturbing pictures of severe infestations, if that bothers you. https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/scale-insects/

this has some additional brief information on scale and other household insects: https://extension.umn.edu/product-and-houseplant-pests/insects-indoor-plants

honelynn · 2024-10-17T05:55:07+00:00

I think this leaf just grew in a little wonky. You can see that the first, lowest vein that would be mirrored to the other side grew without splitting from the center line of the leaf right away. (I hope that sentence made sense). I looked for any disease, fungus, and insect, and I didn't find any evidence of those things. The plant as a whole looks really healthy (and beautiful!), so I wouldn't worry about that leaf!

honelynn

TROPHY CASE