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afbq

Browning leaves on my plant

afbq
11 years ago

I have this plant that I bought from HD. I love it as my mom had one for years when I was growing up. I don't know the name of it but she called it "Mano de Leon". Well, the plant I bought was nice and healthy with big mature leaves. I brought it home and those leaves browned and died but there were lots of new leaves growing in. Then THOSE leaves would brown and die. I thought it was b/c I placed it near a heat register and I thought the leaves were burning b/c of the heat. I moved the plant to the other side of the room where it still gets plenty of light. Again, new leaves come in nice and green but turn brown and die off. I would really like to know what I am doing wrong with the plant. I water it once or twice a week, when the dirt is dry but never too dry. Since I don't know the plant name I need help with that too. I hope the pictures are helpful

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Comments (8)

  • zusya
    11 years ago

    Hey afbq

    That is a philodrendron. Someone will tell you the specific type, I'm sure. It doesn't sound like you're overwatering it, and I see you have a saucer under the pot, so I'm assuming the water can drain away when it needs to. That's really important, not to let them dry out completely OR leave them standing in a pool of water.

    Definitely move it far from your heat register. Dry air will hurt this plant. It would love to be near a humidifier if you have one.

    I'd also check for scale. Losing leaves from the bottom is normal, but not at that rate. I've definitely brought home plants from HD... including philos... that were secretly harboring pests. Check the underside of the leaves. Good luck!

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    It looks like the pot may be packed full of roots. If the roots have no more room to grow, the foliage will suffer. Also, if the soil is difficult to get wet in the center, or is staying wet for too long, the plant won't like that. How's it doing?

  • afbq
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks for your reply! The soil absorbs the water very well and it drains on the bottom (if I over do it). There are a couple of new leaves that have come in and not browned but a couple that have. :(

    The new website format is wonky. My pictures and the words are stretched wide. I'm not liking it.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Putting enough water so it flows out and through the holes (at a sink where it won't fill up the cache pot) is a great thing to do, at least once in a while, to make sure moisture is reaching all the way through the root ball and flushes out impurities from the soil. Then allow it to finish dripping before putting back in the cache pot, and to dry significantly (but not completely) before adding more water. Were you thinking about putting it outside for summer? Higher humidity might help it "feel" a lot better. Possibly more sun while inside, and on the floor is where the coldest air is. Any place higher, nearer to a window, for it?

    I like the slickness of the new look but had to change the writing to a MUCH larger size. Your pics look fine to me. Sometimes an ad comes up that makes a page weird. If you reload and get a different ad, that can fix it.

  • afbq
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Not fixing the pics with a reload, but other posts w/ pics look fine. How are you chaining the font size? Mine is too big.

    RE: my plant, I will put it out this summer, that's what my mom used to do. It's location is the best I have in the house. I could move it to a different room but it will be close to the heat register again. I keep my house at 62 at night. Could the drop in temp from 70 to 62 cause that?

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    It's pretty cool in my house too, 60 when we wake up some mornings. But that's 5 ft. above the floor, it's much cooler down on the floor. If that's the spot with the best light, maybe you could find a little stand or table to put your plant on. I try to keep all but the really big ones up on something. While it's cooler, plants need and use less water.

    If you hold the ctrl key and tap the - key, the font will shrink each tap. Hold ctrl and tap + for bigger writing. I think that works on any browser. You can also go to the options and set the overall text size but not all web pages heed that setting.

  • buyorsell888
    11 years ago

    Philodendron selloum or similar

    Is that a 10" nursery pot it is in? If so then watering once or twice a week is way too much water if you are watering correctly and thoroughly soaking the soil. If you are only dribbling in a half a cup at a time that is not enough.

    I would use a half gallon pitcher on a pot that big...I would put it in the bathtub or utility sink.

    It is hard to thoroughly water big plants indoors as the saucers overflow. If they get really dry the soil pulls away from the edges and water runs right out and doesn't soak the entire rootball.

    When I was selling big foliage plants like that I didn't water pots that big more than once every couple of weeks or more but I soaked the heck out of them to make sure they were good and saturated.

  • stewartsjon
    11 years ago

    It's Philo Selloum or Bipinnatifidum or something like that.

    Being pot bound shouldn't be a massive problem, we've got some really potbound ones going great guns.

    Got to be either environment (heat/light) or pests. Check the leaves, keep it above 60 degrees or so, and get it in to as light a spot as you can. I don't _think_ they can have too much light - I've seen them doing ok in full sun, maybe these kind of philos need more than the others?