Scotty66: Hmmmm, that does look pretty reminiscent of my problem. That Bhut in the bottom picture as well as the top photo looks a lot like ground up "Wood" which is what my stuff was made out of. Coincidentally, both of those are the ones exhibiting the darkening of the leaves. The problem my plants were having was clearly the soil. I transplanted them all to an Orchid Mix and within a couple days they took off and the darkening is all but gone. I also started a brand new container of Sweet banana pepper seeds in the orchid mix and they are doing great with no darkening of the seed leaves or emerging true leaves whatsoever. Did you bottom water your plants (meaning you basically set them in a bucket of water and let the water soak from the bottom up)? If so, did your water begin to darken like a cup of tea after watering a couple containers. Mine did. But it stays clear with the orchid mix. I think there were tannins in that wood. Anyway, my advice is to get your seedlings into some more main stream growing medium asap. When I transplanted mine after 40 days, most barely had a set of true leaves. Some were barely visible and most had lost their seed leaves already. As soon as I put them in good soil, they began growing normal. They have made more progress in the last two weeks than they did the previous 5 weeks. Bruce

cut down to 3 inches.. skip magical root stuimulators.. or any other cost.. or fert ... water properly .. doubt you can kill the things .. i would have probably cut them down.. before i dug them up ... as flowers themselves... are always immediately sacrificed when doing this in the heat of summer .. again ... doubt you can kill the things ... besides.. you know where you can get more ... lol i might also have put them in a pot in damp media.. and put them in full shade.. and planted them in sept or so ... if they were more valuable plants.. worth the effort ... 'holding them over' if you will never forget.. just because you get your grubby hands on something.. does NOT mean its planting time ... many of the hardcore..have dozens of pots of stuff like this.. to plant in fall ... ken

Generally speaking - and I'm no expert here, just have a few houseplants and have been learning a lot from this forum - some plants such as the softer leaves ones will show their displeasure and happiness quite quickly by wilting or perking up quite quickly. But I think some of the thicker leaved firmer plants can look ok for some time even when declining (more water reserves, stronger leaf structure,etc), for example sansevieria (snake plants), so maybe rubber plants are like this too. What I'm trying to say is it may have been going downhill for longer than the two weeks of obvious symptoms. Plus it's possible really high numbers of fungus gnat larvae could have munched on the really fine feeder roots. Although I thought the roots looked good overall. I don't know about the white bugs, you'd need to be sure what they were to know if they damaged it. And the (necessary) repotting was another stress on the plant. Many factors to consider, playing plant detective. It may well be the additive effect of several things. You've had lots of good advice from the experienced people above, on light and soils etc. Personally I would now put it in a bright warm draft-free spot inside, and wait. Don't let the roots dry right out while they're recovering but don't let the soil stay damp either. To achieve this, try using a spray bottle of water on a gentle jet to target where the pruned rootball is, and at the times when you do water more thoroughly leave the pot tilted at 45 degrees (even 30 degrees will help) for 15-20 minutes afterwards and then sit it on towels or paper pushed up against the drain holes for a couple hours. This isn't to remove all the water you just put in, it is to reduce the saturated layer that occurs at the bottom, the "perched water table" (yes, it has a name) Dont fertilise until you see new leaves growing and don't sunburn it by putting it in direct sunshine outside if it's not used to it. Good luck!

I have two plants. One was turning dark brown on the edges. That would undoubtedly be from over-watering. The water meter read dry all around and moist in the middle. Water meters don't measure moisture, they measure electrical conductivity. Fill a clean cup part full of distilled water, insert a clean water meter probe and note it reads 'DRY'. Sprinkle some salt in the water (makes the water conduct electricity) and watch the meter move to 'WET'. It's much better to use a 'tell'. See below. I soaked it and the nursery said to take take it out if the pot and ket the rootball dry out. After I did that, I repotted and soak it. The advice to remove the root/soil mass was to pull the excess water out of it. Putting it back in the pot and soaking it undid what would have otherwise been beneficial. I also cut the brown off of the edges. No problem in doing that. You should find this piece about Good Growing Habits helpful. The shortest route to green thumb status starts with learning all you can, instead of trying dozens of different things and ending up totally confused by the mixed results. When you learn what to do beforehand, you don't spend your valuable time getting bit on the butt by mistakes; rather you use your practical experience to validate what you already learned. Practice that, and you'll leave the 'trial-and-error crowd' standing in your slipstream. Using a 'tell' Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant. Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor. In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water. The advice to water when the top inch or two of the soil is dry is almost always counter-productive. Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'. One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue. Al