My Pothos is turning yellow
hellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years ago
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jamilalshaw26
8 years ago
laticauda
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoRelated Discussions
pothos dying after repot? help
Comments (1)It's simply showing signs of stress... whenever you repot a plant, it gets stressed a little. It should bounce back just fine within a week. Pothos plants are very resilient. The only "bad" thing you did was water on a set schedule. It's better to water thoroughly when the soil has become mostly dry. This might mean twice a week, or once a month, depending on conditions....See Moreneon pothos turning yellow?
Comments (7)Perlite is a volcanic rock baked at super-high temperatures to create popcorn like air pockets in it. Miracle Gro steeps theirs in fertilizer, yes, but it isn't in itself a fertilizer -- just a soil amendment to provide aeration. Since it is a rock, it discolors with exposure to the elements (water and air) and becomes a host for (healthy) microbials. Over time the perlite will turn beige and/or brown. If it turns green, you've got algae growing and are probably badly overwatering. I would second Karen's question about the pot's drainage hole and also ask about your watering habits. Are you sticking a chopstick/skewer in (all the way to the bottom) to test for dryness? Roots need air as much as they need water, which means giving the dirt a chance to get almost completely dry before drenching it again. Otherwise, you suffocate the roots and lose leaves....See MorePothos leaves turning yellow
Comments (13)I'd bet it's over-watering, too. I would repot the plant using ballast in the bottom of the pot, which will go a very long way toward fixing the water retention problem. Learn more about ballast. I don't know if you realize it or not, but mixing water-retentive media with an equal measure of perlite is actually a step backward, no matter how counter intuitive that might seem. To visualize why, let's use BBs as a substitute for perlite and peat will take the place of the medium you felt needed amending. Let's start with a jar containing 4 cups of BBs. In the mind's eye, you can 'see' all the lovely air spaces plants love between the BBs. Now, add 1 cup of peat, and mix. What happened to all the air porosity between the BBs? They are full of peat ..... so what has been accomplished? Peat or perlite - doesn't matter which, roots cannot grow into the space occupied by either. So, you have 5 cups of soil, only 1 cup of which can support root growth. AND, the level of air porosity in the spaces between the BBs is exactly what the level of air porosity is in peat alone. The only good thing that occurred is, you reduced the o/a amount of water the soil can hold, but for that, you reduced the volume of soil available for root colonization. It would have been better to stick with your medium, unamended, and used ballast to eliminate excess water. If you want to take advantage of the added porosity and drainage pine bark, perlite and an assortment of other mineral products CAN offer, it's important to keep in mind there is a threshold % at which these ingredients can be considered as providing a significant improvement in your soils' porosity. You cannot start with a predominant fraction of a water-retentive medium and add an equal measure of something coarse and expect aeration to improve. The volume of coarse material added, you will find, must be a very large fraction of the medium, certainly more than 75%, which means you wouldn't be amending the water-retentive medium with coarse material, you would be using the fine material to adjust water retention of the coarse material to a level that you prefer. For the most part, the more often a planting needs to be watered, the greater will be the promise of plants realizing as much of their genetic potential as possible. Al...See MoreNeon pothos turning yellow
Comments (8)Accompanying the fact the pot has no drain hole is the near certainty that over-watering will become an issue no matter how careful the grower is about watering or well the soil is constructed to promote aeration and drainage. Additionally, 'no drain hole' ensures that all dissolved solids (salts) in fertilizer solutions and tapwater will accumulate in the grow medium. As the level of dissolved solids increases, it limits water's ability to pass through cell membranes. Eventually, the level of salts becomes high enough that water stops moving into cells and starts moving out of cells; this, by exactly the same mechanism by which curing salts pulls water from the cells of pork for ham/ bacon, beef for beef jerky or summer sausage. The scientific name for the inhibition of water movement into cells is 'plasmolysis'; most likely because the disorder pulls plasma from cell walls, killing the cells. Most growers are unaware that the plant response to a high level of salts in the soil, under-watering, and over-watering, are all the same. Each of these imbalances causes a drought response which includes shedding of leaves. Over-watering robs the medium of oxygen essential to normal root function, so all three reasons limit a plants ability to take up and move water efficiently. If a plant could think, it would reason that since my water supply is dangerously limited, I'd better do something to conserve water loss. Since transpiration is by far where the most water is lost, shedding leaves is the best response to limiting water loss. BTW - if you haven't noticed any wilting of your plant, it's unlikely you've been under-watering, but not impossible. Symptoms of drought stress are first made manifest in roots. Since we know your plant is shedding leaves, the logical 'next step' is to determine why this is occurring (and those bases have been covered) or at least adopt cultural practices that prevent the plant from having to shed leaves to conserve water. Since a high level of dissolved solids (salts) AND over-watering are both fixable by changing to a pot with a drain hole and adopting the habit of flushing the soil regularly so salts cannot accumulate in the soil, it makes good sense to make those changes. Under-watering, if that's in play here, is easily fixed by monitoring the moisture level deep in the pot and watering at appropriate intervals. See "Using a Tell" below. When you switch to a pot with a drain hole, you should thoroughly flush the medium by slowly pouring a volume of room temp water equal to at least 10X the volume of the pot the plant is in evenly through the soil. This will reset the available nutrient level to near zero and should be followed by fertilizing with an appropriate fertilizer. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 will serve you very well. It has an appropriate NPK ratio and contains all nutrients essential to normal growth. 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. 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 the 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. BTW - early spring is the worst time to repot most houseplants, including pothos. Plants are normally at their lowest ebb in terms of energy reserves after a long dark winter of poor growing conditions, so an early spring repot most often means an unnecessarily long recovery period during which the plant is extra susceptible to insect herbivory and disease pathogens. Late spring, as in immediately before the summer solstice (21 June in the Northern Hemisphere) would be ideal. If you live within 20-25* of the equator, when you repot matters much less. Potting up, different and much less effective than a full repot, can be done anytime with impunity if you're careful about watering in the first months of aftercare. Al...See MoreUser
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agolaticauda
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agolaticauda
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoI'm excited to see the pictures!
I guess they cover the squiggles with plastic because they contain mercury. Is it plastic?Yeah, we've broken a few but you are actually supposed to evacuate all living things from the home and call HAZMAT to come clean it up.
Rhipsalis are very eager plants.
now, regarding your pothos, I'd be tempted to tape it up or place it on hooks along the wall so it could vine and climb around the perimeter of the window sill.
I'm cureentry growing mine up between two bamboo poles. I got this as a single cutting back in...July?
please pardon the empty spots, I have a Monstera lechleriana that lives there but is in the shower. These pots are AWESOME for rooting Pothos. There are also two rooted some other variant similar to N'joy.
hellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agolaticauda
8 years agoUser
8 years agolaticauda
8 years agoUser
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agojamilalshaw26
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agoUser
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agoUser
8 years agoUser
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agoUser
8 years agojamilalshaw26
8 years agoUser
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agoLet me show you a picture of the hook I use to hang the plant from. I buy it at Home Depot, and it just screws into the wood frame
myermike_1micha
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agoThis ungrateful plant has gone from bad to worse. I ordered medium sized pumice. I'm going to chop it up completely, and root the cuttings in a mixture of pumice and a little turface. Maybe having it in an inorganic media it will do better long term
hellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years ago
Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
8 years ago
Mentha (East TN, Zone 6B-7A)
8 years agohellkitchenguy Manuel
8 years agomyermike_1micha
8 years agoTiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
8 years agoMentha (East TN, Zone 6B-7A)
8 years agoJessica
5 years ago
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