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beatricesamson

Help! Brown leaves of tricolor & light green variegated rubber plants!

Bea Samson
5 years ago
Hi! I would very much appreciate it if you can give me advice as to how to help my plants get better!

My family and I have been taking care of some plants for our house since we moved in about 6 months ago. We've liked rubber plants (my mom used to have a big rubber tree in their backyard when she was very young), and so we bought 3 before (on separate times, of course) for our new place. We've been happy with the plants we have, for they make the house look livelier. Our first three rubber plants have been doing well together with our other indoor house plants, and are currently in our living room.

It's very rare to get those here in Manila so I took advantage of the opportunity to get them when the supplier said they're finally available. We bought 2 of the lighter green variegated ones about a week ago, and one tricolor rubber plant 4 or 5 days after. I had the lighter ones repotted (for aesthetic purposes) on the same day as when I got the tricolor one, then the tricolor one was transferred to an actual plastic pot (originally, it was in a plastic bag-like material "pot"). It's summer here in the Philippines (South East Asia), and the air has been generally very warm and humid. The garden/store owner placed some "Osmocote" last Friday (when I had the plants repotted with fresh soil) as vitamins supposedly to help make these babies better.

It's been worrisome, and we are praying the new plants don't die. It's just now that we've been experiencing such problems with our plants. We've been paying extra attention to the new rubber plants, but 2 of them don't seem to really get any healthier.

LIGHT VARIEGATED RUBBER PLANTS:
Before I even had them repotted, I noticed that one of the light green variegated ones has been developing brown spots/edges. The newer leaves seem ok, and there will be a new one coming soon, but majority have some brown parts like in the photos. The other smaller, light green one is still fine for now. Will update later in the morning if it's still all ok.

TRICOLOR:
The upper/newer leaves of the tricolor seem ok (- new leaf shall come out soon, shoot seems reddish and ok) but majority of the leaves below has been problematic/unsightly. When I checked the underside of the leaves, it was a bit rougher than the usual texture I think.

I don't soak the soil excessively when I water them because we place them indoors in the living room. I just water them outside on the patio, with water enough to make the soil moist and I make sure they are not sitting on still, excess water when on their respective plates. There are sliding doors and windows with screens to allow sunlight to enter (but not directly hit and/or burn the plants) and allow air to circulate freely. Recently, I even had a fan in the area to help have better air circulation since it could get very warm and humid during the day. After watering them last time, I let them have some cooler air at night outside by the sliding doors and get them early morning at around 6/7am here. No killer morning sun yet.

I already wiped and misted the leaves the other night. When I checked them tonight, they still have those brown spots that don't seem to stop appearing, and instead, are getting worse. I watered them a bit tonight because the soil was already dry. It gets a bit warm at night inside the house since we need to close majority of the windows for security reasons, so I left them again outside by the door to get cooler, circulating air and will get them in a few hours. What do you guys suggest I do to make them recover/be healthier?

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I hope you can help out!

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