I think it would be speculation to declare anything. Uh, what are bottom leaves?

I’ve seen this before! On my crassula “baby necklace”. I ordered it from Leaf and Clay and it came to me that way. Then they started popping up more. I picked them off... never saw them again. But I also sprayed with Bromide neem oil solution after picking them off (it works as an insecticide and fungicide, just to cover all the bases) I have an extensive peperomia collection and never seen the brown dots on any of them, only the crassula. Weird. I would just grab tweezers and pick them off, then spray with your preferred insecticide just in case, and then call it a day unless you see them again. It didn’t seem to hurt my crassula at all and they continued to grow normally during and after the spots.

Hi there- I adopted a small watermelon peperomia plant from a friend several days ago (Thursday). At the time, the soil still looked moist so I held off on watering the plant. The first photo shows the condition of the plant when it was brought home. However, when I checked on the plant a day or two later, I noticed some dark brown scarring had appeared on the back of several leaves and one yellow/brown spot on the leaf’s edge. You can see this in the second and third photos. I’ve checked the leaves for any webs, and other pests I can realistically see under a bright light. Does anyone have suggestions for what else I can do for this poor guy? Thanks, T

Some people use neem oil, others use diluted Castile soap. I tried the soap but ended up going for a topical insecticide. If I could get my hands on a systemic I would use that, but in Canada I can't seem to find one. I wasn't super diligent about doing that regularly enough, so in the end I cut off any affected leaves. I read somewhere that thrips lay eggs in the leaf cell tissue so the eggs are fully protected from any topical applications. I now remove any leaf on a plant that looks to me to have pest damage. I think this practice is what got rid of the thrips. Then again, my watermelon peperomia has only one sad leaf now, so I don't expect you'll want to go that way. Can you post a picture of the underside of that leaf? Elena