Why are my Syngonium Albo leaves distorted?
Hello.
I have a Syngonium Albo that I’ve had for about 4 months. It seems to be healthy as it’s growing steadily and keeps its variegation. It is planted in Terracotta in an airy soil mix. I’ve given it a moss pole to climb. I water when the soils is about halfway dry. My only problem is that the leaves grow distorted/misshapen (See photos). I haven’t been able to detect any pests on the leaves or in the soil and I think I can exclude the mosaic virus as it’s growing and doesn’t show the typical mosaic pattern. I’m growing it in medium bright light, it receives an hour of evening sun. Can anyone tell me why my leaves look like this? The old leaves I got the plant with gave the typical arrow shape (See Photo 6)
thank you!
Comments (7)
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 years agoRelated Discussions
Transparent Leaves on Syngonium?
Comments (15)I figured there was an interesting story to the leaves. Gramma advice, IMO, is usually about 80-90% true. Trying to isolate that part from the rest is when the value can be capitalized. So she said to lay the leaves there & the fungus gnats would be repelled. Specifically bay leaves? Fascinating! No idea how to research that one... "Fungus gnats, made it to a 12" pot, root rot..." and every pic of your plant shows dark, moist soil. All of this in general says to back off on the frequency of watering. This type of vining, creeping plant doesn't need much soil relative to its' size, compared to a lot of other kinds of potted plants, so can take a long time to dry in a same size pot with a similar mass of foliage as compared to many other plants. If drying more is not enough to combat that stuff, like rotting roots and fungus gnats, the soil may just be holding onto water far too long for the roots to ever 'breathe.' Drying of itself can sometimes fail to get rid of FG's too, though almost always good for plants, but never to the point of wilt. There are some good discussions here about other measures if you find it necessary sometime....See MoreOrange Hab with small distorted leaves
Comments (2)Sorry again, I have just scrolled down the FAQ and found that I can't post my image direct (so why do they have the camera icon against the Hot Pepper forum?) I am waiting for my ISP to tell me how I can put images on their server, and then I will post the pictures. In the meantime perhaps someone can tell my problem from my description?...See MoreSyngonium Albo - weird shaped leaves
Comments (4)When you see hooked or misshaped new leaves, the most likely cause is a culturally-caused deficiency of Ca(lcium). Ca is essential to the formation of cell walls, so for cells and tissue to form normally, Ca must be in the nutrient stream at all times. Even when there is an adequate supply of Ca in the soil solution, a waterlogged grow medium can prevent Ca uptake. I suggest you start monitoring your moisture levels at the bottom of the pot through use of an inexpensive tell you can make from a wooden dowel rod (14 Or 5/16 diam - any hardware or home imp store) for next to nothing. See "Tell" below. Also, it's unlikely the fish meal product you're using is appropriate for your plant. Plants use about 6X as much nitrogen as phosphorous and about 3/5 as much potassium as nitrogen. Fertilizers with a 3:1:2 NPK RATIO provide nutrients at almost precisely that rate. NPK %s are different than the ratio of each ingredient to the others. Examples of the NPK %s of some popular 3:1:2 ratio fertilizers are 24-8-16, 12-4-8, and 9-3-6. I've been using Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 for all my plants for decades, and have seen nothing else on the market that makes me even want to consider a change to anything else. I can list all the reasons it's a superlative product if you'd rather not take my word for it. 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. Al...See Morewhat's wrong with my syngonium albo vari?
Comments (2)can we see the pot... is it the right size.. how old is the media .. how about any info about the plant.. besides the pix ... we dont have much to go on ... are the plants outside where are you.. what do you consider hot now... why would you not expect watering protocol to change in summer??? does the pot drain.. do you let it near dry between waterings??? if you have many.. and much experience.. and only this one is problem... could it be that the problem is that this is the plant with the most white tissue.. and that is part of the base problem.. if so.. i might have a theory.. ken...See MoreMålin
2 years agolast modified: 2 years ago
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
2 years agolast modified: 2 years agoM - First, the hooked leaves with misshaped margins isn't due to issues related to light.
You need to be careful about trying to increase uptake of a single nutrient by adding more of it; this, because an excess/toxicity of Ca can cause a deficiency of Mg (magnesium). If the reason for the deficiency was/is culturally caused, and I suspect it was/is, the best path to resolution is by way of correcting the cultural cause. The reason I suspect there is no actual deficiency of Ca in the medium is, the medium would almost certainly have been pH adjusted with dolomitic lime, which contains Ca and Mg in a favorable ratio, and your plant hasn't been in the medium long enough to have depleted the Ca. Not only that, but the Mg fraction contained in the liming agent/dolomite is about 125x more soluble than the Ca fraction. This means a Mg deficiency would very likely appear precedent to a Ca deficiency.
The best way to resolve this issue isn't by focusing on fixing a Ca deficiency; rather, by focusing on ensuring your nutritional supplementation program is holistically appropriate. I'm not sure if you live in the US, but Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 fertilizer is an excellent source of nutrients and all your plant needs for normal growth and vitality. Everything I currently grow is fertilized with FP 9-3-6 with the exception of tomatoes and (when I grow them) hibiscus. For those I still use FP 9-3-6, but I doctor it with soluble forms of P and K from other products.
If you do decide to treat the deficiency rather than correct the cultural cause, I suggest you use a product that also contains Mg ...... something like Cal-Mag (click link), which will help keep the Ca:Mg ratio balanced to prevent the antagonistic deficiency I explained somewhere above. If you use it, use it as a soil drench only; this, because the Ca fraction of the solution is not mobile in the plant, so it will not provide added Ca to new growth as it appears. As a soil drench, it would be constantly in the nutrient stream. But again, the best way to address it is with a fertilizer that has all essential nutrients (including all micronutrients) in an appropriate ratio.Last, moisture meters don't measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the probe, add distilled water to a clean cup, insert the probe, note that it reads DRY. Sprinkle a little table salt in the water to add a few ions, and the needle moves to WET. A wooden "tell" will tell you accurately when it's time to water. I'll leave you with something I wrote about using a tell.
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.
Edited to say: This thread might be of interest as it talks about the likelihood more harm than good will come from trying to treat a deficiency of a single nutrient.
Al
Målin
2 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
2 years agolast modified: 2 years ago
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)