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Fungal or Bacterial infection on pothos?

2 years ago

My pothos has become covered in yellow and brown patches, it started out with just a few spots and now it’s covered the whole plant. Does anyone know what it is and what i should do?

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Comments (4)

tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
2 years ago
How about some hints as to how you care for it.

tj
HU-758601014
Original Author
2 years ago
I bought it like 4 days ago so i’m not sure how it was previously cared for, i haven’t watered it or anything yet bc it seemed like it was just watered when i got it. It already had some of the yellowing when I bought it but I didn’t think it was too serious and didn’t really notice it that much until i had already brought it home.
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The yellow comes before the brown and dry. It's a tad tough to figure out how to water when you've moved to a larger pot. For one thing, the water will go thru the new potting mix much more easily than through the original dry, cramped rootball. Other questions remain, especially about your statement that you watered before repotting. Are you certain the mix was moistened throughout? (With a cramped root ball, most likely it wasn't.) It's wise to soak the original rootball prior to repotting, whatever the reason. So, because the thing was potted up only 2 months ago, I think I'd tip the whole thing out -- over a tarp or newspaper to limit the mess -- and let the "new" potting mix fall away. Then I'd soak the original rootball and again re-pot. If you don't want to do that, I suggest you stick the entire pot in a bucket that has enough water to cover it. Wait until the bubbling stops, or a maximum of 20 minutes, then remove & drain.
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I think part of the problem is that you put the leaf in a plastic bag. Therefore, most people, who are also not idiots, would conclude that the leaf rotted because it was in a plastic bag. It would be like using a steak knife to get ear wax out of your infected ears, and then asking the doctor if the ear infection was already there or the result of sticking a steak knife in your ear. also, how the heck could we know what type of pathogen it is just from looking at it? Both idiots and plant pothologists would be stumped by this, though I suspect that idiots might be more stumped. as Karen said, you might want to think about why your plant collapsed in the first place. I strongly recommend using neem oil regularly with watering to keep plants healthy. I have a three in one neem oil fungicide that works beautifully. Also, you could consider using fungicide when you repot as a preventive measure. I do that when I am potting up a cutting with roots.
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 years ago
where are you .... big city name.. and how cold was it when you carried it home ...

imo ... no disease process happens in 4 days ... it was damaged either by you.. or in the shipping process [which i would personally blame...lol] ... its what we call.. shipping damage.. or shipping stress

and i dont recommend doubling your investment by buying 'cures' for things that dont happen that fast ...

and there is nothing to do to save those leaves... they will eventually fail and fall off ... and an otherwise healthy plant will grow on from there... but who wants to look at that ....

id return it ....

ken

ps: i usually work under that assumption that growers have lots of laws to follow that insure they are selling 'clean' stock .. rather than highly infected plants that fail a few days after the buyer gets them home ... leading me full circle to shipping damage/stress
Kelsey
2 years ago
This looks like cold damage to me.

Did you buy this from an Etsy shop based in LA? I bought two Pothos N'Joys in late December (same pot as yours), with a heat pack, and they weren't shipped till a few weeks later (when it was colder) on a FRIDAY, so they sat in the post office all day Sunday. Upon arrival, the heat pack was cold, and there was some obvious yellow/brown spotting on leaves closer to the roots, but the trailing leaves all looked healthy. I hoped it would recover, so I didn't contact the seller. It lasted longer than 4 days, but after a month or so, the cold damage started spreading (rapidly) to the trailing leaves. I tried to leave some healthy leaves on the trailing vines to help with light absorption, but it got to a fish or cut bait point, and I snipped all the ends that didn't have damage themselves to try to propagate them. I removed the most severely damaged leaves so the plant could focus it's energy on recovery, but I'm not sure those hard hit vines (or their root systems) will come back.

Luckily, there are still a few short healthy leaves (no trailing vines) that are doing well in each plant, but it's not the lush 6" trailing plant I paid for.

Hopefully you were able to get a refund or replacement from the seller. If you were able to salvage the plant, an update would be welcome!

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