Yeah I think you're right about the white; looked again today and it was gone. The scale on the last plant if there is subtle, but how about the numerous non-subtle brown spots, some of which look eaten into the leaf? Some kind of mite? If so, here's the combo I've come up with: Acephate - Amazon: "97UP 1lb bag Generic Orthene Insect & Fire Ant Killer" - http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05507.html says "Insecticide with some effectiveness against spider mites. Systemic." Forbid 4F - eBay: "Free Forbid 4F Miticide Spiromesifen 1/4 OZ free gift when u purchase 3 pipettes" - "Like Avid, it is translaminar. The active ingredient, spiromesifin, while not systemic (i.e., it does not move through the plant’s vascular system like, for example, Merit does), is absorbed by the plant’s leaves and will move from the tops of the leaves to the bottoms where the mites feed." A lot of the more mainstream systemic products use Imidacloprid, and while they don't claim to work against mites, they also don't mention that one reason that spider mites become a problem is insecticides [such as Imidacloprid] that kill their natural predators.

no one? the plant is an ivy that the association planted on one side of our house. A couple of years ago it started having these brown spots and started declining. The association planted another 4 small plants that got sick too :( and nothing else. I was hoping I could save it....

Azalea Gall. The pods start green and-or pink. Then they get a white-ish color when they release the fungi. You need to prune them off as soon as you see them and throw them away in the trash. Throw away the leaves too. Unfortunately, there are no resistant azalea varieties or a fungicide that you can use. Another approach may be to interrupt the life cycle of blisters early (by pruning these blisters) and make conditions difficult for fungi, in a way that would not harm the health of azaleas. What I meant by interrupting the life cycle ... The new bulbs have green or pink colors. After a while, the blisters develop growth similar to white mold, which is when the fungal spores start to spread. So, remove the blisters when they are green and have not released their fungal spores yet. It would take several years to be effective if you have many but, after several years, pruning off the blisters would reduce the number of blisters you get. To make the environment difficult for fungi: I would increase the sunlight in the area of the affected azaleas (you could for example prune trees or raise their canopy); replace the mulch with a new mulch (the old mulch may have a lot of fungal spores); collect all plant debris a.s.a.p. (leaves, branches, flowers) and throw them in the trash; and consider switching to drip irrigation (this will reduce the humidity of the environment and will not make branches and leaves of azalea wet). When my sprinkler broke, I replaced it with a drip irrigation system to reduce humidity because my hydrangeas had a lot of Cercospora leaf spots. If your soil is often wet or soggy, I would reduce the amount of water a little. Also, if the azalea plants touch each other, consider trimming to prevent one plant from easily infecting another plant. And just consider a little more cutting to add sunlight inside the dark areas inside the azaleas. Pruning and opening the plant in places provides more sunlight and can also dry out wet parts of plants. I guess you could call all of these things good sanitation techniques that can help you reduce the blistering problem. They make the environment difficult for fungi. I have not heard of fungicides that have successfully solved this problem, so I recommend cutting the bulbs and making them as uncomfortable as possible. But this was odd: I visited the website of the Azalea Society of America recently. In one web page on this subject, they simply said there were no effective fungicides. And on another web page, they said to collect the blisters by hand, destroy the affected leaves or try to spray the leaves with one of these products and then determine if they help or not: Bayleton ( a systemic fungicide developed by the company Bayer), Ferbam (a chemical that is often used as a fungicide), Captan (a former systemic fungicide) or a fungicide based on fixed copper. They recommended starting spraying at the end of the flowering period and continuing at 2-3 week intervals until mid-June. So try these sprays to see if they help or not (they may only help to control a bad infestation, not to cure the problem).

Hi, Carmen. It's quite possible the spoiled foliage is a manifestation of watering it "when the soil starts to dry". If you're following the commonly parroted advice to water when the top inch or two of the grow medium feels dry to the touch, you're over-watering. By way of repetition, that advise has become pretty much a reflex reply, but it's really a recipe for over-watering. If you're using a pot that's say 10" deep, when the top inch or two of the grow medium is dry to the touch the bottom 6" (or more) of medium can be 100% saturated. this limits root function, can destroy root health, and robs an untold % of your plant's potential in terms of growth, vitality, and appearance. When root function is limited, the ability to efficiently move water to the plant's distal parts is curtailed, which causes necrotic areas on leaf tips and margins. Over-watering can also cause a physiological disorder called oedema/ edema. Your plant presents with both symptoms. Complicating the issue is the fact that your grow medium looks very water-retentive, and your plant really should be treated as a succulent because it's so intolerant of wet feet. If your pot is deeper than 5", it really doesn't matter how dry the top 2" of the grow medium are. Most of the roots in the upper 3rd of most soil columns serve primarily as plumbing anyway. They lack the almost microscopically fine roots that do the lion's share of the plant's heavy lifting, and as such relatively unimportant. What is most important is moisture conditions at the bottom of the pot. The grow medium in the deepest part of the pot should be almost completely dry before you consider giving your plant more water. You can monitor conditions there best by using a homemade wooden tell. I'll leave some additional things I wrote about using a tell and oedema. I think that will help you get your plant back on track, though the signs things are better will be found only in unblemished new growth. It would be a good idea to talk a bit about your watering habits, and to make sure you have a nutritional supplementation program that fills your plant's needs. Let me know if you want to have that conversation, because they are key elements of any care regimen. This link should help, too. 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. Oedema Oedema (aka edema) is a physiological disorder that can affect all terrestrial plants. It occurs when the plant takes up more water than it can rid itself of via the process of transpiration. The word itself means 'swelling', which is usually the first symptom, and comes in the form of pale blisters or water-filled bumps on foliage. Under a variety of circumstances/cultural conditions, a plant's internal water pressure (turgidity) can become so high that some leaf cells rupture and leak their contents into inter-cellular spaces in leaf tissue, creating wet or weepy areas. Symptoms vary by plant, but as the malady progresses, areas of the leaf turn yellow, brown, brown with reddish overtones or even black, with older damage appearing as corky/ scaly/ ridged patches, or wart/gall-like bumpy growth. Symptoms are seen more frequently in plants that are fleshy, are usually more pronounced on the underside of leaves, and older/lower leaves are more likely to be affected than younger/upper leaves. Oedema is most common in houseplants during the winter/early spring months, is driven primarily by excessive water retention in the soil, and can be intensified via several additional cultural influences. Cool temperatures, high humidity levels, low light conditions, or partial defoliation can individually or collectively act to intensify the problem, as can anything else that slows transpiration. Nutritional deficiencies of Ca and Mg are also known contributors to the malady. Some things that can help you prevent oedema: * Increase light levels and temperature * Monitor water needs carefully – avoid over-watering. I'd heartily recommend a soil with drainage so sharp (fast) that when you to water to beyond the saturation point you needn't worry about prolonged periods of soil saturation wrecking root health/function. Your soil choice should be a key that unlocks the solutions to many potential problems. * Avoid misting or getting water on foliage. It slows transpiration and increases turgidity. * Water as soon as you get up in the AM. When stomata close in preparation for the dark cycle, turgidity builds. If you water early in the day, it gives the plant an opportunity to remove (for its own needs) some of the excess water in the soil. * Put a fan in the room or otherwise increase air flow/circulation. Avoid over-crowding your plants. Al