I have a dieffenbachia and it's about two years old. I would like some advice to get optimum growth and health for the plant. I water it between once and twice a week, mist the leaves a couple times a week, and fertilize about every three months. It's near a window that faces northeast. I'm wondering why it gets yellow leaves fairly frequently. It seems to start around the tips or entire edge of the leaves and is pretty hopeless once it starts to turn. By the time it withers I pluck it off. Also I have seen some dieffenbachia plants that are so big, taller than 5 feet. Does mine have the capability of getting that big? Any advice is welcome.
My thoughts exactly - it might be catching too much chill from the window. In northern climes, Dieffs do much better on interior walls where they still get reasonable light; it's bright enough for them to grow well, but not so cold that they wither up and lose leaves. Yours is a D. seguine cultivar, which means that yes, given time and adequate cane support (they can get floopy above 3' tall) it has the possibility to get quite tall. They're native to forests about 50 km downhill of where I live, and there they're generally good to about 4' before they fall over and re-root themselves.
Thank you both. Yes it is above 65 but in winter may be 68 or 69. I will try to move it a bit further back from the window. Do you think about 7 feet from a window is too far?
I my student days I read that Dieffenbachia was a plant that grew horizontally along the ground and in the wild did not grow upward as houseplant lovers like to grow it. It would be interesting to read what a natural botanists had to say about this.
I can offer my own observations in the forest.... Wild Dieffs grow upright until they're about 3-4 feet tall, then flop over and grow horizontally from there, reaching for as much light as they can get.
