My colleague and I have adopted a plant in our office after our company canceled the plant service. We wondered if anyone knows what type of plant this is? It is getting brown spots mid-leaf on some leaves and seems to be dropping a few yellow leaves every week. It also has a clear sticky substance in very small droplets under some of the leaves. We named this plant George and would hate to lose him, so we would appreciate any info anyone can provide. You may be able to see in the second picture that he has put out some sort of bloom, so other than what I've listed he seems pretty healthy. I can attach another photo if these are not good enough to distinguish. Thanks, Patricia and Laurie
i basically agree with draceana...not quite sure, tho. could you post a pic of the whole plant straight-on so we can see the whole thing? i can see the top-covering...that's just decorative moss. what kind of soil is it in? does the container have drainage holes in it? how frequently have you been watering? and how much when you do? the small sticky droplets indicate infestation of some kind...can you take a really good look at the undersides of the leaves and see if you see anything? could be aphids (which are very small and sometimes clearish in color so can be hard to see) or scale bugs (pretty obvious in adult form as they have a hard outer shell and don't move too much, juveniles are smaller and without the shell and move around a lot). if you see any, please try to get a good/clear pic...if not, a very good description (size, color, etc) would work to id.
I think I'm wrong and it's actually a Pleomele reflexa sorry about that, I forget about this one and have always wrongly classed it as Dracaena.
well, sometimes it seems to be classed as a drac. i googled pleomele reflexa and different sites/sources have it classed all over the place! definitely IS pleomele reflexa, though...chungii, most sites i found to mention 'dracaena reflexa' as a synonym...so, i guess you were right to begin with :) okay. this one seems to be susceptible to mealy bugs, scale and spider mites - i doubt your issue is mites though as you'd see webbing and would have mentioned it. plus, they don't leave sticky residue (that i know of anyhoo). most sites say partial sun/shade or indirect light, so if you've got it in front of a very sunny window, that may be an issue. consensus seems to be to water regularly and to not let the soil medium completely dry out. one site even specifically stated that the leaves could become spotted due to excessive chlorine in the water... for any plants, it's a good idea to allow your water to sit overnight so excess chlorine can dissipate and for the water to be room temp when adding it to the planter (so the roots aren't shocked by too cold or too warm water, depending on season). let us know what you come up with in way of bugs infesting it!!
You are awesome! I really appreciate your quick and knowledgeable response. I've attached another shot showing the full structure. It's the best I can do with my camera phone, but maybe I can use a camera with a closeup lense and get a picture of the droplets. He's probably around 7' tall. The window faces South. I've not really noticed all that much direct sunlight, but I'm probably just not paying attention. We have not been all that thoughtful with the water usually just getting water from the sink in the break room once a week when the soil seemed to be drying out. We also have one of those Aqua Globes I got in an office Christmas gift exchange, but I don't that's really doing anything but looking pretty...it still has water in it when the soil is dry and the leaves look less than perky. I'll tell my associate and we'll do better on that. We've talked about getting Miracle Grow or some kind of plant food, but I was hesitant until I could find out what it really was. The plant and soil are in a black plastic liner pot that sits in the decorative one and judging by a similar arrangement left over from a plant that didnt make it, there is draining. I've been with this company about 1.5 years, and I think they have been in this building around 10 years, which I'm guessing is the age of the plant and the plant's soil. Of course, it could be less. We noticed the droplets under the leaves when we decided to rotate the pot since that bloom or whatever it is was smashed against the glass. Maybe the leaves were turning toward the flourescent lights and we didn't notice the underside until we turned the pot. I guess the treatments for the problem differ depending on what kind of critter it is. I did see what looked like a very small cobweb, but no signs of a bug. Guess I need a magnifying glass. Thanks again for your comments, and we would love more advice when you have time.
okay, that's definitely the pleomele! spider mites make very fine/small webs - not like regular spiders webs...so, you may have two issues going on there. the mites are hard to see...most times it's the webs that tell you they're there. misting the plant will add humidity and the mites don't like humidity so they'll eventually leave. you can add in a drop of dish soap or cooking oil to the water in the container and that will spur on the demise of the mites. will also work with getting rid of scale bugs, too, to an extent. i think some scale also leave 'dew' (the sticky stuff you're finding) just like the aphids do. please take a good look at the plant - all the leaves and all the trunks - to see if you can get a look at what is there...some scale are dark and others light, so you really need to look very well at the trunks as they would be easy to miss if they're the same color as the trunk! look for odd bumps that look out of place. i'd suggest putting some pebbles or small rocks in the bottom of the planter and setting the plastic insert on top of them...so any excess water is not keeping the bottom of the planter soggy (soggy soil can cause roots to rot). repotting should be done every 2-3 years and when in doubt about last time it was repotted, just repot. it's too early yet and you've got some kind of infestation going, so now is not the time to be adding more stress to the plant. fertilizing right now is also not a good idea, which you realized yourself. the southern exposure is okay as whatever direct sunlight it gets is more morning sun and that's not as harsh as afternoon sun. the plant generally looks pretty darn healthy, so it obviously likes the spot...if it's not broken, don't fix it :) fix for the watering issue: buy a gallon jug of water and use it up by watering the plant(s) and then just refill it with the water from the available tap and let it sit (with the lid off) for a day and then put the lid on and store it somewhere (away from light) until you need to water the plants again. for this pleomele, in the size container it's in, it should need watering every 2-3 weeks. once you've got the bug issue fixed and the plant is recovered from that, you can repot it. when you get to that point, you may need to get a larger container (depends on the size of the root ball) or you might just be able to remove the old soil and replace it with new and use the current container. you won't know until you unpot it, though. it's probably going to need a bigger container, though - especially if it's been more then 5 years since it was done.
Joclyn, Thank you so much for your indepth analysis. We really appreciate it, and we will let you know how George fares. I feel much better now that I know what type of plant he is and how to proceed to improve his health. One last question. I referred to a sort of bloom that suddenly appeared...what is that really and what's the purpose? Cheers and have a wonderful weekend.
you're quite welcome - always glad to help out a fellow gardener!! it's normal for them to bloom at this time of year...not a very remarkable flower though. you can cut the flower stem off once it's dried out, if you like.
Just a littel note it is verry hard to transplant a plant in a pot like that, you might have to do some root triming just to get it out.
blake, the plant/soil is in a plastic insert that's inside of the ceramic piece - so it shouldn't be too difficult at all. they'll just need to run a knife around between the soil and plastic to loosen it all. some root trimming may be necessary though, once they get it out and have a look at it.
