Hello! New to the forums, I purchased a wandering jew plant yesterday and sprayed horticultural oil on it as a precaution to not contaminate my current plants, but I woke up this morning and noticed some discoloration on the edges of the leaves, also the areas where its discolored looks more translucent and rotted than the rest of the leaf. Any ideas if the horticultural oil did this? If so, any suggestions as to what to do?
Perhaps it is phytotoxicity from the oil: Horticultural oils - CT Integrated Pest Management Program.
That seems likely - I showered the plant this morning hoping to remove as much of the remaining oil as possible, other than the cosmetic damage, do you think the plant will stay alive,
You purchased this plant without any transportation? Did you purchase it with its previous location, like house?
I purchased it from a plant nursery and it was in perfect condition, sprayed the horticultural oil when I got home and it was still fine, when I woke up this morning the brown spots were there. I believe it’s most likely the phytotoxity
With increased awareness these days about how insensitive or pejorative names hurt different groups of people, I think it is time for this website to disallow the term 'Wandering Jew' to refer to Tradescantia zebrina. Why this Houseplant is Called the Wandering Jew - Jewish Telegraphic Agency What's in a Name? Why We Won't Use T. zebrina's Common Name — House Plant Hobbyist Opinion: A grassroots effort is needed to rename this plant Why We're No Longer Using the Name Wandering Jew. And many more . . .
I hope, that this will never happen. It would be much better, if there was a ban of pseudo scientific myth busting, that hurts many people, who have successfully practiced traditional methods and solutions that mythbusters try to bust with their demagogy. But even there I'm actually against the ban - that would be against free speech. Anybody has right to feel offended by anything written here anyways, so what is the point of bans?
So the plant is still in the nursery? How the other ways it is possible, that there was no transportation involved? To make things clear, by transportation I mean moving something from one location to another.
These brown spots look exactly like the result of mechanical bruising of delicate leaf tissue. Typically to the transportation damage, the most affected areas are in the outer perimeter and more on leaf outer edges, not so much in the centre. These bruises will not kill the plant, but will not heal quickly, so better is to avoid such mechanical damages as they affect general appearance of the plant for pretty long time.
This happened to mine the day after I watered it for the first time and water splashed onto the leaves. After cruising the internet it appears this plants HATE getting their leaves wet, and turn brown wherever the leaves come into contact with water. I've almost given up on mine now, since it's so difficult to water it without getting it wet...I am generally pretty good with plants, but this one is too high maintenance for me!
If that's the case then you could try: Using a transmission fluid funnel (which has a long tube attached to the funnel): Stop the hose end with your thumb or finger, fill the funnel, place the hose just above the soil, then remove your finger to release the water. Bottom watering: Water into the saucer and allow the soil to absorb it.
I use an enema syringe with a narrow plastic tube attached to the end for watering hard to reach seedlings under grow lights. This works well for watering any plants without wetting their leaves. For indoor watering, I also use emptied Sriracha bottles, which also avoids wetting the leaves. For watering large numbers of containers, nothing works better than an old, clean pesticide pump sprayer with the spray nozzle removed.
