My Alocasia all but died in the three weeks I was away, though it was being cared for, out of its usual jardiniere so that it would not ever be sitting in water. It was also moved to the kitchen counter, away from the cold covered balcony window and heat vent where it has been living for several years, happily except for recurrent spider mite attacks, treated by running water over the leaves. I have removed all but one of the older stems; there are a few very young stems that seem ok, so I'm giving it a chance to start over. When I got back, I noticed the purple sort-of sticky liquid stuff on several of the older leaves. Does that indicate overwatering? The white bumps near the midrib that look like aphids are part of the leaf. The remaining leaf has them too. They don't scrape off.
I suspect, that this could be related with temperature drop. Have you read this thread in Reddit? My Alocasia is bleeding, please help
Thanks, Sulev. It was nice to see that it's somewhat common on Alocasia. Suggested causes in that thread were the usual range of guesses from social media: a weird fungal or viral infection some kind of shock response from moving a big drop in temperature recently cold drafts or cold air guttation combined with a fungal disease poor drainage hibernation spider mites Edema or oedema I didn't turn off the heat while I was away. I had done the spider mite rinse under the faucet before I left; I can't remember if I saw webs at the time, but I didn't see any on the drooping leaves when I got back.
