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hi, i’ve been having such a hard time growing my pothos and my… | Pests, diseases and problems | Planta community

Rachel

hi, i’ve been having such a hard time growing my pothos and my monstera. i got the monstera (monstera adonsii) as a propagation last april and she thrived in water. i tried to pot her last summer and she got infested with fungus gnats. so back into water she went for the winter. i tried potting her again a couple weeks ago and her soil and the pothos got infested with soil mites, which i found out that they’re not bad but there were soooo many that it was a problem. my pothos lost all of his leaves except for one single baby leaf. i started a insecticide treatment and i left both of them outside yesterday afternoon and when i came back to check on them after a couple hours, the monstera was halfway out of her pot and her leaves ripped off. i pulled them both out of the soil and found that the pothos had severe root rot. i cut off the roots and now they’re both back in water. i’m literally about to give up, i’m trying to branch out and grow things that aren’t succulents but these two are giving me so much trouble. please help, will they survive?

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7 comments

  1. eatyacarbs

    wow…what a journey! but you’ve got nodes, so they should both be able to start over. i’d get a fresh bag of soil though 😂

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    • Rachel

      they both had two different types of soil, pothos had regular indoor soil and monstera had tropical soil. either one of them was infested and got the other or both were infested idk 😭 but i can’t keep buying bags of soil they’re so expensive 😭😭

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    • Teddy

      Do you have insecticidal granules? I liberally pour the granules into my soil mix and then will still top off a plant when I repot it and thankfully none of my plants have gone into shock or had pests

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    • eatyacarbs

      I recommend springing for one big bag of fox farm ocean forest & a big plastic tote with a lid to store it. Perlite and/or a bag of fir bark won’t cost you much and you can supplement for extra drainage & aeration — good luck!!

      1 like
    • Rachel

      hmmm no i used a insecticide from earl may, it’s all natural apparently but still not safe around ppl and pets which is why i took the plants outside to spray them down. i’ll look into insecticide granules tho, is there a specific brand that you recommend?

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    • Teddy

      Bonnide. I also use arbor products, they’re safe & organic! I have a cat and foster so I only use stuff that’s super safe. Check out bonnide captain jacks brew too, I spray my plants with it often

      1 like
  2. send_nodes

    Yes they’ll grow back eventually! Just an fyi for the future, mosquito bits will get rid of fungus gnats. Almost everyone with houseplants gets fungus gnats at some point

    2 likes