Help please! My Pancake (Pilea peperomioides) is looking sad. I got her at the beginning of the month and a couple leaves were droopy, repotted her a week ago because there were some extremely tiny white bugs in the soil (not spider mites though), but now the droopy leaves have started turning yellow and developing brown spots. I haven’t watered her since repotting and the soil is still a bit moist, but there was no sign of root rot. Ideas? Thanks! 🙏🏼✨
Hi there, a couple of thoughts: soil staying moist too long usually means there’s not enough aeration to help dry it out. I always add perlite to my soil mixes (a mix of chunky/coarse perlite and the smaller grain perlite) - the ratio I use starts at 1 cup repite for every 3 cups of potting mix. 2nd thought is that plants like this one have pretty fine roots and it’s very easy to damage them during repotting - the leaf issues could also be related to that. If I suspect root rot, even if I don’t necessarily see it, I give the pot a soak in a hydrogen peroxide and water mix (ratio of 1 part hydrogen peroxide to 3 parts water) for about 20 mins. Best of luck with your baby!
3 J'aimeThank you!! I did add perlite but at a 1:5 ratio, so next time I’ll up it following your recipe. Planta is telling me to water but the soil is still moist, so I’ll pass for now. Do you recommend pruning the damaged leaves? Noted on the roots and jotting down the rot strategy! Thanks so much （＾ν＾）
1 j'aime No worries! Yep those leaves aren’t going to recover. Just keep in mind that if you lose more and more leaves you may need to repot this/propagate it again to start growing new roots
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