I think this is a watermelon money plant ? Correct me if Iām wrong ā¦ but it is my favorite plant right now because Iāve successfully propagated it and itās been sprouting lots of babies since I moved it into soil š„° my concern is there are like 10 fruit flies in the soil at all times :( Iāve been spraying it with neem oil but it hasnāt helped . Any tips or tricks ? Thanks in advance š
Watermelon peperomia š
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Definitely a watermelon Peperomia. Iāve got one myself (her nameās Wanda). I have a feeling what youāve got is fungus gnats, which has quite a few options for treatments, but those treatments can take weeks. If you wanna try treating it first, you can use diamactous earth or mosquito dunks. Itāll probably take a couple of weeks, but people swear by them. Option 2 is you soak the roots in a mix of 1 part hydrogen peroxide and 2 parts water for 30 minutes, gently rinse the roots off with room temp water and repot in fresh soil, and bottom water that plant from now on, then place some sticky traps around the plants near it, and in its new soil to prevent attracting new gnats
Gnats arenāt gonna kill your plant, but theyāre annoying and they spread to other plants. They love moist top soil and are especially attracted to overwatered plants, so bottom watering is really key to make sure they donāt come back, as well as repotting it in a fresh soil mix. I like recommending repotting if itās only one plant cause itās a lot less time consuming in the long run and reduces the risk of the gnats spreading to any other plants you have. If youāre new to bottom watering, look up āhow to bottom water a plantā on YouTube. Itās really easy, and all my peperomias love it. Helps promote a stronger root system and prevent overwatering too, which is really key with peperomia. If you need any soil recommendations, I swear by Espoma, I use a mix of 20% of their cactus and succulent mix and 80% of their all-purpose mix to keep the soil well draining but still retaining enough moisture for a plant that comes from South and Central American rainforests. Please avoid Miracle Grow. Itās a fungus gnat magnet, and it can stay too moist for way too long, and lead to root rot for succulent and succulent like plants like peperomia, especially if you live in a humid climate. I know the app says to mist them, and water when the top layer of the soil is dry, but Iāve found mine like acting like succulents, and if you donāt want the gnats to come back, donāt mist it, and let the soil completely dry out before watering. Hope this helps.
2 Likes Last thing I wanted to add is that you might wanna check that the app isnāt telling you to water too early. as the seasons change, the app might tell you to water it more or less often, but Iāve noticed a glitch where the number of days before watering is WAY off for some of my plants, but the app gives the correct number if you look the plant up through the ID search section. If the number the appās giving your plant doesnāt match, then youāve got that glitch, and should check any other plants youāve got. You can remedy this by going to the plantās custom settings and changing the watering where is says ācustom care scheduleā from āno, use Plantaās adviceā to āyes, use custom scheduleā, and change it to match the ID searchās number. I do this every month now, I know that sounds annoying, but Iām currently beta testing for the app and Iāve brought it up multiple times on the feedback section. I really hope they fix the bug, cause it can kill plants quickly, or lead to gnat attraction.
It should take you to a page that looks like this when you say āyes, change to custom scheduleā. This is what mine looks like during the fall for my jade. Iām currently watering my peperomias every 10 days. If it says anything earlier than that for your watermelon peperomia, change it.
