Okay guys, I am in drastic need of assistance. I have never been an alocasia person, but decided to pick one up from my local nursery. She was doing good at first but overtime she’s gotten worse and now it’s spreading. Did i do something wrong?
You bought the easiest alocasia. Can you take a picture of the whole plant?? How much light does it get??
1 like Lmaoo, well that’s lovely 😭😅
its currently getting 14 hrs of lights a day
0 likes I honestly don't see anything wrong with it as it is normal for leaves to drop when a new one is coming in. Make sure you keep the top soil wet.
2 likes Does it have a drainage hole?? Are you using spag moss??
1 like it has drainage holes but i’ve been bottom watering so the top soil hasn’t been wet at all. Should i switch to top watering, and also add sphag moss on top?
0 likes I never bottom watered before, so I can't say. Perlite at the bottom, spag moss in the middle and soil at the top.
1 like okay thank you! i appreciate your help
0 likes Alocasias love to be wet or atleast damp.
0 likesAs long as the roots can breathe, but they hate wet feet if they can’t breathe in my experience. That’s why I go semi-hydro now
1 likeOverall, I’d say it looks pretty happy actually! If you feel like you’re having more leaves drop than has been normal, it’s most likely humidity, the plant wants more fertilizer, or root rot. It could just be struggling with lower humidity in winter. It looks like you have it in a pretty chunky potting mix, which is great. So as long as you haven’t been letting the soil stay water logged, root rot seems unlikely. These plants do hate wet feet when potted in soil though, so it is something you could look into. Beyond that, as Amber pointed out, it is a common for these plants to drop their oldest leaves as they put out new leaves. I don’t think that has to be the case though. I highly recommend looking into LeafyDiva on YouTube. She Shes a great source for alocasia care, and since I’ve switched to self-watering pots like she recommends, I’ve found that my alocasia have been able to maintain many more leaves! My regal shield hasn’t dropped a lead in over a year, and it even moved this summer!My personal modification to LeafyDiva’s methods is to use sphagnum moss as my only potting medium. I haven’t encountered an alocasia that doesn’t thrived in loosely packed sphagnum moss in a self-watering pot, and I’ve never had root rot this way either! Also, this isn’t the source of your problem, but this looks like an Alocasia cuprea “Red Secret” to me. Black velvet has trichomes the leaves.
2 likes thank you so much!!
0 likes Which self watering pot do you have??
0 likesLechuza is my favorite brand, but I most my plants are in cheap knockoffs of it at this point and are just as happy
0 likesAlso, here are my credentials with this plant. It lost all the leaves to industrial dehumidifiers after our home flooded, and then got root rot when I tried to remedy that. I got it to bounce back even stronger by loosely packing the corm in sphagnum moss in plastic wrap. That was a last ditch effort, and I’m shocked how well it worked! Once it started to recover, I moved it into a selfwatering pot and have kept it in all sphagnum moss wrapped
I'm not an expert, but I believe you have a cuprea red secret. Black velvet is matte black with velvety leaves, cuprea is metallic copper,/ bronze/ green. They're both similar in care. I can't give any advice on care in soil, as mine is in semi hydro. I do recommend checking out the Sydney plant guy on you tube. I would also recommend checking your leafs for any pests, especially spidermites, they can be very hard to see, they like to hide out in the veines of the leaf. Once you figure out the care, it is one of the easiest alocasias. I've attached a pic of my black velvet ( top left) and my cuprea. The leafs get more defined pillowy look as they mature.
I’d be a little cautious about keeping the top of the soil consistently moist. When the surface stays wet, it usually means the soil below is staying too wet as well, which can slowly lead to root rot. With my Alocasias (Regal Shield, Dragon Tooth), I let the top couple of inches dry out before watering again. Constantly moist topsoil (especially with top watering) can also invite fungus gnats.
2 likes