Please help with fungus? problem

Hello,

I'd appreciate some of your opinions on a serious plant problem. I just have a few houseplants that are about five years old but they're from my father-in-inlaws' funeral and I'd like to keep them growing. Overall they've been very healthy even though I've transplanted to bigger pots three times. For the past couple of months I've been snipping off a lot of dead leaves and they're not lookin' good. The problem seems to start with a few small light-colored spots on the leaves which quickly turn into darker rusty-colored spots. Shortly thereafter the affected leaves start to curl and then turn light beige and die. It started with one plant and seems to have spread to the others. I'm thinking it's some sort of fungus (rust?) but since they're indoor plants and my three cats like to nibble on them I don't want to use anything that would hurt animals. I've used some of the 'Safer' brand products for other problems but I'm really not sure what to do for this one. Any help or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx in advance, NRJ

Reply to
Navin R. Johnson
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Do you know wht kinds of plants they are? i can understand that you have reasons to keep them, but considering what kind of plants they are will tell more about this than anything else, right now. Some plants require radical treatment every couple of years after doing time in a container, and this may include things other than just transplanting them. hermine

Reply to
hermine stover

Thank you for responding so quickly. I'm sorry but I don't know all the names of the plants. Each pot has a varied mix. Some of those I do know: devil's ivy, dieffenbachia, spider plant, grape ivy, calathea and philodendron. It looks like this problem is showing up on almost every plant - not the spiders though. It's like one day a leaf will look just a bit spotty with small yellowish areas. The next day there are darker brownish rusty looking spots on the tips and outside edges of the leaf. The next day the leaf curls and starts to look like it's drying out. Then larger dry beige colored powdery looking areas appear and the leaf is basically dead.. I did take a couple of infected leaves to my local nursery to show them. They recommended a broad spectrum fungicide but wouldn't say whether it was safe to use around cats and grand-kids. Although, one guy told me to be careful not to get it in my eyes because it could make me go blind. I declined.

I don't know a lot about plants but I've always been able to keep them growing for years and years. These plants started out in three small baskets. After outgrowing the baskets I transplanted everything into three large 2.5-gallon pots. They did well for a couple of years then got rootbound again. At that time I basically pulled everything out and got rid of some of the less attractive plants, and threw away the old dirt. I also trimmed the roots and pruned back some of the wilder plants, separated them all and replanted again in the same 2.5-gal pots

- with brand new high quality soiless potting mixture, with time release fertilizer. That was about a year ago. The ?fungus? problem showed up at the end of summer (Sept) and it may have been due to my 'helpful' wife misting the plants with water too often. I rarely use fertilizer, mainly because it's included in the soil mix and I don't want a lot of green growth - just enough to keep them alive and happy.

I want to do something but I'm just not sure what. I know it's extremely tough to figure out what's going on just by me describing things here, but at this point these plants are dying and I have no idea how to stop it. If any of what I've described sounds familiar, please don't hesitate to post. Thanks again.

NRJ

Reply to
Navin R. Johnson

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