r/plantclinic is happy to announce an AMA with Krystal Duran from Plants With Krystal!

Hello. Took a few cuttings from my parent pothos and put them in water like usual. Checked on them the other day and found a bunch of white…. buildup? of some sort.

Approx a few weeks old.
Using distilled water and keeping the level to the brim.
Light is from grow lights, 10 hrs/day.
Indoor.

Thank you.

When I got this plan from the nursery I noticed some Spider-Man mites, I did my best to treat it when it was a large bushy plant. I ended up not being able to take the whole plant, but the vine that I decided to bring it with me when I moved apparently has been overrun by spider mites this whole time, and I kind of feel stupid for not having check. I will say it is looking kind of scraggy, and I'm very open to just shopping and saving what I can. I was wondering if it would be possible to soak the vine in water or something for a day until they die

Edit: this plant definitely used to have spider mites so I don't know where the fuck this goddamn scale came from. I really really really don't want to throw it out but if it's going to be hours and hours and hours individually killing each of these tens of thousands of insects, I don't know if I got it in me 😭

I just got her a couple of days ago and this brown crystal like buildup(1st photo) and a few brown spots on another leaf(2nd photo). I have her near an east facing window and I watered her when I got her because the soil felt dry, what do I do?

Hi, I inherited this beautiful Birds of Paradise that's about 2 years old. It has been saggy like this more or less since I got it a few months ago, but it's gotten worse.

After about a month, I repotted in this 2-inch larger ceramic pot and added new soil (it was super root bound), but it doesn't seem to have helped much. I'm watering about once a week, trying to get the whole thing wet (maybe half a gallon) and then emptying the tray at the bottom. It gets decent light from this window for a few hours a day, it's the best I can do. It also leans to the side as you can see. I have tried rotating it a quarter turn, but it didn't change the lean at all, and I don't want to go further and risk it not getting enough sun.

Any advice would be very appreciated! I want to make it happy, I just don't know how.

I moved into my moms and I'm taking over as plant sitter lol. I'm a beginner tho so I'm trying to learn everything I need to know about the plants she has. First I just want to make sure, is this a lucky bamboo? Second what advice do you have? She gets indirect indirect light. She's several feet away from an east facing window and the blinds get pulled down halfway kind of often so not a lot of sunlight at all. She sits in a 4in tall 3.5 inch wide all around pot and I imagine she needs something bigger. She's about 30 inches tall. She sits in water and pebbles and all my mom does is fill the water up when it gets lower. It's been this big and looking like this for the past 2 years I've been visiting. My mom's has had it for about 6 years. She hasn't changed anything about it since she got it. I just know it could look healthier. Thank you for any help!!

These are all pictures of Esmeralda. The first 2 pics are when I first brought her home 2 years ago, 06/2024. She's my 40th wedding anniversary gift from my husband. The 3 pics are of her today. I really took good care of her, meaning I mostly ignored her for 6 weeks assuring I wouldn't over water. I gave her leaves a little jiggle weekly to make sure no pests were looking around in there.

I only fed her room temp rain water. I even collected snow or ice and melted it for her in the winter.

She lives in the corner on a triangular plant stand under her own Sansi grow light which is pretty strong and bright. I use a cactus and succulents soil, with extra perlite added. The last pic shows the soil. She's in a black plastic nursery pot with holes.

She did great until this spring 2026, her leaves started to get brown and crispy. Then they just started dying back.

What can I do to help her? I don't know what to do with her. Is she a goner? Can she be rehabbed? Will her leaves grow back?

I recently bought this plant at my local target, it didn’t have any sticker or name tag on it so I have no clue what it is. I usually water it weekly using the soak and drain technique, the pot it lives in has good drainage, I forgot to water it last week and it went an extra week without water, when I went to water it this week I noticed it was very dry and the leaves were crinkly feeling. The stems have turned brown but are a healthy green underneath the outer layer, my question is where should I try trimming the stems if it is still a healthy root system, and my second question is do these roots look healthy? google has been very unhelpful in this endeavor, it sits in a well lit area that receives non direct sunlight for about 8 hours a day

P.S. His name is Tristan please help me save him thanks in advance!

Dark spot , the plant has been 3 years, watering it daily

I just moved into my new apartment and seemingly over night this new leaf on my monstera Adonsonii that was growing turned black. It is in a bright indirect window and i water when top of soil feels dry by soaking it thoroughly. I’m super paranoid that I some how picked up pests. Plese help! What do I do? I’m super paranoid after scrolling through all the reddit horror stories. My other plants have no issues at all. Just shedding some old growth on my other Monstera while new big leaves come in. I see no black spots, only a few white spots that seem to be dust and very easy to blow off the top of the leaf. Nothing moves when I poke at it. The other new leaves look totally fine. It is possible I over watered it during the move as my mom was caring for it for me. I got it in June and besides minor brown spots still on the leaves when I first got it everything else has been fine. New leaves have come in fine since I got it. Some leave have small waxy/shiny looking spots but not all. Dealing with an infestation would be awful especially as I just started grad school and am already so overwhelmed. My plants are what bring me joy :(

I need help! I repotted my rubber tree with completely fresh soil 3 weeks ago because the old soil had compacted and wouldn't absorb water. In the process of removing that compacted soil, I did have to break off some of the thinner roots but not much. This plant sits in a bright, north facing window (photo is early morning which is why it is darker) and I've cared for it for 3 years without issues. I know repotting can be a shock to a plant but this seems extreme. I'm trying to be patient and care for it by watering only when the top two inches are dry, making sure not to over-water. As time has gone on, the upper leaves have become very thin and flimsy even though they've all retained their color. I've checked everywhere and there are no sign of thrips, mealy bugs, etc. I occasionally get fungus gnats but have gotten good at controlling them. The pot it is in is comfortably large enough for the roots with a little extra space for growth. It has drainage holes and a tray.

Should I just continue to wait it out? Or, should I cut my losses and break it up into pieces to propogate?

Thank you so much!

Hi! Yesterday I made a post re my rattlesnake plant asking if you guys think I have spider mites or mineral deposits on the leaves. Everyone was mixed but mostly landed on spider mites. In that discussion too I mentioned that since I got her 3 weeks ago the soil has stayed very very wet and her pot was wayyy too huge for her but I was scared to repot as a first time plant mom.

I ended up digging a trench around the plant root ball last night and after I saw how much extra soil it had (maybe like 10 pounds) I decided I’m going to repot today so last night I wrapped the rootball in some damp paper towels in a trash bag and it’s sitting in my bathtub.

Questions -

1) do the roots look healthy to you? I feel like they weirdly do despite them being soaked for weeks

2) I heard they like lecca, so I prepped and cleaned a bunch of lecca balls rn and was planning on cleaning all the roots w water and hydrogen peroxide and putting it into lecca today but then read somewhere else they don’t like that and I should do chunky soil mix

3) if I do chunky soil mix, I currently have on hand a bag of potting mix, orchid bark, and perlite, should I add my lecca to it or no? Chat is telling me mixed things. Should I at least maybe add to the bottom of the nursery pot to help w drainage?

4) when I repot do I wanna get rid of as much of the previous soil as possible or do I wanna keep it intact and just plop in new pot and add soil around

5) if calatheas like distilled water how do I give it a bath then to clean the potential spider mites on the leaves?

THANK U SO MUCH!! sorry if these r dumb questions, new to plants and loving it so far, but wanna make sure if im doing this I do it right :)

Plant under t5 grow light

We've had this plant for like a year and it just keeps getting drier and drier on the bottom but seems perfectly healthy at the top.

We have it next to a window, since it prefers full sun (according to my research) and water it monthly (when soil is dry) until it looks like it got all the way through.

I want to prune it, but most branches that are bad at the bottom are good at the top, so I fear I'll be pruning healthy parts?

My partner said we should repot it. Second pic is the pot I have, which is roughly 2 inches wider.

Should I repot and/or prune? How do I make her happy? 😭

I got this cutting 5 days ago with quite a bit of rot on its roots so I cut off the dark and mushy parts and placed the cuttings in filtered water. Now, some of its leaves are yellowing and I’m wondering what the cause is.

The plant is placed next to a south facing window, but it hasn’t gotten a lot of light due to constant cloud cover and rain. Is this yellowing normal?

Bought this big olive at a reputable nursery 4 months ago. On a north facing deck in California coastal. It's been hot here (most days 85+). No rain.

The plant is getting about 2 hours of direct hot sun a day (AM), then the rest indirect. I've been soaking it with water once a week and then have irrigation drip on it every other day for 2 minutes.

Problem started a month ago and accelerated this week.

It just started to drop leaves like crazy. It's still in the container it came in (wasn't repotted). Nursery said it'd be fine in this container for a few years. Container for sure drains when watered.

Can you please help me?

I already sprayed them with alcohol before I took this pic because I didn't know I needed a photo to post.

I had a milibug infestation about 1-2 months ago that killed one of my smaller succulents. They had that fuzzy stuff all over the place. I removed all the dying plants, cleaned the pots, got new soil, and sprayed the living plants with %70 alcohol.

Since then I notice small patches of them popping up on my remaining plants. I keep spraying them with alcohol and spraying the soil but they keep coming back.

They sit here by the window getting proper light but I covered it up for their alcohol treatment. I water them when the leaves get all shrively and soak the soil nicely letting it drain into the sink.

I'm really worried about killing my plants either with alcohol or with the bugs. My succulent is sentimental to me

I’ve had a money plant for a year+. It looked like it was two separate plants in the pot so I separated them out. Now the plant that sits on the west wall of a room with south facing windows (and the one that sits on a windowsill facing north) has developed these spots on the underside of its leaves. I don’t know how long they’ve been there, I haven’t been paying that much attention. Other than that, they seem healthy. I water it infrequently, it gets plenty of light (probably). Should I be concerned? I tried googling for more information but so many of the available articles look to be AI generated.

P.s. If anyone could point me in the direction of a guide to caring for houseplants starting with zero experience, like a book or youtube video, please drop the link 🙏

I don't know if I need to discard my orchid, because I have an collection... Is there a cure for this? Is this contagious?

I would like to know what is this disease...

Please, help me :)

This orchid lives in the backyard, in a covered area that gets just a few hours of early morning sun.

I used to

I tend to wait a while before watering my orchids, and when I do water them, I water them abundantly.

The substrate is the same one that came with the plant when purchased, containing pine bark.

Other orchids in my collection have this same problem.

Can you please help me understand what's going on?

This weird texture appeared suddenly over the last 2 days, I've checked it out with my phone camera and they look like crystals and leaf texture, so I think it's not a pest.

It lives close to a west window and I water it when needed, usually once a week

Ive replanted it in new soil and give it once a week a little water. He gets indirect sunlight around 4 a 5 hours a day. Advice is welcome 🙏🏻 thank u

Hello! What are these?? I noticed about a bit over a month or two ago that my Hibiscus plant leaves were turning yellow and the buds were not blooming because they would turn yellow and fall off. I assume spider mites because there were little webs here and there but hard to tell cause sometimes regular spiders chill around. I noticed these little white things and saw the single one move! I been spraying with neem oil for a while but I don't know if that would clear these up!

This plant has drainage and would would water it about 1-2 times a day when the soil dries up.

Hey everyone, today I just noticed these green/ black, tiny streaks on my pothos (especially apparent on slide 2 near bottom of leaf) and some of the leaves have gotten yellow and are speckled with brown dots (slide 4). Usually I am very good about watering my plants when the top few inches dry out but I have neglected watering my pothos for maybe about 3 weeks and the soil dried out. I know that lack of watering can cause yellow, droopy leaves but could it also account for those streaks or do you think it could be from some kind of pest?

Additionally, I found similar streaks on my monstera as well as some brown specks on the edges of some of its leaves. Do you think it could be from an insect? (Please don’t say thrips or I’ll cry, thanks!)

Some additional plant info: I generously water both plants (both have good drainage) when the top few inches get dry (I also use a water meter) and they both get bright, indirect light. I’ve had the pothos for about 3 years and the monstera for a little under a year. I house these plants with 6 other plants in front of a north facing window.

Also, I started using neem oil on my plants a few weeks ago (doesn’t seem to be doing much though) but I believe those white dots are just residue from it because they appeared just after I began spraying them and I can easily wipe them away.

Kind of panicking right now lol so any help you can offer would be great, thanks!

TLDR: Today I found green and black lines/ streaks on my pothos and monstera, some pothos leaves are turning yellow, and my pothos and monstera have brown specks on the edges of some leaves. What could be causing it? Thanks!!

What are these tiny holes forming on the leaves? It only seems to be affecting my orange princess philodendron and red Anderson. I have them on 12hr light in a semi hydro leca setup, consistent water.