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Posted 2M ago by @LadyArrowhead

Help! Philodendron birkin with mushy brown spots. I boug...

Help! Philodendron birkin with mushy brown spots.

I bought it at a mall pop up event recently. I was so excited about the beautiful plants I didn’t look closely at them. When I got it home I noticed it had similar spots as pictured and the soil wasn’t good. So I chopped off the bad leaves and repotted. It looked good for several days, then these new spots popped up.

The soil it was in before was like clay dirt from a yard, very thick and compact. Took forever to get the roots clean so I could assess them. I cut off all the bad roots and even though it lost a lot of roots, it still had a good solid root system. It’s in an appropriate sized pot 1-2” bigger than the rootball with drainage holes. I put it in a well draining soil (equal parts potting soil, perlite and orchid bark). It gets good filtered southeastern sunlight a foot from a frosted bedroom jalousie window. I’m not sure what else to try. I wonder if I missed some bad roots in the middle. #PhilodendronBirkin
2ft to light, indirect
7” pot with drainage
Last watered 2 months ago
Hey Bonney πŸ‘‹ oh honey! It's so frustrating when you buy a plant, get home SUPER excited... and then realise its got pests or rot or damage you didn't notice 😒

But hey! You did EVERYTHING I would've advised you to do! πŸ₯° Sometimes they can display the effects of root rot etc for a couple of weeks after you fixed the actual issue though.

My E. Aureum was buried in the middle of my jungle and ended up with root rot... A fortnight after repotting her I noticed one of her prettiest leaves was yellowing and had developed a fungal spot like this... and I had to chop it off in the end 😭 but she's bouncing back now! Putting it new growth and no new yellowing! πŸ’ͺπŸ’š

As part of the rot treatment I usually recommend dousing the remaining roots with a peroxide solution (3:1 water: peroxide works well for this) just to make sure the rot is truly dead! πŸ˜‚ cinnamon also works well in that way, and I use activated charcoal on the bedding layer when repotting to help stop it developing... I'm not suggesting you take her out of her pot again! (Don't panic! πŸ˜‚) But just for future reference, a couple of wee tricks that may help next time πŸ₯°

You can add peroxide into your normal watering though, which should help! (you can make it up as 1:1 with 3% peroxide, but I usually go for 2:1 for a drench - fighting gnats or root issues!) and simply water her as and when you normally would. The peroxide does two things, it oxegenates the soil and helps kill fungus and bacteria in the soil (returning it to the sterile potting substrate you bought originally, before your plant started creating its microbiome). It won't hurt your girl in the slightest and will just reassure you that the roots are ok!

I would also leave this leaf for now rather than chopping it... If it's a hangover from root rot, that's systemic, so it bring there won't hurt other leaves (though it doesn't look pretty) and it will allow you to gauge if the problem is slowing... Without having to potentially sacrifice another leaf. But that is up to you! If you can't stand the sight of it just chop it off πŸ˜‚

I'm from the school of thought that I don't remove leaves unless I ABSOLUTELY have to (pest infestations for example! ). If they start yellowing it's a sign of distress, but leaving them in place allows you monitor and diagnose that stress. If you chop off every leaf when it starts yellowing, you haven no gauge for how bad the problem is or isn't... That's my two cents worth anyway πŸ˜œπŸ˜‚ but in the end it's entirely personal choice! There's no plant police, do what feels right to YOU and if it doesn't work... That's a lesson learned! πŸ₯° I'm a big fan of the #FAAFO technique (F*ck About and Find Out!) as it's always the great way to learn imo πŸ₯°
If it is still going brown with cleaning up the rotted roots and treatment then it is most likely fungal. So for fungal issues you will have to treat all of your foliage and also remove all of the infected leaves otherwise the fungal spores will drop and spread the disease. So removal of affected foliage is a MUST!

My birkin did the same thing when I first got it a few years ago unfortunately.

So, cut off all infected leaves and then mist the foliage that is left with 1 part peroxide and 8 parts water mixed together. This will effectively stop the fungus from spreading and end the cycle.

Your plant will look naked for a while until it bounces back and gives you healthy leaves especially since they are slow growing anyway. But it will happen just be patient. And don’t ever mist is could cause it to come back.