Something is killing my pothos

8 years ago

I have a few problems with my plant.

1. It looks like something ate through the vine. A segment of the vine dropped off. The vine and leaves look healthy, but the break point looks like it's been chewed.

I researched pests. There is no white cotton or spider webs, so i don't think it's aphids or spider mites. There is nothing on the underside of the leaf.

I see these TINY black dots on the vine. Are these scale? Could they have chewed the vine?

2. The leaves are turning yellow.

3. There are holes in the leaves, like this:

I would appreciate any help you can offer.

Thanks,

Rosemary

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Comments (3)

massey516 (NW Montana z 4b)
8 years ago
I am no plant expert but they should chime in soon (great bunch of very knowledgeable folks here).

I have lots of pothos being my favorite and I love the long vines so try to always let them grow. I have had some that seem to get so heavy and for what ever reason a stem laying just right on the edge of a pot will kind of "saw" itself off. Maybe it moves because it is in a breezy area or it happens to get bumped a lot and the movement will kind of cut the stem. If I can see it early I will try to change it (I am forever putting rocks in the pots to move the stems and hold them). If you have no critters in the home that would chew on it, like a cat (or a bird, our cocketiel loves to chew on my plants so he got banished to only being allowed to fly around my son's room) then it is hard to say. I know of no pests that chew through stems like that.

Was the stem that goes into the soil (that was attached to the part that came off) healthy and green or did it look dry, shriveled and dark?

I believe the brown bumps you are seeing are root nodes. Although they are biggest and most prominent at a leaf node, they are also along the stem, just smaller.

Again, the experts should jump in soon and I may be wrong.
Jean
8 years ago
The holes in the leaf is due to mechanical damage, not critters.

Are you certain the dark spots on the stem are critters instead of root initials?
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Laurie (8A)
8 years ago
I cannot tell for sure what the small dark bumps are. Pothos nodes come out on the opposite side of the stem from each leaf. The little spots are not doing that. Can you take a fingernail and scrape the bump off. Or take some rubbing alchohol on a q tip and touch one, does it dissolve or change at all. If the thing pops off with your nail, or dissolves a bit with alchohol it's scale. If you don't have much more than shown it should be easy to get rid of. If the plant is covered, you have to decide if it's worth the fight. The leaves look dull, and depleted. Are you confident you have not over or under watered. If you feel you have not, I suspect something is harming the plant. I cannot really recommend an insecticide, but it's easy to google. Just enter insecticide for pothos with scale.