Definitely over watering. What are you using or doing to know when it’s time to water? Are you guessing or doing it on a schedule?

plants should always be watered as needed.

13 feet away from the window is also too far. You want it right up in front of the window. Sun shining through a window is not direct sun, it’s being filtered by the glass. The plant can definitely take that light and will do better.

In your photo the stem is all withered. Roots start to rot and can no longer take up water and so the plant doing into a drought response.

I would take the plant of the soil and inspect the roots. Remove any rotted ones and place in a pot just barely big enough to fit the roots and use a well draining mix. If you can’t souce the ingedients, get some perlite and mix it 50/50 with the soil you’re using.

I use a raw wood stick for eating noodles to check the ground. But as I wrote above the ground was super dry, it was only slightly wet in the knot between the roots, so even with the stick, it is difficult to ascertain when it is truly dry, as i will not push the stick between the roots and get them all damaged. In the very beginning I watered it once a week, but when the leaf drop started to happen, I went for a 2-week schedule, and afterwards to the check-with-stick method. I noticed it didn't react well after each watering, this is why I water it so rarely. I also let the water sit for a day as I don't think the tap water is all that great.

The living room is really very light, with sunshine basically all day long. If i wanted the whole length of the plant to get direct sunshine, I'd have to place it right in front of the balcony door, and that's really not managable :/ But I will try to find a closer place to the window.

There was no root rot. As mentioned, I repotted it 5 days ago, inspected the roots, and all were white, no browning anywhere at all. And since the ground was slightly damp, I didnt water it when i repotted, and also didn't water it ever since, yet the browning on the trunk started afterwards. If it was due to overwatering, why did the brown appear in the past 5 days when I actually watered it almost 2 weeks ago the last time?

So you really think it is not some infection or fungus?

Hi, Leila. Sorry the plant is frustrating you. Spider mites thrive when r-humidity is low. Have you checked for mites? You can do that by holding a white piece of paper under the leaves and flicking the leaf stems (petioles) with your fingers. The object of that exercise is to dislodge the mites from their hold on the plant so they fall on the paper and you can see the tiny little pests moving about. I can't tell if the photo is grainy or I'm seeing a plant that's been significantly preyed upon by mites, but it's worth checking out.

Do you have other plants, or is this the first? If this is the first, does your tapwater go through a softening process (ion exchange water softener) that uses salt? Does your pot have a drain hole? Please share what you've been doing about fertilizing - what you're using? how often? the NPK %s listed on the package?

Schefflera is a genetically vigorous, forgiving, and durable plant that tolerates dry soil conditions better than most plants that aren't succulents or cacti, so there is something wrong that should jump out at us and provide an 'AHA moment' once discovered.

The dieback of the top of plant to the node proximal to the pruning cut is normal.

Al

Thanks, Al. I checked for pests but cannot see any. Nevertheless, I tried your method but nothing came off the plant (apart from a leaf haha). The photo is bad quality because my phone is basically a potato. I'm not sure if you were referring to those bumps on the trunk? I took another photo of those. Honestly, this is my first schefflera and i have no idea if those little bumps are part of the the plant or some pests :D if I scratch it, it looks powdery. I'd say it's the plant but heck knows.

i have other plants in the flat, well some of them look okay, some not that much (funnily, the succulents). City water supplier changed something recently but no idea what. That's why I boil the water and let it sit. The pot has drainage hole, yes.

fertilizer, that's the other thing... That very competent man at garden center said we don't need anything for schefflera.... So I didn't use anything since I bought the plant in August (but anyway I heard I shouldnt use any in the winter?). If you can advice what I shall be careful about/prefer, it'd be great, though!

and about the dieback: i'd also consider it normal to a certain extent, but the brown is spreadin downwards at a pace of half an inch per day. Now it's 3 inch long, and whenever it passes a stem, that dies.

It didnt post the pic...

The bumps are normal, not a pest or disease.

Wow, thanks so much, it's pretty clear! Do you think there is any cure for fungus, apart from eg. providing better air circulation? Like some medicine? Not for this one, as this really is a goner, but i'm really worried about the remaining other two. One of them started to develop some brown stems lately.

As for fertilizer: shall I buy something eg. for succulents? Or any general kind is fine? Not really sure I could find anything specifically made for schefflera here. And yes, if you could use some advice on fertilizing :) I read in other threads they recommend watering it in the bathtub for better drainage. Is it what you meant? Also, when spring comes (provided i'd still have plants...) i gotta change the soil (to maybe something like for succulents?)....

Most topical infections can be fixed, but systemic issues are much harder. All fungicides work best as a prophylactic measure rather than a fixative, but the best defense against fungal infections is a healthy plant which, by default, requires cultural conditions the plant approves of and doesn't just cope with. As a bonsai practitioner with a significant number of plants I've tended for as long as 30 years, I am fairly proactive at protecting my investment of time in these plants, so I use fungicides prophylactically as general protection, some of them specific to certain diseases and/or certain plants.

While you CAN do that, you'll very likely not ever have to if you figure out how to keep your plants in a high state of vitality (health). The plant's natural ability to defend itself is inextricably linked to its metabolic rate, and as noted, the best defense against biotic pathogens is a healthy plant. One thing is certain, you can't go wrong if your focus is on identifying and eliminating whatever is inhibiting your plant(s) from realizing their genetic potential.

You mentioned that your plants have stems that are turning brown. That might be a normal part of the process of growth. As the outer layers of the dermis die, they form bark, which is essentially dead tissue. I can't say with certainty that's what you're seeing, but it is a part of natural senescence in schefflera.

I think you would do well to adopt Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 as your 'go to' fertilizer. I, and many others here on GW/Houzz use it with very good results. More on that later once you decide what you want to do moving forward.

How well or thoroughly a soil drains doesn't have anything to do with where it's watered. The largest impact on water retention is the size of the particles from which the soil is made. The smaller the particles, the more water the soil can retain. The best approach is to build (make) a soil that holds less water than soils based on huge %s of fine ingredients (peat, coir, compost, composted forest products, sand, topsoil, ..... , but there are workarounds that use some very simple science to help the grower reduce the amount of excess water a soil can hold.

You might find this to be helpful.

Al

I was responding to Leila's question about the bumps on trunk. She said she had no idea if they were a pest.

...... and I was responding directly to Leila's comments, not yours. I don't/didn't disagree with you.

Al

Thank you, all of you for answering!

I will check this fertilizer and figure out what is the closest thing to it from ingredients POV where I live.

I'm afraid I will go through the same with the other two plants as well, one of them already shows some signs :( So probably I won't even need the fertilizer... I think I'm done with scheffleras :D Thanks again!