so i tackled it with a neem oil and soap solution,

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what kind of soap.. a detergent.. how much soap ...

you later said you sprayed it on.. did you leave it on.. did you have wet soap in sun on the plant ...

why did you think you needed both neem and soap??.. sounds like a bit of overkill to me ...

since yo sprayed the leaves.. i dont know why you would think its a root problem ... i might tip it out of the pot and take a quick look.. but crikey.. your plants stressed enough.. repotting it isnt going to help anything ..

if you did burn the leaves of something.. there is NOTHING you can do to undo what you did ... i would probably just water it properly for a month or two.. and hope that new growth is unaffected.. showing you the problem if over ...

on some level.. doing more an more.. to undue a wrong.. might just be loving the plant to death ...

ken

I tackled it [a spider mite infestation] with a neem oil and soap solution, it appears to go ok (there's less and less of them visibly) yet the plant leaves are starting to get more and more yellow and a lot of leaves are falling and getting wrinkled. So i thought it also could be over watering, meaning a problem not related to the spider mites, but i don't think it is since the plant has been watered at most once a week and not abundantly. So wonder if you can advise on steps to take to figure out what the issue is? Should I get into the soil and see if the roots are ok/not damaged? also is there any other damage that can be caused by spraying the plant with the neem and soap solution? Leaf chlorosis (yellowing) could be increasing for a number of reasons. The main suspects would be over or under-watering, severe root congestion, a high level of dissolved solids (salts) in the grow medium, low fertility - in particular a deficiency of nitrogen, and soil compaction. The degree to which the neem/soap solution was harmful depends on what "soap" you used. Not likely a problem if you used a soap based on long-chain fatty acids of potassium, but very likely if you used any of the numerous dish soaps or other cleaning products on the market. These surfactants strip leaves of their cuticular wax (the leaves' water-proofing), which increases water loss through leaves and provides easy access for biotic pathogens.

All you really need to keep miters under control is a quart-size spritzer filled with 1 part 0f 70% rubbing alcohol to 2 parts water. Spritz every 4 days, covering all plant surfaces, and your mite issue will soon be a memory.

The statement "..... since the plant has been watered at most once a week and not abundantly .....", "not abundantly" tells us you haven't been watering to beyond the point of total soil saturation, so you're flushing accumulating salts from the soil as you water. If you cannot do that w/o paying an over-watering tax in the form of poor root function or health, the medium you are using is inappropriate. This doesn't necessarily mean a change is necessary, but it should be addressed in such a way that the amount of excess water a medium can hold is reduced to levels that allow you to water correctly. We can talk about that if you like.

Yes, you should lift the plant from the pot and inspect the roots. Look for slimy or dark (colored) roots or roots that when pulled on, the outer root covering slips off leaving the root cortex. Also, roots should smell like a handful of moist, freshly-dug earth. If roots smell sour or you can detect the odor of H2S (hydrogen sulfide/ rotten egg gas), you have a fungal infection of one of the several damping off diseases.

The plant should not sit in the effluent which exits the drain holes after watering.

Water over the sink, let the pot drain, then tip it to a 45* angle and watch how much additional water exits the pot. Compare images A and B below to see how well this trick works.

Ballast (see image D) is also a very good way of reducing how much excess water a pot can hold.

I'll wait to see what questions you have before I say more.

Al

Thanks for your kind replies.

I just made a solution of one tea spoon of neem and 1/4 tea spoon of dish soap, i got the neem from an Indian spices store, and the dish soap is just a common Joy Professional with lemon scent from the home depot. Sprayed a bit for 4 days every morning, and yes i left it to dry on the plant leaves as instructed by the local plant shop attendant. So i noticed the problem on the 4th day and then stopped spraying it and got a clean paper and cotton and gently wiping all the leaves one by one, twice, and after i sprayed them with water. Hasn't really helped, it's getting worse, most leaves are yellowing and wrinkled. I only used this neem mix for 4 days and it seems to me it's very drastic to have done such damage since i also used it on other plants and they are doing fine, not sure if this plant in particular is way more sensitive to it. The spider mites problem seems to be resolved, i don't see any anymore, neither on the Euphorbia nor any of my other plants.

I've had root roth problem before and you (Al) helped me a lot with trying to correct it, thank you very much for this ( I was able to save half of the plant on that occasion doing the soil draining techniques you recommended). I feel it was more of a gradual process of deterioration then, but yes i can lift and inspect the roots. This time i thought that because of the neem treatment and the very rapid decay it should/would most likely be the cause of the damage.

I rec'd a notice you made a comment, along with the first sentence of what you wrote, but I don't see your reply on the thread. This has been happening frequently lately - not sure why. Sorry.

Al

oh, ok hope this works... maybe because i attached a picture? thnx!

__________

Thanks for your kind replies.

I just made a solution of one tea spoon of neem and 1/4 tea spoon of dish soap, i got the neem from an Indian spices store, and the dish soap is just a common Joy Professional with lemon scent from the home depot. Sprayed a bit for 4 days every morning, and yes i left it to dry on the plant leaves as instructed by the local plant shop attendant. So i noticed the problem on the 4th day and then stopped spraying it and got a clean paper and cotton and gently wiping all the leaves one by one, twice, and after i sprayed them with water. Hasn't really helped, it's getting worse, most leaves are yellowing and wrinkled. I only used this neem mix for 4 days and it seems to me it's very drastic to have done such damage since i also used it on other plants and they are doing fine, not sure if this plant in particular is way more sensitive to it. The spider mites problem seems to be resolved, i don't see any anymore, neither on the Euphorbia nor any of my other plants.

I've had root roth problem before and you (Al) helped me a lot with trying to correct it, thank you very much for this ( I was able to save half of the plant on that occasion doing the soil draining techniques you recommended). I feel it was more of a gradual process of deterioration then, but yes i can lift and inspect the roots. This time i thought that because of the neem treatment and the very rapid decay it should/would most likely be the cause of the damage.

While I'm not saying the neem mixture is at fault for the condition of the plant, I am saying that most dish soaps have somewhere between 12 and 20 phytotoxic (poison to plants) ingredients, including the dyes and perfumes, and the best surfactants to use to help emulsify neem oil are commercially prepared insecticidal soaps. Too, all neem products are not created equal. Extraction methods which make use of steam, or formaldehyde/ other solvents, can significantly reduce the efficacy of the active ingredient neem oil contains, azadirachtin. The best choice is pure, cold-pressed neem oil, and it's best stored refrigerated until used. It should also be used in acidified water as it undergoes a process called alkaline hydrolysis when pH is above neutral. You didn't mention how much water went into the emulsion, so there is no way to gauge the severity of damage the dish soap might have caused. You expressed concern about whether your plant is particularly sensitive to neem oil. A few plants ARE, but more are sensitive to the vehicle (water is the vehicle by which cleaning chemicals are delivered in a car wash) that contains the neem oil or the emulsifier if it's inappropriate.

"I only used this neem mix for 4 days ...." Four successive days? If 'yes', that could easily cause problems.

Al

Yes, I did use it for 4 consecutive days. The neem i got doesn't have any additional information to know if it was cold pressed or not, it just says neem oil, contains oil from seeds of neem, and the dish soap is Joy Professional. I mixed the tea spoon neem oil and the 1/4 tea spoon dish soap with 32 oz of water, the amount of what the sprayer i have contains.

Should I still go into the pot and inspect the roots or should i leave the plant unbothered for the moment and see if it keeps having growth/recovers a bit in the next few days, possibly (hopefully) ?

also was wondering if it's also possible if the neem mix has gotten on the stems and into the soil and if that would also have negative effect..

tnx again!