Possible difficulties in caring for alocasia at home
Healthy alocasia at home has a well-groomed appearance, its foliage is well developed, there are no traces of necrosis, no areas of yellow, brown or black color on the tissue of leaf plates and petioles.
Plants adapted to life in tropical or subtropical climates require similar conditions when grown as indoor crops.
Home to plants belonging to the vast genus Alokazii, the rainforests of southeast Asia, the island states of the Pacific region and northeastern Australia are found.
- with small fluctuations in the average daily and seasonal temperature;
- at high air humidity;
- in partial shade, hidden by the canopy of the tropical forest;
- without lack of nutrition and moisture.
It is not surprising that in such, practically "heavenly" conditions, alocasia actively grow, giving all new bright juicy foliage, multiply and bloom.
Alocasia requirements for home care
But creating a semblance of a natural atmosphere and maintaining quality care at home for alocasia is not very easy. In summer, spring and autumn, plants need temperatures between 21 and 26 ° C. In winter, when alocasia enters a period of relative rest, a slight cooling of the air is permissible, but not lower than 15–17 ° C.
Most often, florists make mistakes:
- over or underwatering plants;
- exposing the pots with alocasia to direct, burning rays of the sun or unnecessarily pushing the plants into the shade;
- not taking into account the plant's requirements for the composition and structure of the soil;
- overcooling pets;
- allowing drafts in the room where alocasia is kept at home.
It is quite difficult to maintain the air humidity required by the inhabitants of the tropics in the range of 60-85% in an apartment.
In response to disturbances in care, alocasia gets sick, which is reflected in a change in the color and tone of the foliage. Sometimes this is limited to spots of yellow or almost black color, necrosis of the tips of the leaves, but in some cases, alocasia lose their foliage and even die. How to deal with spots appearing on the leaves of alocasia? And what are the reasons for these unpleasant symptoms?
The main requirements of alocasia are the abundance of light and water. This is where the most common mistakes and miscalculations lie.
Alocasia leaves dry due to illiterate watering
Summer wateringwhen alocasia flower grows rapidly and can bloom, should be abundant and frequent. Plants are irrigated with warm distilled water several times a day, making sure that the sun's rays do not fall on wet leaves. If this happens, the drops act as lenses, causing burns to the leaf plate and the appearance of yellow spots on the leaves of alocasia. The tissue under the damaged surface gradually dries out, and with a large lesion area, the entire sheet may die.
For alocasia, not only the quantity but also the quality of moisture is important. If the plant receives cold tap water that has not been previously settled, it will certainly react by rotting the root system, changing the color of the foliage and its wilting.
With the formation of yellow spots on the leaves of alocasia, flower growers also encounter situations when the plant lacks water or, conversely, suffers from its excess.True, in the latter case, the drying leaves of alocasia are a consequence of rot that has appeared on the roots, which prevents the feeding of the aerial part and destroys the tissue.
Watering alocasia at home should be when the top layer of the soil begins to dry out, and in the depths the soil still retains moisture. When watering the plant, it is important to completely wet the entire volume of the pot, but be sure to remove excess water from the pan. On summer days, watering is more frequent, but when the air temperature drops, the frequency and volume of watering should be immediately reduced.
If this is not done, not only the formation of spots on the leaves of alocasia, disfiguring the plant and weakening it, cannot be avoided, but also the development of diseases of a fungal and bacterial nature. In addition, weak specimens are more often affected by insects.
Spots on the leaves of alocasia due to improper lighting
Ideal lighting for home-grown alocasia is bright, but diffused light, without direct sunlight touching the foliage. The sun hitting plants leads to wilting of foliage and yellowish-brown burns on it.
Lack of light is expressed in stretching the petioles, crushing the leaf plates and their pallor.
Soil composition and the need for alocasia transplant
The planting of alocasia in dense moisture-absorbing soil, where the roots suffer from both stagnant water and a lack of oxygen, leads to unpleasant consequences. This is necessarily reflected in the condition of the leaf plates and the entire plant. Experienced flower growers advise adding sphagnum moss, chopped boiled bark from coniferous trees to aerate the soil, peat, coconut fiber and perlite.
To reduce the risk of diseases that may occur when caring for alocasia at home, the soil mixture is pre-disinfected, and a day later a tropical culture is planted.
With good care, alocasia grows quickly, so young specimens are transplanted every spring, and adults are slightly less often.
The easiest way is to transfer the earthen lump into a new larger pot, and fill the empty spaces with fresh substrate.
Without transplanting, the leaves of alocasia growing in a cramped pot dry. And in some cases, the plant is able to shed all the foliage. The same effect is produced by the lack of dressings, which are necessary in spring and summer. With the active formation of foliage, plants are fed with complex compositions for decorative deciduous crops, slightly reducing the recommended concentration. Fertilizers are not needed in winter.
Temperature violations and low air humidity
A drop in temperature or drafts in the room where the plant is located leads to the fact that the leaves of alocasia turn black and dry. Temperatures below 12-13 ° C are destructive for the inhabitants of tropical forests, and even a short stay in such conditions kills healthy foliage yesterday.
What to do if all the leaves on alocasia are dry? Is it possible to bring a green pet back to life, and how to get it to form foliage again?
If alocasia is in dry air for a long time or its pot is located near heating devices, you can observe how the leaves first turn yellow, and then, starting from the tips and edges of the leaf plate, dry.
If you do not take urgent measures, alocasia discards foliage, and increased watering will only aggravate the situation and lead to rotting of the root system and tuber.
What to do when alocasia has dropped all the leaves?
Firstly, in this case, there is no need to rush to part with the plant. Often, by getting rid of foliage, alocasia reacts to flowering, which requires serious costs and efforts from the plant. If the alocasia has faded, the peduncle is removed from it, cleaned of the remnants of dry foliage and the plant is “overwintered”. With rare watering in a cool, bright room, the tuber will rest and by spring it will begin to form new leaf plates. At this time, it needs to be transplanted into a fresh substrate and fed.
But what if all the leaves on alocasia dried up after waterlogging the soil or as a result of another florist's mistake? In this case, the condition of the root system is checked as an urgent measure.
A corm in a healthy plant is dense, elastic, without mechanical damage and traces of bacterial or other damage.
If rot or the presence of pests is noticeable on the rhizome, the damaged areas are cut off, and the cuts are treated with coal chips. When the root dries up, the alocasia is planted in moist, sterile soil. Then the pot with alocasia is covered with plastic and left in partial shade at a temperature of 22-24 ° C.
Diseases of alocasia and their treatment
It is root rot that is considered the most common alocasia disease at home. The onset of the disease can be provoked by both excessive watering against the background of the previous long dryness of the soil, and the plant being in an excessively cold room, on a windowsill or in a draft.
If the decay of roots located in the soil is difficult to notice, then the spots of various shapes and colors on the leaves of alocasia should make the grower seriously alarmed.
As in a situation where all the leaves dry up on alocasia, you cannot do without a thorough examination of the roots and removal of all affected tissues. At the same time, the damaged leaves are cut off. And healthy parts are treated with fungicide and transplanted into high-quality sterile soil.
If rot is accompanied by softening of the tissues of the stem and petioles, and the pathological process takes on rampant proportions, it is better to part with the plant.
True, in this case, you need to check the soil for the presence of daughter nodules, planting which, it is easy to get young healthy alocasia of your favorite variety.
Treatment of alocasia diseases should be carried out comprehensively and repeated if the signs of the disease do not disappear. In addition to the use of fungicides, they must establish care and provide the plant with all the conditions necessary for development.
Pests on alocasia at home
An important measure for the prevention of alocasia diseases at home is care based on the needs of the plant, as well as taking into account the need to protect it from insect pests.
The most dangerous of them are thrips, aphids, scale insects, mealybugs, nematodes and spider mites that feed on sap plants. To detect insects, they examine not only the front side of the foliage, but also its back, petioles, stems and sinuses.
- It is under the dried scales at the base of the stem and in the axils of the leaves that mealybugs like to hide.
- Aphids are more often found on the petioles and at the base of the leaf plate.
- Thrips are dangerous because at different stages of development they can live both on plants and in the ground.
- In the soil, there are also nematodes.
- Spider mites are recognized by a thin cobweb on the greenery of alocasia.
The result of the vital activity of all these pests is the appearance of grayish-yellow or brown spots on the leaves of alocasia. Growing up, such damage leads to the death of the foliage, and possibly the entire house plant.
Treatment from pests consists in irrigating the aerial part of the plant with marigold infusion or ready-made insecticides. The foliage can be washed with a solution of green soap and wood ash.
When carrying out such work, it is better to cover the soil with a film in order to protect it from waterlogging.
If alocasia is infected with a soil nematode, which is easily identified by the characteristic nodules on the rhizomes, the plant will have to be destroyed. After all, it is extremely difficult to destroy this quarantine pest, and its cysts are also found in the tissues of alocasia.