Question on plumeria

One more question for you for today, LOL! I bought two plumerias within a few months of each other. How can I explain this? Their foliage is starting to look very strange. I don't know how to post pictures so can't show you, but instead of being medium/dark green, the fronds are almost mottled with light yellow. Not like variegation at all - but an unhealthy look. Also, the leaves look like they are covered with dust, even after I've just washed them under the faucet. Has anyone seen this before? Also, I checked for spider mites - negative. Thanks.

Randi

Hi Randi... If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend you stroll over to the Plumie forum and do some reading. They have an expansive "sticky" thread (or threads) with so much valuable information. There are also some very knowledgeable people over there that can help to answer your questions. They have been great with me... this was my first year to have plumies, and I've learned so much from them.

My first (uneducated) guess would be rust... something that is common in plumies. There are a couple threads on rust exclusively, plus all the stickies I mentioned earlier. You can also post your question directly... they may ask you to post a photo if possible... it definitely helps with positive ID of a problem.

I hope this helps a bit. Good luck with your plumies. I have three and I love mine!

Karen

Thank you Karen. I'll pop on over to the plumeria forum. Well, if its rust, then both my plumies have it. Oh boy. . . sounds like this is gonna be fun :( Thanks again.

Randi

Don't panic until you read up on it, Randi. If it's rust (and I'm not saying for sure that it is)... from what I understand, all plumies have it... it's just whether or not they get stressed at some point and show signs of it.

Glad I could help point you in the right direction, but otherwise, I didn't do much... I'm new myself, and have appreciated all the help I got from people over there.

Take care... Karen

I don't know about the dust and I haven't had rust on my plumies (knock on wood!) but the mottled light yellow sounds like either spider mites or it needs fertilizer, couldn't tell you which one without seeing a picture. If the veins are looking greener and the rest is yellower, that means it needs fertilizer, but if it's a stippled yellow pattern then it's spider mites. I know you said you looked for them, but they're hard to see and easy to miss (especially if you looked for them after you washed the leaves off!), or it's possible that they were there and now they're gone and what you're seeing is leftover damage from when they were there. Karen's right though, the plumie forum is definitely the best place to go.

Ecrane, I think you hit the nail on the head. I did see a bit of webbing on one of my plums yesterday morning, so it has to be spider mites, even though none came off when the leaves were shaken over a white piece of paper. I have been washing all the leaves and stem under the faucet once a day and hope this keeps them away! Thank you.

Randi

The best way to check for spider mites is to carefully examine the underside of the leaves, they look like tiny, tiny reddish brown dots on the underside of the leaves. I'm not sure that the piece of paper test works for them, I think they hang onto the leaves better than some other types of bugs do. Washing the leaves off every day is a good idea, but make sure you're getting the undersides of the leaves since that's where they live. If all you're doing is washing off the tops, you may not get rid of them.