A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 please help!

I am having a problem with leaves dying and I am not sure why. I bought the plant 2 weeks ago. It is some variety of philodendron according to the tag and I picked it up from Home Depot.

I replanted it in some kind of Scott's soil which has 3 mos of built in fertilizer. Fast forward a week later and I had cut off 3 leaves because they turn mushy. I assume from overwatering. Here is a pic of the 4th leaf now doing the same.

Since I thought the soil may be too wet I repotted it with the same dirt only adding some perlite to loosen things up but things are still the same. Here is another leaf starting to do the same. You can see the light green area shown here.

I have not watered this plant except when I repotted it so I am at a loss. The soil does feel a little damp but again I did add perlite. Should I dig it up again and maybe use Miracle Gro soil.. and maybe Perlite with this also? I don't want to lose more leaves but I don't want to dig it up unless I need to. Thanks so much for your help.

guynvb
i have a few plants (well had) that i purchased from home depot. usually i have real good luck with their plants,but once in a while i get a bumm one. :p not saying that's your case.
it may be,like you said,overwatering.
has the plant been bumped or hit, the split in the leaf looks like it was caused by a "hit".
i have a huge peace lilly and a small child "whacked" one of the leaves on it, and it went bad. kind of like in your picture.i'm sure someone will be along that will be of more help so sit tight

I too have bought many plants from Home Depot and usually have no problems. The plant was not hit or anything and looked great when I repotted it. In any case I called them just now and they said they would replace it. I just hope I don't have the same problem again. Thanks for your response Phoenix.

no problem hope the new plant is better for you

Transplant shock from re-potting so soon, maybe? I'm not sure myself.

Dianna

Thanks guys for your responses. I now have a new plant just like it. The guy at Home Depot took my plant out of its pot. The roots looked good and were growing despite the dying leaves. Here are a couple of things that stand out from this experience.
1. I added almost all new dirt and very little of the original dirt. Maybe that was a problem.
2. I water heavily when I transplanted - until water started coming from the bottom of the pot.

At any rate I only watered this one a little before potting (and repotted using mostly its own soil) and I watered a little after potting. I am going to monitor the soil's wetness and probably water again in a few days if necessary and then again as needed probably once a week. Hopefully this one will be ok.

Good luck! I'm crossing my fingers for you! for Home Depot with their warranty.

Dianna