A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 fuzzy leaves

Help please, I'm clueless! Caring for a houseplant is very new to me, and I don't know much about it at all. I had a sweet potato that sat around too long & sprouted. Now it's a beautiful sweet potato vine that I just put in a pot a few days ago, after it had already sprouted a good set of roots in water, and had 2 foot long vines. It seemed to be doing wonderfully, but now I've noticed several of the leaves - the older ones I guess - have light green fuzzy-ish splotches with a granular texture, almost like the green splotches have sugar or salt on top. It's not cottony, it's more like scaly-granular. The affected leaves are more rigid - not as tender - as the other leaves, and they're curling a little at the edges. No brown dryness or wilting really, just kind of curling. I used regular potting soil, and the plant is in an east window with lots of sun. Please someone help - this is a beautiful plant and I don't want to kill her!!!!

Be of good cheer. I know nothing about your plant, but someone here will! If it still has good 'new growth' type leaves, it's not in dire shape. Until you get a more specific answer, everything you are doing sounds good. How deep did you plant it? I think they like ~1/4 to 1/3 of the tuber showing. You haven't talked about your watering routine, but letting the top inch of soil get dry before rewatering is a good idea. Best of luck to you! I had a friend in high school (35 years ago) who grew one all over her bedroom. They ARE beautiful plants.

Thank you Margaret! The reply is greatly appreciated.
From what you say, maybe I'm giving her a bit too much water - I wait until the soil is dry to the touch, but didn't know about the "top inch" thing. And I'd estimate that about 1/3 to 1/2 of the tuber is showing. How does that effect the plant? - I need an education. And today one of the leaves has a couple of little brown spots that show through to the underside.
Thank you all so much for being here!!

I am not too sure either,
sounds a bit like botritis,
but again, not 100% sure....

Do you happen to have a photo?
That's always a big help..

When you say "regular potting soil"
do you mean like a Miracle Grow or something??

I was trying to sprout sweet potato in soil. It gave out lots of roots and then I over watered it The poor thing rotted away. I think it would be a good idea to sprout it in water first;thats what i'm gonna do now!!!

Sweet tators,
I put mine right in the soil, half in and half out .lying flat......it is really pretty now outside.. In a planter with lovely foliage.

I got it from Arkansas.

dodge

How do you keep them at the end of the season? Can I store the sweet potato in water over the Winter? Or does it need to dry out? This is the first year I've grown them- and they are beautiful! It would be nice to have them next year as well.

Hello everyone! I'd like to post a picture of the spots on the leaves, but my camera won't take a close enough picture to see it (and I don't know how to post a pic anyway...) There are little brown raised speckles (some of which have grown into larger spots), and little raised white granules that look like salt. I removed all of the leaves that have that on them. The plant is potted in Sta-Green Houseplant & Tropical Potting Mix. Aside from the few leaves w/ the speckles, the plant seems very healthy; it's grown about 6-8 inches over the past 3 days, with plenty of new leaves

Sounds great! Is there any chance anything got spilled on the affected leaves (fertilizer, water splashed back from the dirt, soda, ...)? If the problem doesn't come back, it's just a 'huh, how about that?' kind of thing. 6-8 inches in 3 days with lots of new leaves means your plant doesn't care about those spots at all!

Nice! And yes, there was probably some water from the soil splashed on those leaves, since they are the ones closest to the soil - the soil itself definitely got on there as I was potting it, too. That'd be great if that's all it is! Thanks

People often forget how fundamentally different plants and animals/people truely are. If you got spots on your hand and in a bit the hand fell off, that would indicate a truely horrific disease process going on. Likewise, if you grew a new hand, a new wrist, and a few hands on the end, that would be pretty awful, too. A tree can be hit by lightning, an ice or wind storm, and loose 2/3 of its body mass, have some rot set in on the remaining trunk, and put out leaves, seeds, and new growth. It counts itself as successful. You loose some, you grow some more, hey, life is good.

Some plants are very sensative to chemicals, fertilisers, hard water, on their leaves. Your potting soil might have had added fertilizers.