Gadenin日本語Get the appLeaflet drop is normal, up to a point
This tree sheds fine leaflets continuously. There will be a scatter of them on the floor around the pot every few days for as long as you own the plant, and sweeping them up is simply part of keeping an everfresh. Old leaflets are shed as new ones open, and the fastest-growing plants in the brightest positions shed the most. It is not a fault and it is not something to treat.
What is not normal is a sudden heavy fall, whole leaves going at once rather than individual leaflets, or a plant that is thinning visibly week by week. That level of drop always has a cause, and in almost every case it is one of five things: a cold draft, a rootball that dried out completely, a pot that has stayed wet, a move to much dimmer light, or a pest that has been feeding unnoticed.
| Pattern of drop | Likely cause | First thing to check |
|---|---|---|
| A few leaflets daily, plant still full | Normal shedding | Nothing, this is the species |
| Heavy fall over two or three days in winter | Cold draft or a chilled rootball | Air temperature at the plant late at night |
| Crisp brown leaflets falling after a dry spell | The rootball went completely dry | Weight of the pot, dryness two inches (5 cm) down |
| Soft yellow leaflets, soil damp for days | Waterlogging and root rot | Smell at the drainage holes, firmness of the lower stem |
| Steady thinning after moving the plant | Adjustment to lower light | Whether the leaves open by mid-morning |
| Thinning plus dull, grayish foliage | Spider mites | Leaf undersides, held against the light |
Spider mites, the main pest indoors
Warm, dry, still indoor air is ideal for spider mites, and the fine divided foliage of an everfresh hides them well. They feed on the undersides, and the first thing you notice is not the mites but a canopy that has lost its depth of color and looks dusty even after you wipe it. By the time you can see webbing at the leaf joints, the population is already large.
Check monthly rather than waiting for symptoms. Hold a branch up against a window or hold a sheet of white paper underneath and tap the branch sharply. Mites knocked onto white paper start walking within seconds, which answers the question far faster than squinting at leaflets.
- Rinse the whole canopy with plain water Take the plant to a shower or outdoors in mild weather and spray hard, aiming upward into the leaf undersides. On fine foliage this alone removes most of a light infestation. Repeat every three or four days for two weeks.
- Spray a horticultural soap or oil until it drips Contact sprays only kill what they wet. Spray from below and from several angles until liquid runs off. Repeat at five to seven day intervals for at least three rounds, because eggs hatch after the first application.
- Raise the humidity around the plant Group it with other plants, stand the pot on a tray of damp gravel with the pot base above the waterline, and move it away from radiators and vents. Mites struggle above roughly 50 percent humidity, which is what stops them coming back.
- Isolate it while you treat Keep the plant clear of other houseplants until two weeks pass with no new webbing. Mites walk between touching foliage, so a treated plant returned to a crowded corner is simply recolonised.
Never spray oil on a plant standing in direct sun or on one that is dry at the roots. Water it the day before and treat it out of the sun, or the treatment scorches the leaflets worse than the mites did.
Scale, mealybug and the stickiness they leave
Scale insects sit still under a hard shell on stems and leaf stalks and suck sap. Because they do not move, people mistake them for natural bumps on the woody stems of an older everfresh. Mealybugs are the same problem in a soft white form, tucked into the crotches where a leaf stalk meets the stem. Both excrete honeydew, so a sticky shine on the lower leaves, the shelf or the floor is often the first thing you notice.
Deal with a small population by hand. A cotton bud dipped in rubbing alcohol lifts scale straight off, and the same works on mealybug. Then follow with a horticultural oil spray covering the stems as well as the leaves, repeated two or three times at weekly intervals to catch the crawlers that hatch after the first treatment. Wipe the honeydew off the foliage as you go, or a black sooty mold grows on it and blocks the light.
| Pest | Where it hides | Sign to look for | Treatment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spider mites | Leaf undersides and joints | Dull gray foliage, fine webbing | Rinse, soap or oil sprays, raise humidity |
| Scale | Stems, leaf stalks, midribs | Hard brown bumps that will not brush off | Wipe off with alcohol, then oil sprays |
| Mealybug | Stem crotches, base of leaf stalks | White cottony fluff | Wipe off with alcohol, then oil sprays |
| Fungus gnats | Top of the potting mix | Small black flies rising when you water | Let the surface dry, use yellow sticky traps |
| Sooty mold | On top of the leaves | Black film over the leaf surface | Wipe the leaves, remove the pest producing the honeydew |
Root rot and other cultural faults
Root rot is the one problem that kills an everfresh outright, and it comes from a pot that never dries. The symptoms mimic drought exactly, because damaged roots cannot take up water: leaves stay folded in daylight, leaflets fall, growth stops. If the mix is damp and smells sour at the drainage holes, stop watering, move the plant somewhere bright and warm, and let the top three inches (8 cm) dry before you do anything else.
Brown, papery tips on otherwise healthy leaflets are usually dry air or a build-up of fertilizer salts rather than disease. Flush the pot thoroughly with plain water two or three times a year, letting plenty run out of the bottom, and keep the plant away from a heating vent. Bleached, washed-out patches on leaves are sunburn from a move into direct sun without acclimatizing, and those leaves will not recover, so protect what is still green.
Write down the date of any heavy leaf fall along with what happened in the days before it: a repot, a move, a cold night, a missed watering. This species reacts a day or two after the event, so the cause is only obvious if you have the sequence written down.