Hello, I recently bought two Umbrella plants. Looking at the leaves, I noticed lots of white marks on them. I talked to the store and they said it's because they were watered with city water so it will leave stains. I went through this with a ficus tree and it took me hours to scrub down each leaf in order to remove these. I was wondering if anyone knew of a more efficient way to do this. Also I recently heard that even once I repot the plant in organic soil I should still cover the soil in large rocks so my chameleon won't eat it. Is this true? Thanks in advance for any help.
Clean Plants
- Thread starter Uvagohoos
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Extensionofgreen
Chameleon Enthusiast
Covering with stones is not needed, as long as there are no large items of bark, styrofoam, perlite, charcoal, and so forth, in your soil, but you should have those things in the soil, in order for the plant to do well and cope with amount of water it will be subjected to. Organic soil is a misleading term, as perlite and charcoal are still organic, but if eaten, while not toxic, can block the intestines.
As far as your water marks, they are harmless, very hard to to remove and just unsightly. Get a couple gallons of distilled water, mix 2-4 TBS of Murphys Oil Soap concentrate in them, warm them to bath water temperature, and spray the plants throughly, then rinse, rinse, rinse with water that contains no minerals, such as distilled or reverse Osmosis. Rinse until you don't see or smell the soap. You won't remove all of the stains this way, but you will remove most residues, dust, spider mites, and other contaminates. You can add a squirt or 2 of dawn dish soap ( you don't want an aggressive soap that will destroy the natural waxy coating on the foliage ) and a 1/4 cup of white vinegar in the mix, for extra umph, but rinse this quickly, as vinegar can cause brown marks on the leaves. Club soda works in place of vinegar and may or may now be easier on the foliage, or carbonated water....it's the acid that will dissolve the basic mineral deposits.
As far as your water marks, they are harmless, very hard to to remove and just unsightly. Get a couple gallons of distilled water, mix 2-4 TBS of Murphys Oil Soap concentrate in them, warm them to bath water temperature, and spray the plants throughly, then rinse, rinse, rinse with water that contains no minerals, such as distilled or reverse Osmosis. Rinse until you don't see or smell the soap. You won't remove all of the stains this way, but you will remove most residues, dust, spider mites, and other contaminates. You can add a squirt or 2 of dawn dish soap ( you don't want an aggressive soap that will destroy the natural waxy coating on the foliage ) and a 1/4 cup of white vinegar in the mix, for extra umph, but rinse this quickly, as vinegar can cause brown marks on the leaves. Club soda works in place of vinegar and may or may now be easier on the foliage, or carbonated water....it's the acid that will dissolve the basic mineral deposits.
Thanks so much! I noticed that you said the water marks are
Thank you so much! I noticed you said that the watermarks were harmless. Does that mean it will make no difference if they are on the plant. If that's the case I would rather just put the plant in as my ficus had to be taken out and there is a giant empty space on the cage floor. But if it is better to have them off I will clean the leaves
WAMBO
Chameleon Enthusiast
I had the same issue with my ficus. I also washed every leave individually, but still have the hard water marks. I mist it daily and they are going away. It's not in my habitat [there's no more room since two umbrellas are there] but will await the larger cage when needed.
Extensionofgreen
Chameleon Enthusiast
Water marks will not cause any harm to your chameleon.
