low light decline

Symptoms

New leaves smaller than older ones, fading variegation, long spaces between leaves on the vine, no pests or fungal signs.

Plants affected

• pothos

Easily confused with

• Pythium root rot

  How to tell them apart: Pythium splendens is a root- and stem-rot oomycete: lift the plant or check the soil line and you find dark brown, water-soaked, mushy roots whose outer sheath slips off leaving a bare thread, often with a sour, rotten smell and a soft, blackened collapse at the stem base. Above ground the whole plant wilts and yellows even when the soil is moist, and the decline is fast (days). Low-light disorder, by contrast, shows firm, white, healthy roots and a firm stem base with no smell. Light-starved pothos yellows slowly and evenly from the oldest leaves, stretches into long bare 'leggy' internodes reaching toward the window, loses leaf variegation (turning plain green), and produces small new leaves — and it recovers when moved to brighter light.

Common questions

How do I recognise low light decline on pothos?

New leaves smaller than older ones, fading variegation, long spaces between leaves on the vine, no pests or fungal signs.

Do I have to report low light decline?

No. low light decline is not a notifiable organism, so there is nothing to report to an authority. Treat it as a normal garden problem.

How is low light decline treated?

With a sequence of steps whose timing matters as much as the choice of product — and both depend on the plant, the season and your country. Dr. Phyto works them out in a free diagnosis.