Madagascar jewel in trouble!

[greenpassion]

I've had this plant for several years with no problems. I let it dry out and then water little to no fertilizer it doesn't seem to like it. Up until the last 6 months or so it reliably popped little seeds out everywhere, giving me a lot of Offspring to pot up and give away. Anyway, for the last few months I've been getting these strange yellow leaves that drop, seemingly just after I watered it. Today I noticed along with the dropping yellow leaves this two color stripes in the leaves. Should I be feeding this Epsom salts or something? I don't think it's disease, I think it's a nutritional thing. But what?

[Leafmite]

It looks like a nutrition issue. Except for CP's like my butterwort that catch their own nutrition, all potted plants need nutrition added in some form since the soil becomes depleted. For the plants that have sensitive roots and suffer greatly from inorganic fertilizer, I give them my spent tea leaves, add small doses of Ironite and Osmocote or Hollytone/Gardentone, flush the soil well a few times a year and try never to let the soil get too dry. The key is to avoid doing anything that might burn the roots.

Some nutrition guides:

Plant Nutrient Deficiency Leaf Illustrations and Charts Reference Guide | Big Picture Agriculture

[greenpassion]

Thank you Leafmite. I did figure that it was a nutritional thing, but I'm just not sure what. I'll check out your link. Happy Thanksgiving by the way!

[Leafmite]

You too! Have a good one!

[estación seca]

Is that a Euphorbia? Many of them normally drop their leaves and go dormant during the cooler winter, when they can be kept completely dry until spring. The evergreen ones often do this when they are kept too cool. A photo of the whole plant would help.

[greenpassion]

I'll send some pics I took from my phone. In one of the pictures are to seedlings from the mother. They are the ones with the striped leaves. As the plant matures the Stripes fade. The mother plant Spitz seeds quite a distance, and the seeds have landed and several of my other plants which I have dug up and potted up. When I get home I'll try to take a better picture but my understanding from Googling it is that this is a Madagascar Jewel. Not sure if it is in the euphorbia family but it looks like it could be. For some reason I cannot access the photo of the mother plant. It's somewhere in my phone I just saw it and now I can't get to it. so I will take yet another picture when I get home from work.

[estación seca]

Yes, that's a Euphorbia. It might be a hybrid or it might be a species, E. leuconeura. They don't like cold temperatures. In the wild they go dormant for the rainless winter and lose their leaves. If you could keep it warm and bright it would probably grow all year.

[greenpassion]

Yes. I've had it for 3 years, and it's done really well. It's never been in temps too cold (at least in my care) I have 4 babies from it that I still need homes for. (No room)

---------- Post added at 03:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:45 PM ----------

I have it in an East window and it gets plenty of Sun.

[estación seca]

They eventually drop older leaves as the plant grows. Before long it looks like an umbrella, with a tall stem and a crown of leaves.

[greenpassion]

Oh. Ok . So from the pics it doesn't look to you like a nutrient deficiency?