JADE PLANTS...off topic, but help needed...
 

Hey guys, I know this is ORCHID board, but chnaces are, most of you have other plants too...

Anywho... I have a very large jade plant with a white powdery substance on it.. I spoke to a guy who owns/runs a plant shop in Chicago who sells jade plants.. He told me to use 70% rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle to treat it. He said spray the leaves and stems everyday for about 14 days then every other day for a while. He said it is better for the plants than insecticides and what not.

My question is.....
Will this harm the plant? I have heard it does not, then I have heard that it does...

Any advice????:biggrin:

One of my jade plants has sort of powdery flakes on its leaves that rubs off but I know that there is nothing wrong with this plant; it is healthy and grow like a weed. I am not sure if that is the same thing you are talking about. It is hard to tell without a picture.

Well tonight, we put the pot in the bathtub and sprayed all the leaves off. It looked like someone sprinkled white dust on them. Almost like a mold. Some of the leaves that were heavily covered in the powder turned black or had dark brown spots on them. I would like to try to use alcohol spray on them, but I do not know if that would harm the plant or not

I've never had that on mine. Folks use similar things on orchids though to treat pests so I think if it's fine on an orchid it should be fine on a Jade.

I would try an alcohol spray on part of the plant first and if it's not reacted badly to that in a few days use it all over.

Make sure you get rubbing alcohol/isopropohol alcohol. Different alcohols have different size of molecules and smaller ones can affect the plants badly, but rubbing/isopropohol is generally fine.

I had this on a really old one that was several feet tall. It ultimately killed it, but it took a long time to do so. I just thought it was normal because it had been there for such a long time. Oops...

I agree with Rosie, test it first if you are concerned about it. I would only caution against getting the alcohol mixture into the soil. You might want to wrap the base with some sort of fabric to prevent it getting into the soil.

Oh, and I forgot to say that I have moved this to the 'Off Topic' area :)

Thanks guys. And thanks for moving it. I did not realize there was an "off topic" forum :) I will try the alc on a small part for now and see what happens. I would have to loose the plant bc it was my Grandma's and she has since passed. It is soooo big it would be a shame to kill it!

If it looks like a mold it could be just that i had one die from a mold problem I would clean it best as possible and if the leaves are even a tiny bit mushy hold back on water for a bit remember it is a succulent and likes to be forgotten from time to time. Hope this helps :twocents: