I have five houseplants that seem to be dying or are almost dead. They are a Golden Pothos, a Dark Mystery Pilea, a Philodendron Scandens, a Pink Polka Dot Plant, and a Lipstick Plant. The Pothos, Pilea, and Philodendron were all purchased from Walmart over a year ago and are from Costa Farms. The Polka Dot and Lipstick were bought from a local food store. All were much smaller when I got them and have grown large until recently (about 2-3 months). I had them on a large cardboard box originally but started seeing tiny flies/gnats. I used a houseplant bug killer from Garden Safe Brand to eliminate them but still see them at times.
I now have the plants all on a plastic shelving unit I purchased for them right near my south-facing window. It is the only window I can put them in front of without tripping over them, and they get morning and some afternoon sun. I have all the plants in a moisture-control soil from Miracle-Gro and water them when the top is dry. I also feed them with a liquid fertilizer from Miracle-Gro every month. I have mixed the dirt around in their pots, so there is no stale soil on the top for too long. I also have a long stem that broke off from the Pothos replanted after I put it in water until it sprang roots. Now the Pothos keeps getting leaves that turn yellow and brown, the Philodendron's leaves all look droopy and keep falling out, the Polka Dot has mostly lost all of its leaves, the Lipstick has turned brown and thinned out (looks dead), and the Pilea has lost all of its leaves, turned brown, dried up, and thinned out all but 1 stem. Help! I love my plants and want to make them great again! The first 8 photos are what they look like now, the next 4 are what they started to look like, and the last is of one of the flies/gnats.

Well, you chose really tough plants, which is a good start.

I'm guessing your soil is too heavy and retains too much moisture for your plants. You need to use a houseplant-specific soil or just mix your own. Miracle-Gro moisture control is meant for outdoor use in areas that are dry. What makes things worse are those pastel, plastic pots. I have some of those, so I know for a fact they're very poor draining. Mine are outside in full sun and it still takes DAYS for the soil to dry.

I think you should get your houseplants out of that soil at the very least. The best thing overall would probably be to get terra cotta pots to replace said plastic ones.

The pothos and philodendron will probably make it, but the outlook for the others is not good.

Yes I think there are several issues. Firstly the compost is retaining too much water, the too large pots likely have no drainage which will possibly cause root rot/suffocation, the light is possibly too strong and you are feeding too much.

I have several of those plants. They are all low-light plants. especially the pothos and the lipstick plant and, I think, the polkadot plant. The afternoon sun is probably too much for them, even the morning sun might be. Mine don't get ANY sun and almost no light. These are plants that, given the right conditions, will thrive on neglect. At least, mine do.

I'm going to agree with the comments about potting soil and pots, and recommend that you stay away from bug spray. I can't tell from your picture if that's really a gnat, but if it is, you may have some fungus in your soil. If you have fungus gnats, that's what they like to eat and it can be a problem for your plants. Just to reinforce what others have already said, fungus and fungus gnats love soil that doesn't drain well.

The best thing you can do, IMHO, is to either make or buy a gnat trap. Very easy to do and very cheap.





Good luck!

Your problem is you are over-watering your plants and that's causing your gnat problem. Keeping the soil soggy or wet even for a few days in the past weeks can show up today with causalities . You never have to feed new soil out of the bag any fertilizer, because the potting mix you have has 6 months extended release fertilizer in it. I recommend you start with 3 easy to grow plants before you stock your shelf's with hard to grow plants. Salvage the plants you can, by letting the soil dry out well before watering again. Make sure you have drainage holes in your container. Your lighting is ok for most part for your plants. Good luck.

Repotting new plants is asking for trouble because so much can go wrong. Plants don't like larger pots. They do best in the potting soil they are grown in by the nursery. Commercial potting mixes tend to be too heavy and retain moisture for too long. Pots without drain holes are a recipe for overwatering. Removing soil from the original rootball often does serious damage to the tiny roothairs. Inadvertent overwatering is much more likely after repotting.

For future reference, I suggest you keep your plants in their plastic nursery pots and set those inside something more attractive. If you leave the roots undisturbed you will have far fewer problems.

Will, excellent advice, as always. I wonder, does that apply to outdoor plants as well?

@joannakat - I am reluctant to comment on plants that I have no direct experience with. Being a city dweller with little or no access to outdoor growing spaces, I don't have enough experience with outdoor plants to answer your question responsibly.

First off, stop fertilizing the plants! Plants can get seriously damaged from being over fertilized. All Miracle Grow soils have tiny fertilizer capsules in it designed to fertilize plants for at least 3 months (that is one of the reasons I don't use Miracle Grow). Adding additional fertilizer is just causing damage to the plants. Fertilizer wont cure a unhealthy plant.
The moisture control potting soil is another problem. The soil stays too wet for too long and causes the plants to develop root rot. If the plants already have root rot, then they only way to save the plants will be to cut off all the stems and reroot them. You can not save the plants with no leaves and the Polka Dot plant probably won't reroot. After the stems reroot, plant them in just regular potting soil. If you use Miracle Grow potting soil, do NOT fertilize the plants for at least 6-8 months.

Chemical insecticides are rarely useful on houseplants and are often toxic to humans and animals. The best way to get rid of fungus gnats is small dishes of soapy water and a potato. Place a couple of small bowls of water with a few drops of dish washing liquid mixed in. That will attract the adult gnats and drown them. Change the soapy water in the bowls every day. Fungus gnats lay their eggs in the soil. The gnat larvae are extremely hard to see in the soil, they are small, almost transparent worms. To get rid of the gnat larvae, peel and slice a potato. Stick the potato slices into the soil. The gnat larvae will be attracted to the potato slices and will burrow into them. Simply remove the potato slices and throw them away. Put fresh potato slices in the soil every day until you no longer find any fungus gnats. Fungus gnats are really annoying but they don't really damage houseplants.

Thanks Will, your honesty is much appreciated.

That potato thing totally didn't work for me.

Does anyone have a specific suggestion for pots I should buy and put them in? I need a specific name so I can search Amazon or Ace Hardware for them. Also, a specific soil I should buy? I am totally green (no pun intended) to houseplants and could use much guidance. Thanks!
My Polka Dot Plant has now lost almost all leaves, my philodendron scandens has all limp leaves, my lipstick plant has lost all leaves and is basically just all sticks, and my pothos has started to have yellow leaves which I've been removing.

Dan, at this point, it may not be worth it to try to save these. If you go to a local nursery, you can probably pick up a few house plants. But ask them to help you pick and tell them about where you want to put them, how much light they can get, etc. They'll advise you as to care. And you probably won't need to transplant them for a while. It's much easier to learn this way.

Most likely, they'll come in plastic pots which are just fine. As for potting soil, if you do this, you won't need to worry about that for a year or two. If you get something that's in a clay (terra cotta) pot, those aerate well, but that also means that the soil can dry out faster than with plastic pots.

As far as plant food, again, ask at the nursery. And you can ask here too (I think we have a houseplant forum too!) Also, follow the directions on the package, and be sure not to overfeed. In the case of plant food, more is not better.

As far as watering is concerned, a general rule is to stick your finger into the soil down to about an inch. If it's dry, then water. If it's moist, wait. And don't allow your pots to sit in water. So if they're in a saucer and water comes out the bottom of the pots, throw out that water. Keep in mind that different plants have different water requirements, so again, ask about each one at the nursery. You can write down the answers and keep them near each plant. Don't accept answers like "water about once a week" because conditions will influence how often you need to water. Ask for specifics: How can I know when I need to water?

I hope this is helpful to you. Easy, low-light plants include pothos, lipstick plant (see? your choices were good!) and peace lily. Oh! And Mother-in-law's tongue!

Good luck, and do let us know how things go.

If you start with 2 or 4 basic plants in their nursery pots and master their growing conditions, you can have better success. If you have a problem with over watering or under watering and you own many plants, you will do the same to all of them. So start small and MASTER your watering with one or two plants and then get what you want.

Unfortunately, It is a rare plant retailer who can offer reliable advice on plant care.

The best pot for most any plant you acquire is the one it is grown in by the nursery. As soon as you start to disturb the roots by repotting or changing the soil you start to create problems unnecessarily. You can set the plastic nursery pot into something more attractive but don't repot.

Skip the fertilizer altogether.

Make sure you have a good match between the available light and the light requirements of that particular plant species. If you don't have a good light match then nothing else you do will matter.

@MlkmanDan, did you notice this article about keeping pests off your houseplants? You might enjoy it.
https://garden.org/learn/artic...

For what it's worth, I've always received excellent information from my local nurseries. I have three that I love. One is a few minutes away, the other two are about 40 minutes away. Sometimes I just go so I can walk through them, that's how beautiful they are. I just got back from one! Lots of specials right now as they're gearing up for Christmas-tree season.

This is a problem of over watering. overwatering will make the roots rot and kill the plant. too much light , water and a large pot will kill it. some plants like a crowded area and a large pot will tempt you to water it too much

I share Will's reservation about getting good advice from a place that sells plants. Big box stores and groceries with floral departments are NOT nurseries. A nursery that might help you choose well is an independent retailer, not a chain that passes along plants someone else grew.

Get a couple of new plants left in the pots they came in. I prefer plants about 4-5 inch size pot with plant nicely filled in.

We have all had plants die- its a learning process.