Hey guys, so I finally was lucky enough and got my hands on a Monstera Thai Constellation. However, now I am noticing that I might not have been so lucky after all... I see some discolorations below the leaves and some tiny dots. This is on two of her leaves, I am attaching photos. Apart from that, I am not able to spot any bugs or anything else that is wrong with the plant. She looks healthy otherwise. I just got her 2 days ago so I havent repotted her or anything, and for the time being, until I identify the issue, she is being in isolation from my other plants. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong? Since I bought her off ebay, I am considering to just send the plant back. Thanks everyone for your time!

Looks fine to me. Why haven't you planted it yet?

In photo 2 those tiny black spots might be hard scale. If you scrape them with your fingernail do they pop off? Otherwise there is nothing wrong with your plant. You have had it 2 whole days and you already want to get rid of it because it has a few spots on the leaves?
If those are scale you need to treat the plant with an insecticide.

I agree that it doesn't look like there's a cause to send it back. With some time to adjust and an insecticide like Gina said, it looks like it'll be fine.

Thank you guys! Im sorry I didnt receive a notification that I have received replies!

Alright, so me again lol. I took a better photo of the little bumps.


The spots do not seem to be spreading but 3 leaves have those bumps. Does this not look suspicious like rust fungus? I have never seen rust fungus in my life so I cannot really evaluate.

Thanks again and sorry if I am being annoying

Rust really looks like rust. Its orange. My plumeria get it a lot in the winter. That doesn;t look like rust. If you are concerned that it is fungal, treat it with a fungicide

Gina1960 said:Rust really looks like rust. Its orange. My plumeria get it a lot in the winter. That doesn;t look like rust. If you are concerned that it is fungal, treat it with a fungicide

Thank you! I couldnt figure out exactly how orange it is supposed to be based on google images.

Gina1960 said:Rust really looks like rust. Its orange. My plumeria get it a lot in the winter. That doesn;t look like rust. If you are concerned that it is fungal, treat it with a fungicide

You seem quite knowledgeable and I got an Anthurium Clarinervium today, so could I ask you if the condition of the leaves is normal and the yellow spots on the leaves too?
Thank you so much for your time and patience with me!

Overall I think it looks good. How long was it in the box? Those little goombahs are pretty normal for plants that have been shipped

Gina1960 said:Overall I think it looks good. How long was it in the box? Those little goombahs are pretty normal for plants that have been shipped

I have no idea honestly, I ordered it a week ago, the shipment label was generated immediately by the seller but the plant itself was shipped only yesterday. So whether it has been packed for one day or a whole week, I cant tell. Arrived bone dry though. Also, one of the smaller leaves is really discolored:



Is this something typical that Anthuriums do with low light and no water? I am concerned about those bite marks on one of the leaves and those yellow spots. The seller says its lack of light but hmm...

Well it is pretty dry. It looks like its potted in straight peat which is not the correct media for this species. Its too hard to try and diagnose spots and marks on a plant that isn;t your own that you don;t really have in front of you. All you can really do is start taking good care of it and it looks pretty great, actually. I know its hard to look at it this way, but...the best case scenario in buying any plant is to physically go to a nursery and pick it out in person and get it right home with no delay in care. When you buy online, you take a chance. The chance is that either the seller is not totally reputable, the plant is not as healthy as it could be, or that something bad happens during shipping. These plants are not really RARE, but they have become quite expensive over the years since I collected all of mine. Aroids fell out of favor for a number of years, almost a decade, and now they are making this huge resurgence on the houseplant market and the prices are very high. People who have been growing plants for a year maybe less are trying to cash in on this big $$$ boom, they are importing plants from Asia mainly from tissue culture labs, chopping them up and reselling them. They are not GROWING them and then reselling them. I have known people who buy something off of eBay and it arrives with the tag from the original nursery overseas still stuck to it. The worst people are the variegated monstera sellers who are chopping up plants into little one node pieces and selling them for huge prices. Many of these cutting have no chance of growing into a plant. And the worst thing about this is they are sometimes illegally importing them, and they may harbor pests. The people reselling them are not usually licensed inspected nurseries they are people flipping plants to make a quick dollar.

What I am trying to say is, these things that you are buying through the mail have a history, but you have no idea what it is. Most of them have not been lovingly cultivated and grown by the person that is selling them to you. And they usually really don;t care about your complaints about issues of spots on leaves or leaf margins with tears and other marring blemishes. You either have to live with it the way it comes to you and try and do your best to rehabilitate it to the way you think it should be or you have to change the sources you are buying from. Many seekers will not accept returns or refund $$, and looking at your photos, there is really nothing wrong enough with your plant to justify that anyway

Gina1960 said:Well it is pretty dry. It looks like its potted in straight peat which is not the correct media for this species. Its too hard to try and diagnose spots and marks on a plant that isn;t your own that you don;t really have in front of you. All you can really do is start taking good care of it and it looks pretty great, actually. I know its hard to look at it this way, but...the best case scenario in buying any plant is to physically go to a nursery and pick it out in person and get it right home with no delay in care. When you buy online, you take a chance. The chance is that either the seller is not totally reputable, the plant is not as healthy as it could be, or that something bad happens during shipping. These plants are not really RARE, but they have become quite expensive over the years since I collected all of mine. Aroids fell out of favor for a number of years, almost a decade, and now they are making this huge resurgence on the houseplant market and the prices are very high. People who have been growing plants for a year maybe less are trying to cash in on this big $$$ boom, they are importing plants from Asia mainly from tissue culture labs, chopping them up and reselling them. They are not GROWING them and then reselling them. I have known people who buy something off of eBay and it arrives with the tag from the original nursery overseas still stuck to it. The worst people are the variegated monstera sellers who are chopping up plants into little one node pieces and selling them for huge prices. Many of these cutting have no chance of growing into a plant. And the worst thing about this is they are sometimes illegally importing them, and they may harbor pests. The people reselling them are not usually licensed inspected nurseries they are people flipping plants to make a quick dollar.

What I am trying to say is, these things that you are buying through the mail have a history, but you have no idea what it is. Most of them have not been lovingly cultivated and grown by the person that is selling them to you. And they usually really don;t care about your complaints about issues of spots on leaves or leaf margins with tears and other marring blemishes. You either have to live with it the way it comes to you and try and do your best to rehabilitate it to the way you think it should be or you have to change the sources you are buying from. Many seekers will not accept returns or refund $$, and looking at your photos, there is really nothing wrong enough with your plant to justify that anyway

Oh, I totally understand that it is hard to diagnose but I thank you sincerely that you are trying and you are helping me out quite a lot! Thank you! They are actually decently priced here, I got that Anthurium for 25 usd. And yess, I saw soooo many people selling just a leaf from a Monstera which I find horrible cus it is as if they buy a plant just to butcher it tsk. But yeah... money rule the world.
My concern is not so much with having a sick plant per se but rather it being dangerous to my other plants because I do have quite a lot and also a lot grown from seed and its just that mothering instinct in me kicking in and screaming: must protect them all :))
Here with ebay it is pretty easy to return things, I dont know how is it in the USA (I assume you are from the USA, apologies if my assumption is wrong) but I will keep the plant, isolate it and see how it feels. I will repot it in a potting mix for green plants, orchid bark and perlite on Monday as the stores are closed today and yesterday the weather was just horrible to go out. It is sitting at the moment under a growing light for an extra energy boost as the weather is really gloomy and I dont want to put it next to other plants until I observe how it feels. I hope it will be okay.

I might be over the top annoying here but may I please ask you to look at the spots on my baby Monstera? I didnt want to buy a leaf and instead got this little cupcake about 2 weeks ago and since yesterday I noticed some new spots that are developing, and now my heart is sinking that it might be bacterial leaf spot or root rot and its a new adventure every day lol. Should stop buying plants, I know... The spots are on the lowest two leaves, I have watered her exactly two times, once when I got her and put her in new ground and the second time was on Thursday (so about 10 days in between) as the top 3-4 cm were dry. She is in a mix for green plants, perlite, orchid bark and a tiny bit of seramis. She is also in a plant bag as I thought that might provide her with better air flow, humidity is about 50-60%.






Thank you so much again for your time!

A lot of these types of problems occur from a lack of sufficient humidity. The humidity in most houses hovers around 50% or less. This is fine for some plants. But for others, which flourish in hot wet humid places, 80% is actually what they want and need. I live in Florida, it is generally very hot and humid here for about 9 1/2 months out of the year but the brief winter we have can be very dry. To compensate for this many people here use foggers, grow in mist houses, or use overhead 'rain' watering systems that completely and throughly wet all surfaces in the growing area in order to maintain humidity and prevent large fluctuations, which can cause damage and desiccation of leaves.

There is a large movement among houseplant growers here in the US (I am not a houseplant grower I am a greenhouse/tropical rainforest set up grower) who want to grow these plants in setting up small mist tents in their houses that they grow their plants in. These are dedicated spaces almost like indoor greenhouses that are used to grow mainly aroids and other finicky plants like calatheas, rare begonias, orchids and the like.

Some people believe that humidity is a non-issue but it has been shown that keeping aroids at a higher level of humidity is extremely beneficial.

Gina1960 said:A lot of these types of problems occur from a lack of sufficient humidity. The humidity in most houses hovers around 50% or less. This is fine for some plants. But for others, which flourish in hot wet humid places, 80% is actually what they want and need. I live in Florida, it is generally very hot and humid here for about 9 1/2 months out of the year but the brief winter we have can be very dry. To compensate for this many people here use foggers, grow in mist houses, or use overhead 'rain' watering systems that completely and throughly wet all surfaces in the growing area in order to maintain humidity and prevent large fluctuations, which can cause damage and desiccation of leaves.

There is a large movement among houseplant growers here in the US (I am not a houseplant grower I am a greenhouse/tropical rainforest set up grower) who want to grow these plants in setting up small mist tents in their houses that they grow their plants in. These are dedicated spaces almost like indoor greenhouses that are used to grow mainly aroids and other finicky plants like calatheas, rare begonias, orchids and the like.

Some people believe that humidity is a non-issue but it has been shown that keeping aroids at a higher level of humidity is extremely beneficial.

Oh, I understand, I was actually afraid of raising the humidity due to fungus and bacterias. But then again, I am a noob with those planties so it is a whole new world for me. I found this little greenhouse/tent the other day and they have it at my local store:



I guess it might be beneficial to get one, thank you! The plant is sitting at the moment with a humidity tray and from time to time I turn on a humidifier close by when I see that the humidity drops below 50%.
So those spots on the monstera dont look dangerous to you? It is as if they appeared overnight and they have grown a bit since yesterday. Once again, I have no experience with leaf spots so I am so clueless with everything. I only once saw fungal leaf spot on a Dracaena, and I thought its nothing but then it spread so fast that I had to throw the plant away. Was really dramatic lol so since then Im just cautious with every little thing.

I might also add...you can glean a lot of information by researching the specific plants that you want to buy before you make the purchase, to see if you think that you can provide the correct growing habitat for them.

Monstera deliciosa is endemic to the wet tropical forests in Mexico and its range extends down toward Panama in the South. It ha been imported to Hawaii, Australia and other places and has become invasive in some of these hot tropical places. There are roughly 200 species of Monstera, and they are all scandent (vining) epiphytes that normally live in wet tropical forest. While it is a popular houseplant, most houses do not meet its preferred conditions, which is probably why there are 1000's of questions about them on forums like this one.

Anthurium clarivervium is also endemic to Mexico, coming from the Southern state of Chiapas in the rainforest there. It likes to be kept evenly moist and does not like to dry out. It also likes very very bright light, and many houses cannot give adequate light levels. If you try meeting these conditions for the monstera and the clarinervium (higher humidity, bright light, moist not wet soil) you should have a fair chance at having them thrive

This is one of mine, it grows in pretty much full sun in the greenhouse ( which is filtered by the glazing.) I have propagated this plant several times since I got it in about 2006/7 so I have several, this one was taken off the mama last season


I water daily with a hose in winter, daily with overhead sprinklers in spring-summer-fall, and have a swamp cooler that keeps things humid, in addition I have a 8 ft diameter pong and a 20 foot stream in the greenhouse, these water features elevate the humidity even more

I had a slug eat the side off that leaf, and the one that looks light has hard water staining that I need to clean off.

Gina1960 said:This is one of mine, it grows in pretty much full sun in the greenhouse ( which is filtered by the glazing.) I have propagated this plant several times since I got it in about 2006/7 so I have several, this one was taken off the mama last season


I water daily with a hose in winter, daily with overhead sprinklers in spring-summer-fall, and have a swamp cooler that keeps things humid, in addition I have a 8 ft diameter pong and a 20 foot stream in the greenhouse, these water features elevate the humidity even more

Oh, what a little beauty! I have the bad habit of seeing something, falling in love with it and THEN reading about it But it is also a good lesson because now I can change my strategy and read prior to buying and see if I can meet their requirements or not. I was hoping the monstera can live in a bright corner on my desk but I guess that wouldnt be suitable for the little one. Turning the bedroom into a mini greenhouse it is then! :D

So for the anthurium, I need to filter the sunlight but it should be direct? Wouldnt it suffice if I put it in a indirect bright spot? The thing is I keep on reading conflicting infos: some say keep the Anthuriums moist, others say: let them dry so I am totally baffled who to follow and not kill the pretty thing.

Can you give me some hints how troublesome leaf spots look on monsteras? The info online is just confusing me and I cant decide if those spots on the monstera now are a cause of concern or not. And given my null greenhouse experience, it is really boo. Like, how do I know it is the plant just lacking something and how do I differentiate that with a fungal or bacterial infection? I saw on the Dracaena that fungal leaf spot forms those pretty evident circles but have no clue about bacterial. The spots on the monstera dont look fungal to me, hence, I dont know what is it per se and if I should treat it or not, and if so, with what. Ive read online that I should remove the infected leaves asap if its bacterial, which I will absolutely do but how can I be certain.

Btw, thanks for being so lovely! I can imagine you being so knowledgeable is both a blessing and curse But sincerely thank you for so easily and willingly spreading your knowledge!