So, all of my pothos plants seem to be developing black spots (some worse than others). New leaves are unfurling with black spots, and existing leaves are developing black spots (or, yellow spots that turn black). What should I do to remediate this? Is it enough to just cut off the black leaves? Do the plants have some disease? Would it help if they were repotted with new soil? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Does the pot have a drain hole?

purpleinopp said: Does the pot have a drain hole?

Yes, all the pots have drain holes. I usually water more on the conservative side. I'll water about once a week, but I don't water so much that water flows out the bottom.

Jademan said:I'll water about once a week, but I don't water so much that water flows out the bottom.

I'd guess that might be your problem. Plants without enough water behave differently but my pothos seem to sacrifice some leaves to save others.

Pothos roots are pretty robust, and healthy plants develop lots of roots.
If there's not enough water to run out of the bottom, there's a good chance the lower roots are either dying off or at least not supporting the leaves with moisture as well as they could.

Agree, some excess water should come out of the drain holes when watering. Otherwise, it's likely that not all of the soil is getting moist.

How long have you had this? Are you able to add a pic showing the whole plant with pot?

My first impression is that this is a new plant. The first and third pictures look like physical damage from shipping. The second one may be a bacterial infection; at least the spot in the middle of the leaf. Remove that one and you will probably remove all of the infection unless you have exceptionally high humidity inside. Bacterial and fungal leafspots are very rare indoors due to their need for high humidity to cause new infections.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts so far. So I have three different pothoses, and it was suspicious to me that all three of them started developing black spots around the same time. I almost wonder if there was a bacterial infection in one which spread to the others? I have had the plants for over a year. This past September they were all left at different friend's houses for a week while I was on vacation. One of them might have picked something up while they were there. They were all fine before that.

As requested, below are better pictures of each of them.

Pothos 1 (this one looks the worst, and has been black the longest):







Pothos 2: this one I made the mistake of giving some plant food to about a month ago. I thought it was malnourished. Then some of the leaves started turning yellow and falling off. It has not done this as much recently. However, it does have some leaves with black spots as well





Pothos 3: this one looks the least bad, but is also developing black spots on new and existing leaves

I am not be able to keep any plant alive in soil that looks like that. I would be planning to change that if they were my plants. Those first 2 pots are very small and the amount of roots they can hold can only support a finite amount of foliage.

Agree with removing the damaged leaves. Plant will look better, you'll know if it spreads to other leaves, and if it is something that can spread, removing the leaf will, as John said, hopefully get rid of it.

Otherwise, I would keep the foliage dry except when watering, and aim for consistency with the soil. I never let a Pothos get too dry or the older leaves will turn yellow and fall off.

What kind of fertilizer did you use?

Thank you Tiffany for your feedback. For soil I've just been using generic Miracle Gro potting mix, like this one. Would you recommend I use something else? https://www.homehardware.ca/en...

I've only fertilized the second plant, the first and third I have not fertilized because I repotted them back around August. I just used Schultz liquid plant food: https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/s... I'm not sure if the plant was annoyed because of the type of fertilizer or because I gave it after the summer season was over.

Happy to reply. Keep in mind as you go through this discussion and your plant ages, it's normal for a leaf to go bad for no apparent reason sometimes. Unless it develops into a trend, it's nothing to worry about. If your standard is perfection, you'll feel like your plant(s) is struggling more than it might actually be.

A lot of people like that MG soil but I can't keep plants alive in such a dense, airless soil. When I buy bagged soil, I get "cactus/palm" soil because it's very chunky, porous, and doesn't kill my plants.

Schultz is my preferred fert. Assuming you followed the directions, I doubt that was the cause of distress. Pothos don't really know seasons, they are from tropical areas, so will grow whenever conditions are within acceptable range. As long as the temps stay above freezing, it's not a persnickety plant about conditions.

But over time, if the soil is never flushed, substances from tap water and fert can build-up in the soil.

Thanks Tiffany. Would you suggest I perhaps use MG cactus/palm soil then? Maybe I'll repot my plants that are currently in smaller pots and use this instead https://www.homedepot.ca/produ...

Happy to share what works for me. I haven't tried MG cactus/palm soil but if it is more chunky it should be better than their regular stuff which, the last time I had any, seemed like just peat moss with a few bits of perlite.

That the spots appeared after the vacation confirms for me that the spots on the newest leaves were damaged "in the bud" and are not infected with anything. The other spots look less like disease and more like age-related issues. The tip-burn looks like accumulated affects of nutrient and water fluctuations. The spots in the middle of the leaves could be almost anything from disease (unlikely due to time out of greenhouse conditions) to physical damage to nutrient issues. The soil looks fine for Pothos. They'll grow in almost any medium from water to sand. If a nursery can grow the plant to saleable size and quality for national/international markets, it can't be that bad.

I wasn't speaking from theory, just from my own observations. Since I quit using peat by any brand name, I quit worrying about root rot (overwatering) because plants quit dying that way. Now I just keep all of them moist all the time. That's so much more fun for me than trying to be clairvoyant about when to water because if done on the wrong day, the roots will rot. I have about 200 pots, so it would be impossible to provide an individual regime for that.

In a dry climate, it might be wonderful stuff that helps a grower to be able to water less often. My observations come from a climate with overwhelmingly humid conditions through most of the year. It's 93% right now. I don't know, having never lived in a dry climate.

It makes sense that when comparing observations from widely various conditions that the observations would also vary. I can only say what works for me where I am.