What causes the leaves of the money tree to scorch?
The money tree (Pachira aquatica) is an ornamental plant very well suited to indoor growing, with evergreen and foliage-loving characteristics. However, if we care for it improperly, its leaves are also fairly prone to scorching, which looks very unsightly and greatly reduces the ornamental value of the potted plant.
Perhaps quite a few gardening friends have encountered the situation where the money tree's leaves develop elongated scorch spots, and the resulting scorch spots often start from the edges of the leaves. In the early stage of the disease, the scorch spots may appear light brown, and the infected area is not large, or may even be just small spots one by one. As the condition becomes more serious, they may quickly spread into many irregular shapes, and the color of the spots will also deepen, appearing dark brown, and may even be accompanied by some small black dots.
In fact, this is a typical fungal infection phenomenon. This situation occurs mainly because the plant often grows in a humid and low-temperature environment. And this situation generally arises when watering is relatively plentiful in winter but the ambient temperature is also relatively low. The money tree not only has poor cold resistance, but is also not tolerant of water, so if you water too much in winter and the ambient temperature is too low, it is easy to make its leaves scorch and develop spots.
When growing a money tree in winter, it is usually required to place it indoors, and the ambient temperature is required to be kept between 10°c-15°c. If it is below 10°c, it is prone to root rot, yellow leaves and leaf drop. Moreover, if the ambient humidity is too high and the air circulation is poor, it is also very easy to cause fungal infection, thereby making scorch spots grow on the leaves.
It can be seen that one important reason for the money tree's leaves scorching is leaf spot disease caused by fungal infection due to environmental conditions. When encountering this situation, everyone must promptly cut off the diseased leaves, and at the same time spray the leaves once a week with a carbendazim solution to kill off the remaining harmful bacteria. It is also required that the care environment has sufficient light, is bright and well ventilated, and that watering is appropriately controlled. Generally, after growing it this way for about a month, the situation of scorch spots on its leaves will improve.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that it is caused by sunburn from light that is too strong. Because the money tree likes light and is also tolerant of shade, but at the same time it is not tolerant of strong light, especially under the scorching sun in summer, its broad leaves not only have strong transpiration, but the leaves are also very prone to forming scorch spots. So for this situation, generally we only need to shade it in time to solve the problem.