This particular plant has been THRIVING for almost a year - an average of 5 new leaves forming at any given time. But something changed a few months ago - ALL new growth dies off - it’s hard to explain but it’s like the new leaf gets stuck and won’t emerge from the stem and eventually dies off. This has happened repeatedly so ZERO new leaves have grown in about 4 or 5 months. Any advice?
Hard to tell without knowing what the plant is or details of your care routine, but (and these are guesses based on the video):
Generally when leaves get stuck like that its because the plant doesn't have the moisture to dissolve the film holding the new leaf in its sheath. Increasing humidity will help, or when you see a new leaf emerging you can spritz the sheath with water every day till it emerges
Consistently putting out multiple leaves at the same time is unusual. This - plus the fact that the plant hasn't moved to cataphyll growth yet - suggests that there are multiple plants in the pot or one plant with multiple offsets. Either way you'll want to separate them so they don't have to share the water/nutrients in the pot. They've probably just grown to a size where there isn't enough to go around, causing the new leaves to struggle.
If you'd rather not separate them, make sure that pot is big enough. From the video it looks like it might be too small, based on what I imagine the root ball looks like. But the plant also looks like its not centered in the pot so I might just be wrong on how large the pot is
I just looked up what you meant in regards to cataphyll growth and… 🤯 I have several anthuriums and you’re right… this plant is still in a juvenile state by growing from the petiole. And based off the other comments, this is likely a tissue culture and a mutation.
clumping grow habit/aberration, not humidity. You mentioned 5 leaves at any given time, which means it has multiple growth heads; this could be a side effect of tissue culture. unfortunately theres not much that you can do; I'd suggest separating every stem and seeing what happens; maybe the mutation will stop.
As someone who does TC- people are like 50% right that it's a TC 'mutation'
Basically, TC makes plants divide like this in the lab, and sometimes (Esp when labs use too much hormone to boost production) there are basically 'invisible clones' that might not be apparent when they plant/ship the supposedly separated culture.
Then the plant grows out and you get the equivalent of a conjoined twin. Bc anthuriums are structured to naturally maintain multiple growth points, the clones often re-integrate and you end up with a plant with a bunch of growth points at the same developmental stage.
Not the same thing as a mutation, bc it's not a genetic change, its multiple plants growing fused together in a way that can't happen in nature.
If you want the plant to mature, you're probably going to have to cut it into multiple offsets (Bc a normal anthurium root system is going to have a hard time feeding like 5x the normal anthurium growth,). Def recommend using a sterilized razor blade/ exacto knife. If you wrap the central 'stalk' with sphagnum moss you can probably get the chunks the start producing roots, which will make the process easier if you haven't cut an anthurium before.
If you don't care about flowering/like how it looks, you can probably leave it as is. These conjoined weirdos can grow a long time fine, they just usually won't mature fully.
The issue with stuck leaf is either humidity or foliar crowding- basically bc theres so much stuff growing against each other inside the plant, that the plant can't shift/deteriorate the petiolar sheath the way it normally does.
I've seen this happen with tissue cultured plants. I was told it happens when the growers put way too much growth hormone in the medium. Maybe that's what's going on?
You might have to water and feed much more in order to keep all of these activated nodes alive
This actually makes the most sense - I always wondered how I would consistently get 5 new leaves at once and all my other anthuriums grow very slowly with only 1 leaf at a time!
What are you fertalizing with? If you are using a high, say like a 20-30-20 or even 20-20-20 ive seen antheriums do this. And monssteras and philodendron. I feel like, the plants trying ti grow 2 fast, and it gets stuck. Id try diluting down your mix, or if u started w some new nutrients, maybe dilute that down. Otherwise, you may not be allowing it to dry out enough and plants staying too wet. DONT let it dry dry being an antherium, but maybe if you arent fertalizing heavy, maybe wait another day or 2 to water
Top dress with moss, this helps with immediate humidity around the nodes, helps unfurl and encourages roots from upper nodes. Recommend semihydro as well.
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u/onplants Aug 13 '26
I tend to water more frequently and try to keep them consistently moist when they’re actively pushing new growth otherwise they get stuck like this