Brown-yellow Spots on Leaves of Night Jessamine
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Taposhi Dasgupta
Posted on: December 02, 2007

I have a "Jessamine, Night" (Cestrum nocturnum) bought from Richters - was gift from a friend of mine this past summer.

I got this potted plant indoors about 2 months back. I have a Gro-lite tube about 2 ft (60cm) away from the plant and it gets light from this source for about 4-5 hours a day in addition to some reflected daylight through a window close by.

For the last 2 weeks I noticed some of the leaves turning yellow and also have some dark brown spots on the leaves too- I do not want to lose this plant and am looking to you for help PLEASE to help address this issue. The plant is very healthy otherwise and is sprouting a lot of new shoots; I water it about 1-2 times a week and have fertilised it with Miracle- Grow about once in the last 2 months.

My guess would be that the plant is not getting enough light. Increase the hours the light is on to 14 a day for the winter and if at all possible use a two tube light fixture with at least 40 watts per tube. Are the leaves light green and the shoots stretching toward the light? That would confirm severe under-lighting. If the shoots stretch with internodes( the spaces between leaves) getting longer than they were when the plant was out of doors but the colour is a dark green then the under-lighting is not as bad. If the lighting from the window is quite intense then the plant may just be producing new leaves suitable for the altered conditions and is dropping the old unsuitable leaves it grew out of doors.

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