What's wrong with my rubber tree?
My plant's leaves are becoming lighter, and some are turning brown. There are tiny scabs on the bottom. I can pick them off. I've already showered it, but I have the feeling it's coming back. There are small white dots on the edges. I'm not sure what it is or what I can do. It's always grown well, but now it looks a bit strange. I would be very grateful for any advice.
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The tiny white dots are completely normal; they are gland cells through which "excess water" is released -> guttation, please compare here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/plantclinic/comments/dm8v89/rubber_tree_has_little_white_dots_in_her_leaves/?tl=de
On guttation:
https://www.pflanzenforschung.de/de/pflanzenwissen/lexikon-az/guttation-10269
In the first and second pictures I think I can see thrips larvae and their droppings:
https://www.garten-bienen.at/schaedlinge/schaedlingsinformation/Thrips.18b56.php
The last picture ( damage image ) could also fit these.
Here is some help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=tY1WzHyVau0
and
https://www.feey-pflanzen.de/blogs/pflanzen-blog/effective-mittel-zur-bekaempfung-und-vorbiegung-von-thripsen
That's what I was afraid of. I bought curtain rails from Repo. When we went to hang them, there were a lot of little bugs inside the sealed packaging. It fits the bugs' appearance… I couldn't see any on the plants, anyway. Only the rubber plant was showing signs, even though it wasn't even close. 😳
Strange, you don't really find them on curtain rails, they belong on plants.
Do you perhaps have a photo of these creatures?
Were there any plants nearby in the store – or the other way around, were there these rails near the plants?
Anyway, I could imagine that this is caused by thrips on the rubber tree.
If you have an experienced plant specialist nearby (at a nursery or a good garden center), take the leaf (the last one in the row) and bring it there along with the photos. Maybe they can figure it out.
Yeah, weird, right? They seem to be dead, though. There are no larvae on the plants… the rails are on the balcony for now… I didn't know what to do.
Oh, that really looks like thrips – pictures
That would be great, thanks.
Take a good look at the small white dots with a magnifying glass to see if they're even moving. Then they could be spider mites.
In general, however, every leaf begins to age and turn yellow/red/brown.
Well, nature. No…
Rubber trees also lose leaves when they are too old, which you can see on the second and last leaves. This usually happens at the bottom.
And exactly where they fall off, new branches emerge.