My green and white, spiky-leafed plant has black splotches on its leaves. What do I do?

Question

I don't know the name of the plant, but it has many long, green and white spiky leaves. I water it just a bit, every 2 days, when the earth in the pot turns from black color, to dark brown. I have been mixing a teaspoon of MiracleGro flower and plant food with the water. Approximately 2 weeks ago, black splotches began appearing on random leaves in random locations. I looked underneath the leaves which were also black (it seems to go through and through), but I did not see any bugs. Could this be a fungus of some sort? What should I do?

Answer 1

If it looks like this photo then it is a airplane/or spider plant.
If not take a leaf to a nursery and ask them.
Since I don't know what the plant is I can say what is wrong. Over watering usually produces yellow or brown spots. But yours has black splotches.

Photo
http://davesgarden.com/pics/SCShopgirl_1117025498_199.jpg
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fei%3DUTF-8%26p%3Dairplane%2Bplant%26fr%3Dks-ques%26b%3D21&w=800&h=1067&imgurl=davesgarden.com%2Fpics%2FSCShopgirl_1117025498_199.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fdavesgarden.com%2Fpf%2Fshowimage%2F77076&size=160.2kB&name=SCShopgirl_1117025498_199.jpg&p=airplane+plant&type=jpeg&no=39&tt=400&oid=c3288281048189d0&ei=UTF-8

Answer 2

It sounds as though you're describing an "airplane" plant. They have long, thin leaves that have a lengthwise white stripe (or two) on them. Usually, if this plant starts to get black splotches, it's being watered too much. Airplane plants can take a lot of abuse, so I'm a little surprised that it's responding this way to water; however, if you're letting it sit in water for any length of time after being watered, that's probably the culprit. Allow it to sit in water no more than an hour after watering, then make sure it drains well so that the roots don't drown and compromise the plant's vascular system.

Good luck!

Answer 3

My husband likes orchids but I didn't think we had room for them in the house so we put them out on our front porch where it is sheltered from the rain but not from the cold and wind. They all started developing black spots. I told the nurseryman about it and he suggested a spray which I used deligently. That really didn't help. I read someplace that the plants could have caught a cold. So I brought them indoors and made sure they were near windows where some sunlight would be available. They get filtered sunlight at least a few hrs a day. No new black spots and the two pots of orchids on a table near the west window that gets more hours of filtered sunlight and warmth is doing the best. Other pots on tables getting filtered sun from the south and east are doing OK too. I don't know anything about orchids, that was only my experience. Good luck with your orchid.