Need more help with my sick Pointsetta. I just removed the sick leaves from my poitnsetta and I noticed that they were sticky. Not sure what that means or is that normal for the plant. I'll lay back watch football and watch more snow come down. We already have 6"of this stuff. sleep warm ed moderator's note: added a more descriptive title to topic
Poinsettia is a Euphorbia so has latex sap. Probably a good idea to avoid that, and wash well if you do. If you are one of the unlucky ones sensitive to it, you could get a miserable rash similar to poison ivy. Sticky leaves are usually a sign of the presence of some type of insect. A magnifying glass can be needed to see some of those.
Do you see any bugs/insects on your plant? They like to hide on the bottoms of leaves, along the stems, especially at the growth tip. Unless/until you know what is going on, it would be hard to do anything about it. A pic might help.
Sticky leaves are almost always a sign of scale, or less often, aphids. These little buggers can be very tiny, and they like to attach themselves to the veins and stems on the under sides of the leaves. They can be whitish, tan,grayish, brown, or green. If you look closely, you can usually see them - they'll be round or oval shaped. Even if you can't see them, you can mix up a bottle of soap spray - you can use ordinary mild dish detergent, or use fancy horticultural soap if that's your style. For the dish soap, 1 tsp soap in spray bottle of water should do it. Spray liberally up onto the undersides of leaves and stems, and down into the 'V' where leaf stems are attached to main stems. Use this once a week for 4 weeks, should eliminate the bugs. Some people like to add Neem oil, or even cooking oil, but use only a tiny bit, you don't want the mixture to be too oily.
We had tons of these on our dwarf Meyer lemon tree... We spent many days gently scraping them off of the stems and leaves with our fingernails. Now the tree is fine. Yet next time I'm going to try the neem spray approach, maybe it will be less work.
