Nerve Plant Bleaching/Yellowing

Question

I've had this Nerve plant for about a year and a half and it is one of my favorite plants. It has always been a consistent grower and never given me any trouble.

In the last few weeks, the plant has begun to struggle. A lot of its leaves are beginning to bleach/yellow, and eventually shrivel up and die. I didn't realize how big a problem this was at first until I checked the underside of the vine and noticed that a large number of small leaves had withered away without me noticing. As for conditions: The plant sits in the corner of my room adjacent to a south-facing window, but in a way that it doesn't tend to get very direct sunlight. It's been in the same place for several months, so if the issue was too much sun I would have expected it to become a problem in the summer instead of now.

I keep the soil consistently moist, I am a bit worried this could be due to overwatering but I believe I've seen the results overwatering in this plant before and it looked different than this.

The heat in my apartment has been on for the last two months, though I only started noticing these issues with this plant in the last two weeks. I also keep a small humidifier running in my room at all times and the humidity tends to be at least 40%. The plant is somewhat close to the radiator though (its built into the wall under the window).

Anyone have any idea what could be wrong with this plant? I'm starting to get worried about it.

Are the leave that are affected only under other leaves? Are they shaded out by other leaves? Has this happened to any of the top leaves? — GardenGems, Dec 19 '19 at 19:21
Right now it mostly seems like its happeneing to leaves closer to the center of the plant, which might be slightly more shaded than the rest of it. This is happening to top center leaves but it hasn't spread to the end of the vine — Josh Kraushaar, Dec 20 '19 at 14:47

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 19 '19 at 16:56

It may be that it needs potting on into the next size up pot - turn it out of its current pot to see if it's root bound. The time to repot these is usually spring, but if it is totally pot bound and that's causing the problem, you will have to do it now. Pot bound plants have difficulty taking up enough water because the pot is filled with roots, not leaving much room for any soil to hold onto the water for a little while till the plant is able to take it up.

Being near a radiator isn't great, nor is any sun exposure at all, but if your plant has always been in the same place and you've had no problems before, then it's less likely it's either of those things causing the trouble. Further care instructions here https://www.thespruce.com/grow-fittonia-houseplants-indoors-1902486

I will check the plant soon for root rot also, so I'll check out the root ball to see if it is pot bound. While its been in the same pot for a year the pot was initially somewhat big for it so I didn't repot it this summer. I was planning on potting it in march but if its really overgrown its worth a shot. — Josh Kraushaar, Dec 20 '19 at 14:48

Nerve Plant Bleaching/Yellowing

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