Question
I left my house one  morning and one of my outdoor cats inadvertently got trapped inside the house.  While I was away, the cat used my large leaf dieffenbachia plant as a kitty box.  The plant's leaves are starting to turn yellow.  What should I do? Can I change out the soil? or is there some other method I need to use?  HELP!!!!!

Answer
Hi Susan:
When I first saw your message, I thought you were going to say that your kitty ate the leaves--whew!!

You have a couple of options, you can flush out the pot thoroughly and do it 3-4 times or you can swap out the soil.  I'd probably go for the flush option.  Be sure to allow the water to run out the bottom of the pot through the drain holes for awhile. The flush should remove any nitrates/salts that could damage the roots.  Try to do this as soon as you can after the "incident".

If the waste was solid, remove the offending material and flush as outlined above.


Steve