I'm afraid I'm not able to close out the thread with any conclusive results. I've had 3 weeks vacation now, and haven't been able to follow up the plant as closely as I would have liked, but I think the environmental shock from moving it outside probably overshadowed any other changes I applied. The season is pretty much over where I live, but I think I will try to bring it inside and miniaturize it, if nothing else then just for the experiment.
It certainly looks a lot different now, it dropped a lot of it's leaves and the new growth have consisted of tiny leaves in pretty few clusters.
The new location has a very messy background, so I don't have a good picture of the whole plant right now, but let's just say it isn't pretty.
However most of the new growth that I think otherwise looks pretty good still has some brown/black spots on them, I've attached some pictures of new growth at different stages. (At least one of the leaves I think is from when it still lived in the humid basement)
Can anyone help with might be causing them? Can it be bacterial?
I notice that sometimes the spots are between the veins and sometimes they follow the veins. Also some discoloration can be seen on the stems.
I
think I have gotten rid of the thrips, and I can't really see anything else living on it.
However it has been pretty cold in the early morning lately - 10C/50F - so I don't think it's very happy in general.
Also, what might cause the leaves to become so small?
On a completely different note I've bought a copy of the Raven biology of plants - maybe it will help with a better understanding of plants in general to diagnose problems myself, or at least gain a better understanding of all the processes that are going on inside a plant
