Quite a few of my tropical houseplants have drops of water at the leaf
edges, although I usually see it in the morning. Generally speaking, it's
the by-product of transpiration - what plants do at night in the absence of
light. I doubt your friend's dieffenbachia are producing calcium oxalate in
those drops of water. Why yours don't do it, I have no idea. But, the fact
that there are new stalks would indicate that the plant is nice & healthy.

By the way, the calcium oxalate in the stalks is the same stuff that's in
some of the leafy greens we eat, like swiss chard, but in a much higher
concentration. Sometimes, pets (especially stupid ones, like dogs) will chew
on dieffenbachia leaves and the juice will numb their throats and make them
drool for awhile, but it's pretty much harmless. You can get a hint of this
effect by eating swiss chard that's been grown in overly hot weather.

Incidentally, this is the reason for one of the plant's common names:
dumbcane - causing temporary speechlessness.

"David D." wrote in message
...
I have propagated and given away giant-leaf dieffenbachia (18" leaves) for
years. I keep my plants in the house year round.

In my house, they grow a single trunk until they reach the ceiling. I
cut
them down and cut up the trunk, root the top and the trunk pieces, and the
original bottom still in the soil grows another single-trunk plant.

A friend who has one of my dumb cane progeny left it outside for the
summer,
and just brought it in for the Fall. She called to say that it now has
beads of moisture around the edges of the leaves. That has never
happened
in my own house. She also said that it has four new baby stalks shooting
up from the base, That is also something that I have never encountered.

What is going on. Too much moisture? Too much summer sun? Are the
drips safe, or are they severe irritants like the sap?

- David