so sorry to hear about your Syngonium. I had a beautiful pothos that was in similar shape last summer. It was potted with a moss pole in the pot, so it was a climber. It was in awful shape when my husband (the plant killer!) brought it home from his office - I cut all the dead off, and tried to rejuvenate it that way, but it was too far gone.

I hope someone has had better experiences/advice that they can share to help you save it!

Sounds like overwatering problem but these have been "diva" like plants for me, too. The latest one I bought is in hard type soil like you described and is doing really well (6 inch pot) and I'm beginning to think they like a smaller pot with their roots crowded. The last ones that I re-potted in the regular soil with extra perlite added in do well but I try not to water them a lot. Maybe I let them go about 1 1/2 weeks to 2 weeks. Of course, if they're outside for the summer, I'll water more. Good luck with yours, tho, I love them! Someone at my office had one that got really thick branches. Oh, I forgot to mention that these plants really like fluorescent lighting.

Susan

Mr. Sub, I agree w/Suzan about smaller pots.
If it was my plant I'd repot into a soil similar to that it was orignally planted in..I don't use Perlite in Syns..they prefer moist, (not muddy) soil, which tells me your plant was doing fine in heavier soil. You can probably get by using a standard house plant soil..
I also think Syns root better in water..At this point it can't hurt trying in water..Just take 4-5" cuttings, place in water. I normally wait for roots to grow at least 2-3" before setting in soil..good luck, Toni

Well, one of the vines, upon inspection, turned out to have no leaves on it at all, so I pulled it out of the soil and looked it over. About three inches that had been under the soil was squishy and rotten (not smelly, but still). Then there were a couple inches of dead stem, and then a foot and a half of leafless stem that was still alive.

So I cut it into two-node sections and stuck it in water, and that will either work or it won't, I guess. The other stems are going to get taken out -- even if they came back beautifully, the plant would still look like crap -- and turned into cuttings, and we'll just try to start it all over again from scratch. Sigh.

Wal-Mart has lots of the 4 inch syngonium starter plants if you need some more.

I don't think bare vines will sprout leaves. I've grown Syng, Pothos & Hoyas in both water & in mix. To root new ones in water my cuttings always have a minimum of a leaf or 2.

We were just discussing this recently at Hoya Forum, trying to root leafless vines & consensus seems to be that the vine needs at least one leaf to continue to provide the branch/vine w/ enough chloropyll to stay alive. The bare vines I've tried have all died.

Wil Syng climb, I've only seen it trailing? Could the attachment to the pole have been too tight & strangled the vine?

Well, I was using rubber bands -- they were about the same size as the pole, so the attachment was solid but not impossibly so.

It probably does need leaves in order to root, but at this point I don't really have anything to lose by trying -- of the three remaining vines, one is still doing okay, and the other two have two leaves apiece and are each losing one leaf. (I haven't gotten around to cutting them yet.)

Syngonium do climb naturally; the arrowhead-shaped leaves develop multiple lobes and wind up looking a little less interesting. It takes a while for that to happen, though: most of the plants for sale (including two I've got of the 'Maria' cultivar) are in the juvenile form, which is more or less self-heading. The ones I'm having the troubles with were all vining / crawling when I bought them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Smallish picture of climber

I wish I could find a more mature plant in the stores because I love when their branches start thickening up. I think the key to making them trail instead of being just upright is a smaller pot.

Susan

Funny, how folks like diff. things, I've had a few mature enough to change leaf shapes & I found them far more interesting when the leaves went multi-lobed.

What does self-heading mean pls?

Wouldn't a rubberband tighten over time? I tend to use twister ties like from bread bags, orchid clips, binder clips or lately: pipe cleaners (don't look great, but work fine).

Isn't self headed like some of the upright philos? I wouldn't say that any of the syngoniums are self heading. They are simply propagated by taking cuttings.

Susan

Well, self-heading isn't exactly the word I wanted, but I didn't know what else to call it: I just meant the ones that all emerge from more or less the same spot, without any visible vining, like the difference between a Philodendron scandens and a P. 'Moonlight.'

Having now dismantled the plant, I can report that:

The remaining two long vines with leaves were both beginning to rot at the roots; one of them also had a dead stretch above the rotten stretch.

There was, however, no smell. The soil was a lot wetter than I had expected it to be from looking at the top couple inches.

Also the bottom of the pot had a crack in it that was open; I'm guessing this was because the support pole got pushed down too hard at some point after the repotting. Probably not the cause of the problems, but who knows.

So it looks like probably the big one just had a bad soil and watering combination and rotted out. (Possibly there was damage to the roots, too, while I was repotting.) The one I made from cuttings seems to have different problems entirely, but it's not in any immediate danger of dying, so maybe it'll pull out of this eventually. The variegated one, who knows what its deal is.

At least I won't have to deal with the dying plant giving me those dirty *looks* all the time, now.

I used to use MiracleGro potting soil, but a couple of years ago they changed the formula so that is it S-O-G-G-Y. I refuse to buy it anymore, and now prefer Fafards if I can find it, or Sunshine ProMix.

My guess would be that the evil soil was too wet and rotted out your roots. My experience with syngoniums has been that they like to be quite dry on top before you water them again. I've had some get too dry and they leaves will turn yellow, not like yours.

My mother has one she has tied up, trying to get it to climb. It isn't climbing and I think it looks a bit silly. I have mine in a fern stand, where it sprawls like a hanging basket, because I can't find any hanging baskets I like for indoors.

I have some cuttings I took from a client that I believe are 'Tri-leaf wonder'. The leaves get a cool duckfoot shape at a younger age, it's got nice variegation, and it's much more of an upright plant with sturdy stems. I like it a lot. Not sure where to buy one - I've never seen one for sale and my client says his plant is 20 years old or so.

ok, watergal, now you've made me want one of those. I think Glasshouse Works has it.

Susan

susancarol, yeah, I'm an enabler, what can I say? ;)

mrsubjunctive, one more idea - is it possible that you could have a fertilizer burn going on? Maybe you accidentally used soil with fertilizer already in it?

The soil had fertilizer in it, yes, but I wasn't fertilizing that plant, since I had just repotted.

LOL sounds like the makings of a country western song. Very catchy subject title, just couldn't resist Sorry, I don't know anything about your plant.

cyberdancer

TOO FUNNY! Got more?

Fun to have a star among us!