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kataclysm_gw

Rooting Faucaria stem cuttings?

kataclysm
10 years ago

I have (had) a Faucaria tigrina plant that I was very fond of. I'm pretty inexperienced with mesembs, and most of them won't grow in the conditions I have to keep them in, but I'd kept this particular plant alive for about 6 months and it had a lot of new growth. It's been living in my living room on a bench of succulent plants I keep there -- since the house is poorly-lit, the plants are grown primarily under artificial light.

Unfortunately, I watered it right before the summer rainy season decided to start. We've had several weeks of daily rain and high humidity in Pittsburgh, and it's basically translated into a breeding ground for all sorts of fungal nastiness, even inside apartments. So, some sort of root rot got to the Faucaria plant. I noticed some of the lower leaves on some of the clusters looking soft and mushy, in the same way that a Pleiospilos of mine had before it collapsed and died of a fungal infection.

So I decided to take drastic action, on the theory that the entire plant was probably toast no matter what I did. I took the plant away from the others and removed the dirt from the roots -- at one point I could see VISIBLE fungus >:( I took a clean pair of sharp trimmers and trimmed off all the healthy regions of the plant and threw everything else away. I now have five cuttings, each of which has some healthy stem on it. The cuttings are on a clean dish in the shade of some other plants, where they have been callusing over for a couple days.

My only experiences with vegetative propagation of succulents are with holiday cacti and jade plants, both of which are pretty easy to get to root. I know mesembs are tricky to root, and I don't really know what to do for these guys. Any advice? I'd like to save a piece of my plant if at all possible. If not, I'll put my poor dismembered Faucaria chunks in the bin.

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