SHOP PRODUCTS
Houzz Logo Print
chemgardner

Succulent Root Rot? w/ Pics

ChemGardner
12 years ago

Hello All,

I have just recently moved into a house after living in a townhouse with very low light for many years. As a result, my mild interest in gardening and landscaping has now grown quickly into a very enjoyable hobby/obsession :)

The main objects of my obsession are succulents and I am determined to grow them, despite living in SW Florida, where the summer rains and heat are certain to be obstacles.

I had these four succulents in a single rectangular pot and saw a couple of the very bottom leaves rotting from touching the soil, so I dug out the plants to inspect closely and here is what I saw:

First, a pre-potting picture:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v675/fsuplayer/IMG_1032.jpg

After planting and being dug out three weeks later:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v675/fsuplayer/IMG_0563.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v675/fsuplayer/IMG_0567.jpg

(Sorry for the direct links, I can't seem to figure out how to post pictures directly in the thread).

They were planted in basic soil and perlite mixture. It was likely about 40% Perlite, but in the future I think I will lean closer to like 75% Perlite. I think I made the mistake of planting them a bit too low in the soil, so I will adjust moving forward.

As you can see, I have brushed away most of the loose soil and have them drying out indoors right now. The one long stem on the Echeveria is slightly soft to the touch on the bottom half of the stem, the others not as much.

The leaves still look great and healthy with no negative signs above ground.

So my questions are:

Is this indeed root rot?

Should I cut the roots and allow them to callus or regrow roots indoors, while bareroot?

When replanting, would it be better or worse to keep them in smaller pots?

Lastly, I will likely move them to my new Rock Garden Berm, which gets a good bit of sun, especially early morning-noon, and is a 50/50 Perlite/Soil mixture with a pea gravel top dressing (although I will likely amend it to give it a higher % of Perlite), would it be better to bury the pots in the ground or plant them directly into the garden?

Sorry for the long first post, but I figure the more information I give the better answers I will receive.

Thanks in advance for any advice you have.

Comments (8)