Sick Plumeria Cutting - advice needed

12 years ago

Hi! I planted a 3 ft dormant plumeria cutting and followed the directions from Plumeria 101. I made the cutting (accidently), let it scab for a week, used Rootone and Superthrive in a 12" pot with potting soil and perlite with pea gravel ontop. It has been a month now and the only change to the plant is that it looks a tad shrivelled and feels hard. I thought that I saw some growth as these vein-ey things showed up near the tips a few weeks ago but still nothing. It's in full sun and I water it pretty sparingly (could that be the problem?) our temps have been in the mid 90s There is still some green to it but mostly brown. My concern is that each tip of each stock is exposed showing a hardened white pithy substance inside that a few small bugs have taken residence in. All the other thriving plants I look at are closed off at the tips and isn't that where the leaves come from? I've now invested $50 into my so called stick in a pot and would love some advice on how to save it because my family wants to toss it and buy something prettier :( thanks for any help!!

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Comments (5)

mikeod
12 years ago
Puctures of the tips would be helpful to determine what is going on there. However, I would pull the cutting to examine it for rot under the soil level. Your mistake is to water it at all while it is rooting. Temps in the 90's is fine for rooting. I would have expected some "claws" at the tips by now.

If the cutting is OK, I would stand it in warm water with or without Superthrive for a day to see if the wrinkles disappear. Then, repot it in a small pot. I use 1 gal black pots for most cuttings and support them if the cutting tends to tip over. Water the pot well ONCE, then not again until real leaves (not claws) form.

If there is rot, you can recut the stem until you get clear, white wood, and restart the rooting process as described above.

Good Luck
Mike
Mogwai24
Original Author
12 years ago
Hi Mike:

Thanks for your input, I'm trying to figure out how to attach pictures so I've created a Flickr set. Please let me know if it doesn't work thanks so much!

-Kate

Here is a link that might be useful: Flickr Sick Plumeria Set
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If I were you, I'd get another larger cutting. But being that you are so intent on making what you have work, I would cut a sliver until cut area looks white. Dip it in root hormone and let the wound air dry out for a day or two. Then insert in moist, not dripping wet, perlite and wait. Your cutting appears to have beginnings of rot plus the reddish stuff is a kind of fungus that is very aggressive. If you slice until "white" it is possible you'd end up with a 2-3" cutting and that certainly won't be successful. I don't discourage you from trying, lessons are usually best learned in the face of failure. Good that you have a clear container but if you cannot see the roots through the perlite, then obviously you don't have any root action. It is almost always fatal to disturb plant during rooting process. When you can CLEARLY see roots through perlite then it's safe to move cutting to a soil based medium. Not a minute before, and that process takes 6-8 weeks, depending on cutting and depending on whether cultivar is easy or hard to propagate to begin with. and a final comment re: cuttings. There is strength in numbers. Try rooting more than one if possible. Sometimes despite of One's best effort, cuttings don't take root. It is demoralizing, even to experienced propagators. You can always give your extras away or sell or whatever.
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mikeod
12 years ago
OK, the pictures are good. I would definitely pull the cutting to look at the stem below soil level. If there is rot, cut back to white wood, let it sit in the dark for a week or so, wet the stem end and add Rootone or other rooting/cloning compound with fungicide, repot and water once.

Another test you could also do is to use a pin and puncture the branches to see if latex flows from the hole. If so, the branch is still alive. If not, it may be dead.

The white, pithy stuff at the tips is the core of the branch. The presence of bugs in the core is not a good sign. I would recut the tips to white wood, but at a 45* angle. Then apply a layer of latex caulk to seal the cut end. This will keep water and bugs out of the tips. Since you have no growth tips on the plant, it is essentially a "center" cutting, and will take longer to root and produce leaves. Be patient. You won't get claws on this plant since it has no tips. New growth will appear at the sides of the cut tips. Look for small "bumps" anywhere from the tip down about an inch or two at an old leaf scar. This will tell you the plant is recovering and should survive.

I would clear the pea gravel away from the stem so it doesn't touch the stem. The gravel can get hot in the sun and burn the stem, killing the plant.

If the soil gets very dry, you can dig a moat around the edge of the pot and add a little water around the edge, staying away from the stem itself. What you are trying to do is add moisture without getting the stem wet.

Good Luck. Let us know what happens.
karyn1
12 years ago
I'd check and see if any part of the cutting is still alive. In the 2nd pic the entire thing looks dead but that might be the photo. If you scratch along the stem is the tissue green underneath? If so it might still be viable. Optimally you want to see latex flow from a puncture but I have had cuttings that rooted without having latex flow from a cut. I'd unpot it and check the entire thing. If you do find viable sections I'd trim back all the dead parts and maybe soak in some Superthrive/B1 for a few hours to rehydrate it then dust with rooting powder w/fungicide and allow the cuts to cure.

As for new growth when the tip is gone new branches will form from the sides like a mid stem cutting. You'll see a swelling near an upper leaf stem scar. These take a bit longer to leaf out but usually make nice full plants. Good luck.
karyn1
12 years ago
Sorry I didn't realize that I'd repeated the previous post's info on the new growth.

Sick Plumeria Cutting - advice needed

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mikeod

Mogwai24
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Sick Plumeria Cutting - advice needed

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mikeod

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