Summer emergency continues..Ultimate Haworthia root loss.. What to do?
Sigh....I guess succulent drama in the summer is actually worse than during winter :(
The H. transiens is one Haworthia that hasn't been doing very well lately, as mentioned in a thread from before. And even though I thought it was getting better, last night I was plucking away old yellow leaves like I always do, I noticed that the plant was very loose and easy to move, and then, I tried to lift the plant and BAMM (the sound in my head), the whole plant just came off the soil like no one's business. There's virtually no roots at the bottom of the plant. I'm guessing this is one of the cases that Haworthia loses its roots during non-growing season... I've read that they do so when they receive too much watering when they don't want it. I checked my other Haws and they seemed to be firmly grasping the soil so that's good... But what should I do with this one?
There's no mushy stems or roots so I don't think anything rotted..
You can see there are some roots growing out, seems like mostly they're from the seedlings, but I'm not sure
ALSO, I noticed these little bugs that flies when I was examining the bottom, just 2 of them I believe, they might have got on there when I left the plant at the window with it opened last night, but I'm not sure. Are these recognizable to anyone, is it a common pest??
I carefully cleaned/washed the bottom area and plucked away the remaining dead roots and leaves, left it atop a small potful of perlite at the moment, do I just wait and hope that it will grow some roots back? Also, would this be a good time to separate some of the pups and let them root themselves? Or should I leave the whole plant as it is...?
Any help would be greatly appreciated .... Thanks in advance!
Comments (17)
bernardyjh
8 years agoDavidL.ca
8 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (32)Hi guys, As I take a skewer for the growing media's humidity measurement (I let the skewer stay in the soil for 15 minutes), it appears that the water is completely dried out after a week (no moist or coolness recognised), and the leaves are a little bit soft to the touch. Additionally, I have her sunbathed for around an hour every morning. Thus, I've decided to water her once every week. And she seems to notice me that she is "just right" :)). But this has made me, again, wonder what will happen when summer arrives. Though knowing that she will be in her dormancy, should I increase the frequency of watering from once a month to three weeks or less to keep the plant from complete desiccation? P/s: My haworthia is one month old now ^^. I really enjoy seeing her growing day by day... Thank you guys for helping me out. ^v^. Here are two photos of her, the first one on February 1, the other one on February 18....See More
andy_e
8 years ago
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoDavid
There may be hope...I had exactly same situation, thought my Haw (I think this may be H. retusa-not sure) is dead. I took plant apart (actually, it just fell apart) into small plantlets and potted them up in mix of grit, perlite and Turface. Didn't water at all. It has been about 2weeks since potting, most of them are greening up. They were 90% brown when potted. I know it is too early to tell, but maybe they will make it??? At least one or two...There is one plant in top left small pot that seems to be growing new leave.
I am keeping them inside, by large north window.
Your plant looks much better than mine did. There were some roots on mine, but totally dry and I took them all off.
(Excuse poor photo - my BB camera is not so good...)
RinaDavidL.ca thanked rina_Ontario,Canada 5aDavidL.ca
8 years agorina_Ontario,Canada 5a
8 years agoDavid - my plant didn't look as it will make it, so had nothing to loose.
Looks like there are some new roots growing?Rina
DavidL.ca
8 years agocactusmcharris, interior BC Z4/5
8 years ago
Nil13 usda:10a sunset:21 LA,CA (Mount Wash.)
8 years agoDavidL.ca thanked Nil13 usda:10a sunset:21 LA,CA (Mount Wash.)DavidL.ca
8 years agoThanks @xero and @Nil, I too am a little bit confused at times because some people say soil for Haworthia should never be completely dried out, but some say they should receive none to very little water during the summer months. I hope I will figure out the best watering schedule for these guys soon...
Did some separating today. Didn't separate everything since I still want a main rosette to work with in the original pot (with new soil of course), but some seedlings were too crowded in the pot originally so I separated them, the smallest one fell off by itself and is the only one that doesn't have its own roots yet. They were quite easy to separate, just a gentle tug and it came off from the mother plant.
I am leaving them on top of the perlite for one more night and tomorrow pot them in gritty (with no watering for at least a 3-4 days) and hope for the best...!
xerophyte NYC