Please Help! Single root has grown much thinner
jan chew
8 years ago
I have overwater my peperomia graveolen and had to cut off the rot. Along the way, 4 pieces of leaves have dropped off and now I am trying to propagate it. As you can see from the picture, I have just place it on the soil. 1 out of 4 starts to take roots. This is where I start to sprinkle water in the morning. But when I came back home in the evening, the single root has grown very thin. Soil has also dry out. Out of desperation, I start to dig shallow hole to bury all the 4 ends of the leaves and sprinkle water over it again. Is this the right way to encourage root growth? And how to care for it before it becomes more stable?
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jan chew
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Trees grown in root control bags
Comments (31)"What to do with the trees in the block that don't sell? You can't just hold them for another year and dig a larger rootball if they are in a RCB. " You pot them up same as any other good container nursery would. To be fair RCB cost more, and so you would probable want to salvage the old RCB which takes more labor. But at the same time, the root systems are much less likely to need real work, so that is a labor savings (again assuming everything else is done properly). " If they were in RCBs by the time you pulled the bag off you have a bareroot tree which in short order will defoliate. Imagine the look on your client's face when you go to make your collection. " FALSE ARGUMENT! 1. You do not use native soil in RCB. Therefore that scenario will not happen. 2. Even if very loose native soil was used, dense root systems will hold that material together one the pot is removed. Same principle that dense fibrous root system plants are planted on slopes to prevent erosion control. Therefore the scenario of planting bare root RCB plant is not going to happen. 3. Even if the plants ended up bare root, virtually all the roots will still be present. So once planted properly and waters as per proper procedure, all the roots will be surrounded by very moist native soil. Therefore the stated scenario will not happen. "They "pamper" every tree and every one is a winner, no deer damage because of fencing. Soil is sandy loam typical of the Eastern Shore" What about the other thousand growers? Very of them will take such care. Nor do I live on the eastern coast, so their trees will not be coming my way. Nor do I have soil of this type. Clay is much more common over most of the country, and that can lead to drainage issues. With that said, I would love to have access to the plants grown in the pictures. No doubt a well run grower. However, that is simply not the case for most of us. Plus as nice as the pictures are, they both clearly show buried root flares. One of the most common causes of transplant failure is readily visible in those photos. Arktrees...See MoreHelp, my beautiful Euphorbia has root rot.
Comments (6)A picture really would help, but I think I understand what you have done, and what your questions are. Can a large cutting of Euphorbia re-root? Almost certainly yes. If there is no rot, a large section of Euphorbia can easily stay alive for a year or more with no roots, and subsequently no water. The actions you took, starting with doing some research of your own, were all correct, and will give your plant the best possible chance for survival. Rooting hormone can help, but only when applied to a fresh cut. It sounds like yours has already callused over, and I wouldn't bother cutting it again just to apply rooting hormone. After you cut off/out the rotting flesh, you have to let the wounds dry and callus over. This can easily take weeks, especially in a cold, damp climate like I imagine you live in. Just keep it cool, but not cold, and also keep it dry. Once all the wounds are callused over (the rule of thumb is one week per inch of diamter), you can pot the plant into a soil mix. Euphorbias need a very coarse, free draining mix. For rooting, I would use pure pumice (not avaiable on your side of the pond, but for us yanks its the best) perlite, turface, or similar. Don't bother with any organic components. As you already mentioned, the plant is top heavy and without a base. Make sure to support or brace it some way to keep it from falling over. I use heavy gravel in the pot to act as a ballast or counterweight, and for really big plants, some sort of guy wires. Its ugly and unwieldy, but it works. The pot you use shouldn't be much bigger in diameter than the stem itself and shouldn't be too deep either. If the stem was 4" for example, a 6" standard or a 6" rose pot half filled with gravel would be my choice. I promise you it will look really silly, but once it has regrown some roots, you can transplant into a more appropriate looking pot. After you've potted the cutting into your coarse, free draining mix, you'll just have to be really, really patient. And whatever you do, don't give it a single drop of water until you are *certain* there is new growth at the growing points. If you water too early, it will start the rot all over again. Place it in a warm (but not hot), and bright location. Direct sun is probably a bit strong, but then again, that far North, it probably wouldn't hurt. Patience really is the key here. It probably won't do a thing until your weather warms up, and the daylight increases. Even then it may take months, if not a *year* to grow roots again. Fight the temptation to water! After a couple months, you can very carefully offer it sips of water, but don't soak the soil until you are absolutely certain there are roots, as evidenced by the new growth up top. In the mean time, be on the look out for more rot. If you missed a rotting section, or if the problem is more systemic, you may find more surgery is required. As a last ditch effort, you can cut the last few inches of each growing point and root them in the same fashion. At this point though, that is probably too drastic. Again, keep an eye out for rot progressing up from where the roots used to be. Now, be warned that all of this advice will be useless if your plant was already in very poor health. Unfortunately, these type of plants don't do very well grown indoors, and will usually end up weaker and more disease prone because of it. Then again, if it has gone 10 years, it couldn't have been doing that bad. If you have any other questions, or if something wasn't clear, please ask. It really is a shame to lose such a close "friend," and none of us want to see that!...See MoreLucky bamboo with black roots! Please Help!!
Comments (6)Hello It seems your plant is rotting from bottom upwards. I recommend you cut of the plant stem above the roots, making sure that you cut of the rotting parts of the plant in a straight line. Make sure when you cut the plant, that the scissors or knife you use is CLEAN. Treat the plant as a cutting and leave it in filtered water to propagate another plant. I recommend you grow the plant in filtered water, not soil. Once the plant has grown a decent amount of roots you can add in a few clean pebbles. Be sure to change the water every week. You don't have to boil the water. Make sure you keep the plant out of direct sunlight. The dry, flaky stuff and bumps on the stems are fine. Trim off any dead parts of the leaves with CLEAN scissors. To also help the plant, mist it with filtered water everyday. Hope your plant survives. If you have any questions just comment in this post and I will reply as soon as I can. Good Luck. :) Be sure to post updates. :)...See MoreHas anyone in the DFW area grown Limelight or Little Lime hydrangea?
Comments (21)There are so many varieties of panicle hydrangea now, in addition to limelight and little lime. These are an unnamed variety from a grower here in east Texas - they only get about 6 hours of full sun, but they really responded to this cold winter. The flowers age kind of pinkish then dry nicely for arrangments. We've also had good luck with the smooth hydrangeas (h. arborescens) such as Annabelle in similar condition, actually in the same bed - these might be 'Incrediball' - I have to wait till fall to climb in to see the tags. We did plant them on the east side of some taller shrubs (viburnum 'Opening Day' and 'Rosalinda' Indian hawthorn, which is recovering from last winter's freeze) to provide some afternoon relief from the hot sun....See More
ealdwood (10a)
8 years agoMy leaves/cuttings are usually placed on a mix of small-sized perlite and store bought cactus/succulent soil. There's no pea stone, pebbles involved. Did you previously also use those round black pebbles? It could help maybe not using those but be careful about spraying them/the dirt too much, it could lead to rot. I spray them every two days if its hot...sometimes I forget for a week but that might be why my cuttings grow so slowly.
jan chew thanked ealdwood (10a)lgteacher
8 years agoBottom heat can be produced by setting you cutting container on your cable box, router, refrigerator, etc. or you can buy a seed starting mat that you plug in. I use a thin plastic container from Trader Joe's salad and put 2" containers in it. The salad container keeps water from getting into my electronics. The 2" container where I have seeds or cuttings have drain holes.
jan chew thanked lgteacherjan chew
8 years ago
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