Hi! Don't worry about the parts that died, that was not under your control. Now you can help the living parts become stronger with Josh's advice. I have a pachira tree as well, it went from tiny to tall and now its tiny again. I trimmed it about a month ago and I have loads of new growth! So no need to worry, the trunks that are still alive will thrive. Joshs tree is only one trunk, I like the look because I mainly see braided money trees so this is a nice change, almost even more appealing than the braid. Ashley

I just removed 2 dead trunks out of the 5 that came in the pot when i bought it. I was inspecting the plant and noticed bark missing on one of the trunks, so i felt it and it was mushy. I just carefully removed the wire holding the braid and pulled the dead trunks out without disturbing the roots from the other trunks(I hope). I kinda just snapped it off at the bottom. I did it today so we will see how it does in the coming days/weeks. I'm wondering if it was a mistake to just snap the trunk at the bottom and pull out the dead wood pieces?

Hi, Danielle. Neat pot! Why Petrie? The first thing I thought of was a Petri dish. Some people get confused about the difference between repotting and potting up or just changing pots. Unless you live in the southern hemisphere, now isn't a good time to repot, the reason being that repotting includes root pruning and a change of soil, and doing it now will significantly stress the plant and leave it much weaker than it is now. With winter just around the corner, that wouldn't be advisable. If your pot doesn't have a drain hole, you should temporarily remove the plant and drill one, or change pots. If you need direction on how to drill the hole, I can help with that - not a big deal. After the hole is drilled, you simply let it drain at the sink & then set it on/in a collection saucer. If repotting IS in the plan you have for the plant, the best time to do that is very late spring - like around Father's Day. If you live in the deep south, a week or two earlier wouldn't be unreasonable. I would remove the dead plant. Reason: eventually all the trunks are going to fuse together via a process called inosculation. The dead trunk will force the living trunks to grow around it, which will interfere with the fusing process AND make for some unsightly lumps and bumps. You need a drain hole in the pot for 2 reasons. 1) to allow some of the excess water that is limiting your plant's root function to drain from the pot. A healthy plant isn't possible w/o a healthy root system. 2) So when you water, you're flushing the salts from tap water and fertilizer solutions from the pot. This is important because high salt levels create conditions that limit growth, health, and appearance, all occurring as a result of the plant's reduced ability to absorb water. If you think about how curing salt literally PULLS water from the cells of meat during the curing process, you are envisioning what an excess of salt(s) does to the cells of plants. If you like the rocks on top, there is no reason you can't keep them. They do slow evaporative water loss a little, but there are ways to make the excess water leave the pot w/o you having to nix the rocks. We can talk more about that if you like. In fact, if you're interested in a Basic Overview that will help you avoid all the common issues most new gardeners are forced to deal with at one time or another, just follow the link. Al

Sometimes, when parts of plants die, it is a foreboding sign and later the rest of the plant follows. Sometimes, it's just the part and that's the end of it. There's no way to predict the final outcome. And no reason to worry about it. Cut the dead trunk to the ground and raise the tree as if it never existed. I wouldn't bother with fungicide unless you see signs of fungus.