why did you put the leaves into plastic bag?

Yes, why? Doing so enhanced the likelihood the leaf would rot.

easter and holiday cacti should not be bagged - rot will result inevitably.

even though these are 2 diff plants propagation is similar.

you need to let them lie dry after cutting (falling off) to callus for sev days even a week. and then plant them in barely moist perlite - untented. even then you can get rot though.

i root mine all the time, i have both types.

i prefer the following: cut off the top of the soda/water bottle about 4" from the top or less if you have very short cuttings. and 3-4" from the bottom of the bottle..

stick the cuttings into the top portion of the bottle turned upside down - dry. pour a little water in the bottom portion of the bottle and stick the top with stems inside it - the cuttings should not touch the water.

then just wait until you see aerial roots developing along the bottoms of leaves. you can put the whole affair into an open plastic bag/cellophane flower sleeve for just a little extra humidity, if your air is very dry. the top should remain open for aeration. temps should not be low - not below 65F at any rate.

when aerial roots are about half an inch - plant carefully in very lightly moistened perlite. the roots will be very fragile, so take care. just gently tumble the perlite in - do not tampen it.

do not water after planting, wait 1 week or so , drip a few drops only if you see that the surface is totally dry, etc.

water only when plant starts producing new growth. perhaps sev weeks or so - then you can transfer it into a fast draining mix - best cut with 30-40% perlite.

I put them into bags in order to find and isolate the affected leaves. I was not trying to root them, I was protecting healthy plants

The leaf I am showing was for identification of the pathogen. It appeared healthy when placed in the bag only because IT HAD NOT YET SHOWED SYMPTOMS. It rotted completely within 2 days. Because it was infected. Not from being inside a bag.

I agree completely rina!

Infectious bacteria and virus is present all the time. They just cannot take a hold on a healthy plant. You and me are exposed to all kinds of germs all the time and nothing happens as long most of the time.

The act of putting a healthy leaf without its parent plant in a bag put it in jeopardy. The same thing will happen if you put any plant leaf in a bag. Nothing to do with it whether it was infected before or not.

The photo distracted us all from the key fact here. No one has yet commented on your opening remark:

"My easter cactus collapsed."

There's a reason it collapsed, it must have lost its roots or gotten root rot, or both. Ultimately, I'm sorry but it sounds like the plant's roots' demise caused it to collapse. Healthy plants don't do that, nor does it happen in just a couple of days. Sounds like it may have come to you w/ problems, which might not have been visible above the soil line.

Other than disposing of the rotting material, to protect healthy plants, isolate an ailing or questionable plant to another room, like a quarantine.

My easter cactus is fine. It dropped a lot of leaves, thats all. I have five separate bags of healthy leaves that would like to disagree with the sentiment that that the leaf rotted simply due to being placed in a bag.

I'm not an idiot. Let me state the facts. 1. The cactus became infected with a pathogen. 2. As a result, it dropped many leaves. 3. SOME of those leaves were already infected, and not showing symptoms. 4. ALL of the leaves were isolated in bags. 5. Some of the leaves were infected. The infected ones rotted in the bag within a day or two. 6. Most of the leaves were NOT infected. The uninfected leaves did not rot.

I am now left with half of the healthy plant still potted and rooted, and a good number of dropped leaves bagged and ready to be rooted.

Nobody answered the question of whether the pathogen in question was bacterial in nature, or fungal.

That was THE ONLY REASON for the post.

Well I'm glad to hear it's fine now. It's not me who stated that the plant had collapsed.

It seems most of us disagree w/ you that it even IS a pathogen; we all seem to agree it's rot of some kind. Sorry, guess to some of us rot is just rot & not worth further investigation beyond disposing of it.

I don't think single leaves are the suggested way of propagating these, but good luck w/ that.

Lauraeli

Nobody suggested you are an idiot, so may I ask you - please do not put words into anybody's mouth. We all tried to help, seeing only a photo of what definitely looks like a rotted leaf in a plastic bag.

I am not sure how easily it is to tell ...' whether the pathogen in question was bacterial in nature, or fungal'... just by looking at the photo of leaf in a plastic bag. I really do not know - maybe some scientific tests have to be performed to ID the pathogen?

I think part of the problem is that you put the leaf in a plastic bag. Therefore, most people, who are also not idiots, would conclude that the leaf rotted because it was in a plastic bag.

It would be like using a steak knife to get ear wax out of your infected ears, and then asking the doctor if the ear infection was already there or the result of sticking a steak knife in your ear.

also, how the heck could we know what type of pathogen it is just from looking at it? Both idiots and plant pothologists would be stumped by this, though I suspect that idiots might be more stumped.

as Karen said, you might want to think about why your plant collapsed in the first place. I strongly recommend using neem oil regularly with watering to keep plants healthy. I have a three in one neem oil fungicide that works beautifully. Also, you could consider using fungicide when you repot as a preventive measure. I do that when I am potting up a cutting with roots.

I vote fungal.

A vast amount of fungi and bacteria are harmless and beneficial, only under specific conditions do those become harmful.

I do not believe in using fungicides as preventatives or prophylactics because killing all fungi doesn't necessarily make plants healthier.

Just like taking antibiotics often doesn't make you healthier or less likely to get sick.

For future isolation and preservation of healthy plant leaves, I wouldn't use a sealed plastic bag.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that looking at the initially affected tissue is more helpful. Fungal and bacterial plant diseases have specific characteristics and having more context and direct observation may be easier to pinpoint the cause.

The fungicide I use as a preventive measure is a neem oil concoction 3 in 1. Its pretty effective.

I do use a fungicide on newly potted cuttings or plants that have had root trouble in the past. I believe that al recommended using it as a preventive measure.

I am protecting the roots against anything that might actually be in the soil itself as well.

Doesnt hurt, that's for sure. I don't think the antibiotic analogy works that well in this situation.