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Plant Rescued from Trash Help

yooper_at_heart

6 years ago

I saw this Dracaena(?) advertised for free on a local classified site and thought I'd give it a chance. The person who found it said that It's leaves had been badly burned so she trimmed them. It has been sitting in a bucket of who knows what with no drainage and it's been raining heavily for the past couple of days. I picked up some Promix on the way home and added perlite until I can track down some pine bark fines for 5-1-1. Can I salvage this plant? What do I do with it to help it recover?

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Comments (5)

tropicbreezent
6 years ago
Dracaenas are very easy plants. Keep them warm and don't over water and they should be right. It'll take a bit of time to sort itself out after what it's been through. I'd keep it out of the rain but still water it with rain water. Make sure the soil is only moist and not soggy. It doesn't have the leaf area to cope with a lot of water.
B M
6 years ago
great find.
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What fawnridge and wisconsintom said. The part of the plant which is dying is the rosette which flowered. But under the dying leaves, around the trunk, there may be baby plants -- new rosettes -- and if there aren't any currently, there may/will be more soon. You can cut off the bloom stem now, or if you want seeds, you can let the seeds mature and maybe plant some. Do an image search for agave "seed pods" to see what seeds and ripe seed pods look like. HOWEVER, your photos of the stem show new leaves among the dried flowers -- and I believe those will turn into baby plants! (Something similar happens occasionally on daylily flower stems: I have a tiny daylily which started that way and is spending the winter with my houseplants.) Here's a page which talks about this process. Unfortunately it doesn't give information about planting the plantlets or bulbils, but the C&S forum folks can probably help: http://www.azfcf.org/docs/DAC/Bulbils.Blackburn.pdf
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DL, I know it can be confusing but Early Blight due to A. solani and Late Blight due to P.infestans are two very different diseases caused by two different pathogens and either disease can appear early or late in the season. If it were Late Blight, which is found only in certain geographic areas, your plant would have been a stinking mass of black tissue within two weeks, so it's my opinion that your plant had Early Blight which is very common and can be found almost anywhere. And near the end of the season plants can be down and out with Early Blight and then show new foliage growth near the top of the plant. I see it all the time. I don't think the Serenade had much to do with the new foliage since it can happen without any treatment at all. The best way to prevent the common fungal foliage diseases of Early Blight and Septoria Leaf Spot is to start treatments from the time you put the seedlings outside. Carolyn
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Thanks allot everyone! New to this website but I have come here many times for research. I am on the northern Oregon coast and I live in an apartment. I am going to try growing then indoors until it warms up. I have a plant problem: I have about 60 house plants, half of them are rescues!
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Yes, Nik is correct - that is not burro's tail (that's the reason I asked about close-up photo :) I grow Sedums in full sun, contrary to what Nik said - BUT I am in much colder zone. So you need to judge by your climate. It may be one of the Sedeverias (hybrid of Sedum) or similar. All of them should root quite easily. Just stick your plants into fast draining mix nd they should root. I would recommend to keep them in dappled shade until roots start growing - usually there is some new growth showing when that happens. Or you may tug on them very gently (do not take out of mix) just to feel if they are more firm in the mix. Do not water right away since they don't have roots. Sorry, I should have asked for a close-up of the small plant too - can't tell what it is.
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litterbuggy (z7b, Utah)
6 years ago
That's going to be a really nice plant with all that solid growth on so many branches.

Do give it good light, though (assuming you're not getting drowned by rain). I'm not sure this particular dracaena likes direct outdoor sun, but it should get at least bright direct sunlight like it would get in open shade.

If the soil is soggy you can try to wick some of the excess water out by placing the root ball on a pile of newspapers or something else that's absorbent, or even wrap the whole thing with something absorbent.
jpciii
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Not sure if you bare-rooted it or not, but I would suggest it.
yooper_at_heart thanked jpciii
Martin Cober
6 years ago
they are very tough plants. the one that was kept by my neighbor kept sprouting despite his intention to kill it, then the cuttings he threw off would propagate on their own unless he burns them.

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