The leaf that fell off had a discolored portion at the end which was soft. That soft area (seen on the fallen leaf as the dark green section) moved further up the leaf in the last few days until the leaf fell off (I think it happened when I was handling the plant). Would that leaf still be viable for propagation? I have cactus mix, perlite and vermiculite. Which combo of those should I use for propagating parts from this plant? I looked at the plant with an LED flashlight and I did see some white specks on a few leaves, but they seemed to be debris rather than bugs, but, I've no experience with mealy bugs to be sure. If it does have mealy bugs, the entire thing is likely going into the trash because I'm scared of an infection on my other plants. I've attached another closeup pic that may help someone to confirm mealy bugs or not. Also, I noticed two little odd "cups" in the soil with little seeds (or maybe fertilizer pellets?) in them. The cups are attached to a stem which is buried in the soil. What the heck are those things? (pic attached) I have a few other succulents, one of which was damaged when it fell. I took all the leaves, left them in a bowl to callus over for a few days, then placed them all ontop of some soil, and so far several weeks later nothing has happened with them, despite them being supposed to root and grow babies... so, clearly I'm not good at propagating plants from leaves that supposedly propagate simply from sitting on soil... so I'm not sure I'd have more success with propagating this plant the same way, though I will try it. I'm going to take this plant out of the soil today and see what the root system looks like. I'll take some pics and post them here for advice. At the moment, I just want to confirm mealy bugs or not... the very thought terrifies me.

Hello there to the Cactus Board We don't post on this forum, but saw Kim's post and repost. Our son bought this plant with the same care instructions at the Home Depot. We also scratched our heads reading the care instructions. What the grower means is if there is any stem between the new top growth that you clipped off and the large leaves, cut the stem back to the large top leaves. IOW, don't leave a "stick" at the top of the specimen. That said, we wouldn't prune it either. It's young. Don't know your growing conditions. Once a week may be frequent watering depending on conditions. You may want to cut back if the plant isn't properly light and warm. Another possibility: we find some Home Depot plants are not acclimated down to home environment conditions. They tend to back slide until they can adjust to your conditions. Stand your ground with good care and let the plant get ugly for awhile. You may be doing everything right. The bottom leaves will probably dry up and fall off. New growths will appear just above the old leaf sites. Then you know you are doing right by your new purchases. Hope that helps! CV I have 2 paddle plants indoors. I water them once a week, draining all the water out. I fertilize once a month. My poor plants are drooping and pitiful looking and I can't figure out why! They came with a little instruction card stuck in the soil and I do not understand one of the instructions.- "Continuing care-Remove two top leaves and cut stem back to top of remaining leaves to encourage new growth at base and to maintain shape." Why would I cut the top leaves? That's new growth! And how do you cut the stem back?? I'm confused and my poor plants are suffering! TIA- Kim

There is still life there :) But possibly some dead and/or rotting stems. It was overwatered as you realized. Your soil looks dark (wet soil looks like that) and quite organic = it will keep wet for too long. If nothing else, get a bag of perlite, sift or rinse it and use it generously mixed with C&S soil. At least 50% of total volume (could be eve more) of perlite. Take plant out, get rid of old soil. Any damaged stems and roots (dry or rotted and broken) should be cut off with sharp knife/blade. Keep healthy leaves, they could grow into new plants. Let cuttings callus for a day or two and prepare new mix. Use pot with drainage holes. Many ppl prefer terracotta, but plastic is just fine. Pot callused cuttings into new mix. Do not water until roots start growing - that is when new growth starts to be visible. Keep out of strong sunlight for about a week or so, and start moving into stronger sunlight every few days. It should do well in good sunlight as long as it is acclimatized to it. Lay leaves on top of the mix. Some may start growing roots and plantlets. Treat them same as cutting (could be all in same pot). These plants (and many other succulents too) will grow air roots - np. Leave them, or cut off if they bother you.

Robin & Gudang's hep and advice... robin98(NZ(9b)) 23 hours ago Len, don't be too down! Of all your plants this one is the trickiest, if that's any consolation. How was he when you got home? 1 Like Bookmark Edit|DeleteLen M 21 hours ago Thanks so much for the reassuring words, Robin. I have to say that I am much better today than I was when I left out for work on my last trip. I returned home last night to find Fürguson was not as bad as I imagined he'd be. His leaves at the bottom of both stems were dry, curled up and pretty much dead. Some of his larger leaves had brown spots and he was drooping extremely badly....To the point where I'm wondering if his petioles will ever rebound & lift his large heavy leaves back up? Also, his stem seemed a little shriveled from midway down & the greener part of the stem toward the top was quite soft. Last thing I noticed was the soil was SOOOO dry almost throughout. Of course I refrained from watering him, but I do wonder if this is normal for the gritty mix or is it b/c I failed to soak the bark for an adequate amount of time? I sure hope to receive answers and advice soon. I'll sit tight until then. In the meantime here are the photos I took of him before flying out this morning... Not as brown & shriveled as I thought he would be... Dead looking shriveled bottom leaves :( Some browning on the larger leaves... The 2 new leaves that sprouted on top of the stem w j-hooked roots. Still very flacid. They're being supported by a branch I found in my backyard & I wrapped the limp new leaves with one of the only leaves that had broken off from the bottom of my Fiddle during the repotting. Again, thank you, Robin for taking the time to show interest in my Fiddle's well being. Len Like Bookmark Gudang TropEq 20 hours ago Yeah, seem good enough for plant that just got extreme root pruning. For healthy tree, i don't clean soil on the rootzone since too many root hair in there. I just fix root position and cut only the root that extremely circling, so after repot, no need to wait till it rebound to it's normal condition. On your case, the tree need to regrow root and root hair, so it will need more time to metabolism normally. During developing root, the leaves will suffer since no suply energy for them so some will fall. In extreem, it will reduce stems so only few inches of the trunk above the ground that it keep alive, with new buds as old stem replacement. On your case i ussualy give foliar feeding since root still unable to give nutrients for the leaves. Only few absorbed, but it's better than none. robin98(NZ(9b)) 20 hours ago You're very welcome. I'll try to give you some advice, but first off have to say I've never made or used gritty, hopefully someone experienced with that will chime in to help you. And I'm a bit useless with the root pruning - I had to smile when I read that part, because that's pretty much what I do : trim the long roots straight across the bottom but chicken out of doing anything major! It will be a week in the new mix by the time you get back, so I wouldn't pull it out again. He'll have been putting energy into growing new fine root hairs, and you'll just set that process right back again, making it harder to recover. It sounds it was best to change the old mix, if it was staying wet that long. That would have been trouble in winter. I'd let it recover now, get through winter, build up some energy reserves in spring then repot with more thorough root pruning in summer. I'd also suggest using 511 for the soil mix as it retains a bit more water (while still being aerated) which gives you more leeway than gritty. If it gets hot where you live in summer, and your job takes you away for a few days at a time, you might find the gritty dries out too fast. Right for now its care will be a bit different, while it's recovering. Put it in a warm bright spot, out of direct sun or drafts. Keep its roots moist while it is re-establishing (my understanding of gritty is that the top levels dry out pretty fast so you might need to water more often and/or put something on the surface to keep moisture in the upper levels, correct me people if I'm wrong...) Usually you're not supposed to fertilise until you see new growth, but that also might be different with gritty. New growth means roots have regrown and now energy can be directed to the leaves. When you see this move it to more sun and let it dry out more in between waterings. I wouldn't cut any leaves just yet. Hope some of that helps :)