If this were my plant I would cut that little dark nub off. Cut until the flesh looks healthy. Let callus for a day in a spot with filtered light and is dry. The next day just plant into some fast draining mix. Then just leave him be;).

I really don't know why the bottom leaves are turning yellow, but when plants loose their roots they won't look their best, I do know that. It's the bottom leaves so I wouldn't worry too much.

A lot of my cuttings lose their bottom leaves while I root them in soil. This is a stressful situation for the plant and it may be utilizing the energy and water from the bottom leaves until it gets established. It will look terrible before it will get better. Keep it away from direct light. I don’t know why, but the cuttings which I neglect are the ones that do very well. LOL

I’ve gone ahead and cut the bottom off. So you don’t think the black near the bottom leaves in my last picture is rot? I’m tempted to cut it right below the last green leaf. Do you think it would recover from that?

Chris, tell me about it! The best thing that I can learn to do for my plants is to leave them ALONE. Easier said than done!

One of the best tips is just leave your plants alone. Constantly checking for roots will slow the whole process down. Just bury it in fast draining mix and leave it alone. In a month or so there should be roots. You will know because the plant will start looking good again. You can cut till just the bottom of the rosette, but I like to leave a little stem so you can bury it. That little piece of stem will help support the plant from wobbling around. I have an Agavoides that I cut all the stem off and I keep knocking it out of the pot.

Good point. I’ll put it in some soil tomorrow and try to forget about it!

It is best not to put succulents in water...I know that some ppl root them that way, but you get them rotting faster then rooting if they sit in water. The roots that grow in water are usually more fragile and often have hard time to grow well when put into mix.

Stem on your small cutting looks all waterlogged - if you squeeze it very gently, you may find out it is very soft. If that is the case, you may not have any healthy flesh left. Blackening of the leaves right where they are attached to the stem could be rot too.

If my plant, I would take it out of the water ASAP. Cut as suggested to find healthy flesh. Let callus, and put it on top of the mix - stem may be too short to 'burry' it.

It is a little low in the pot, but it should be fine.

I went ahead and added a little more.

That makes a lot of sense! I’m going to have to take a closer look at the soil level on my other plants now.

kitty

How was the stem after you cut it? It may be good idea to take photos of what you doing for future reference (I forget very often too!) And if not sure, posting photos will help to get some helpful tips.

"Hoping the black section under the leaves doesn’t spread further, it’s making pretty close contact with the soil." By black section, do you mean the leaf end? In last photo, it looks like just old leaf drying up. But in previous pic there are few and so many at the same time may be rot - I hope I am wrong !

Whenever you repot, make sure plants are not deep inside - Kara mentioned good reasons, and on top of that - it looks better :) Hope your plant makes it, pls. post update.

I wish I had taken photos during the process! I sliced at it little by little. The lower shriveled part was darker, and I stopped slicing when the flesh inside looked unblemished.