Dead Succulent, Live Succulents - Succoholic Series #7
Day 22 since POS.
Dead Succulent
I had one succulent die on me.
How it happened:
- I came home on Day 18 and my mother said one of the succulents died. I didn't quite believe her yet, hoping that the 'dead' succulent is still actually on the process of dying and that I could somehow save it. When I went out to check, it's super duper dead. The roots and most of the stem was rotted, turning jelly-ish. The succulent just came apart. The leaves didn't show any obvious signs of over-watering: no shriveling, no black spots. The bottom leaf turned yellow but I thought it was just a simple drying out.
What I did wrong:
- When I re-potted my succulents on Day 12, I ripped off one of the little succulents growing from the mother plant with my bare hands. Part of the main plant body came off with the shoot I ripped off. Then I potted both the mother plant and the ripped-off portion into separate pots directly. I'm sharing the blame with my mother, because she urged me to do it. Ultimately though, it was my fault. I knew better: I knew you should cut off shoots with sterile cutters, let the wound scab over, then re-plant when the wound has dried up. Despite this knowledge, I still went ahead with my mother's suggestion. :( Then I also watered them a few days later.
- Trying to save the mother succulent was hopeless, so I tried cutting off the topmost part of the stems where the rot didn't reach. Then I left them to dry on some pumice. I'm hoping the cutting will somehow grow roots and survive.
- I also moved the ripped-off plant from the shelf to direct sunlight because I got scared that the recent watering wasn't drying up fast enough. After around 2 hours, I returned to find it missing from its pot. The chicken got it. After some looking around, I found the succulent on the ground and replanted it. Other than one of the leaves getting cut off, it looks no worse for wear.
Live Succulents
A lot of the leaves I removed from my succulents for propagation are showing tiny signs of life. :) I took most of them off the mother plants on Day 12, so it's been around 2 weeks, and they look like these now:
Also, one of the leafy succulents grew little rosettes on the leaves. I don't know what to do about it. Should I remove the leaf and plant it somewhere else so that the little rosettes grow into new plants? I'll have to do more research.
Updates
- The dying succulents from Succuholic Series #6 have recovered. Two of them have grown roots on the stem.
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- The tiger-stripe succulent has grown two new baby shoots on the sides. :)
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- My succulents are turning green. I watched some youtube videos last night and learned that I have to stress them a bit to make them colorful again. However, I'm too new at this to confidently stress my succulents and not worry that I'm going to over-stress (i.e. kill) them. So I'll wait a few more weeks before I try my hand at controlled stressing.
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And that's all for today. Follow me for more updates. :)
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