Your houseplants and gardens - Yellow leaf means underwatered AND overwatered?! What a country!

[anliteralidiot]

I have a very long golden sedum succulent, and I need advise for helping it out.

It was on sale because it was dying, and I've nursed it back to health. But, in doing that, a lot of the lower leaves were rotted, and yellow from overwatering. It's not a beautiful green, and it's getting some of the darker coloring back.

So I have this:

But no lower leaves. Just top-heavy sticks.

Do I cut up the stick and plant it? Or will it sprout from the naked stem eventually? Or should I just bury it deeper?

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

@anliteralidiot

Burying plants deeper to cover parts of the stem is NEVER the answer. Well almost never. This is a good thing to do with potatoes plants to keep the potatoes from going green. But stems will not turn into roots and stems are not meant to go underground, it'll rot or get weird and die.

Very few plants will grow new leaves from bare stems. Some plants need to be notched to grow more from the older stems and this is how people fix fiddle leaf figs that drop all their bottom leaves.

Generally, to fix succulents that have dropped tons of leaves, you need to "chop and prop." You could use either individual leaves or portions of stem.
Here is a detailed article with pictures of sedum:
https://youngsgardenshop.com/blog/how-to-plant-sedum-cuttings/

Basically: cut off the top part with leaves and leave just an inch or so of exposed stem to put underground. Plant this in some dirt and keep it moist but not wet. Give it LOTS of light and don't mess with it too much and give it like a month, and it should root up. Succulents typically have very shallow roots.
I would take a few individual leaves and try prop'ing those too. Just set them on top of the soil basically. It can take a while before you see anything happen, don't get discouraged (unless the leaf rots away/shrivels up and dries out.)

---

I want to like philodendrons but they all seem to dislike me. Something weird happened to my philo birkin. It's in a corner so I rotate it sometimes. I guess it hates this. After I rotated it, two developing leaves turned mushy, but just the outside shealthy part? So I took that off, but the new developing furled leaves inside are a light red color, not the bright green the other new leaves have been. But it's firm, it doesn't seem rotted or dead at all.

I figure it might be a reversion but I won't known until they unfurl. Or die.
Philodendron birkins (the white stripy ones) are a mutation of rojo congo philodendrons. It's a pretty unstable mutation and sometimes they just go back and revert to monke.
Not my plant but this image shows a leaf that's half-reverted.


My string of bananas would never be so bananas!

 

[anliteralidiot]

Burying plants deeper to cover parts of the stem is NEVER the answer. Well almost never. This is a good thing to do with potatoes plants to keep the potatoes from going green. But stems will not turn into roots and stems are not meant to go underground, it'll rot or get weird and die.

Very few plants will grow new leaves from bare stems. Some plants need to be notched to grow more from the older stems and this is how people fix fiddle leaf figs that drop all their bottom leaves.

Generally, to fix succulents that have dropped tons of leaves, you need to "chop and prop." You could use either individual leaves or portions of stem.
Here is a detailed article with pictures of sedum:
https://youngsgardenshop.com/blog/how-to-plant-sedum-cuttings/

Basically: cut off the top part with leaves and leave just an inch or so of exposed stem to put underground. Plant this in some dirt and keep it moist but not wet. Give it LOTS of light and don't mess with it too much and give it like a month, and it should root up. Succulents typically have very shallow roots.
I would take a few individual leaves and try prop'ing those too. Just set them on top of the soil basically. It can take a while before you see anything happen, don't get discouraged (unless the leaf rots away/shrivels up and dries out.)

That's what I figured, damn. I've already had part of it propagated like this, because it was falling apart the rot was so bad. I just was hoping to keep the "main" body safe, for sentimental reasons, I guess?

 

[Doppelmonger]

It looks like this will be the last flower of the year for this little fella

 

[NoReturn]

Hello plant pals!

Does anyone have experience with using LECA, specifically on a pancake plant? No matter what I do, I kill these suckers and I'm desperate for attempt #4 to succeed - but I am incapable of figuring out what they need. Attempt #3 was my longest lasting yet - I bought a moisture meter and diligently waited until it was fully dry! - and it started growing new leaves until it dropped them all.

I of course measure my effectiveness as a plant mom by the plant that dies the most and not the ones I'm keeping alive.

LECA can kick ass, I've used it for a lot of stuff, not just its intended purpose. There's no reason for you not to try it if you're not having luck, but in full disclosure my pancake plant only started living after I threw it in an "abandonment box". I think it either needed less attention, help from whatever fungus is in that dirt, or both.

I have a very long golden sedum succulent, and I need advise for helping it out.

It was on sale because it was dying, and I've nursed it back to health. But, in doing that, a lot of the lower leaves were rotted, and yellow from overwatering. It's not a beautiful green, and it's getting some of the darker coloring back.

So I have this:
View attachment 5334761
But no lower leaves. Just top-heavy sticks.

Do I cut up the stick and plant it? Or will it sprout from the naked stem eventually? Or should I just bury it deeper?

Burying plants deeper to cover parts of the stem is NEVER the answer. Well almost never. This is a good thing to do with potatoes plants to keep the potatoes from going green. But stems will not turn into roots and stems are not meant to go underground, it'll rot or get weird and die.

I agree with @bliblblblbbllb's expanded post. I can personally vouch for the method outlined because I have personally chopped one of these exact plants and shoved it in the dirt so the stick part was about 2 inches long beneath the dirt and it worked fine. Roots grew from the stem into the dirt and it worked out great.
THAT SAID, I'm pretty sure the reason it worked was because I used:

1. Succulent dirt
2. Self-watering pot with a wick into a reservoir
3. Well-lit window-shelf with good airflow

That's what I figured, damn. I've already had part of it propagated like this, because it was falling apart the rot was so bad. I just was hoping to keep the "main" body safe, for sentimental reasons, I guess?

Did you leave it out of the dirt for a bit before you put it in? Sometimes waiting an hour or so for it to callous over the chopped part can help.

It looks like this will be the last flower of the year for this little fella

Aaah! So pretty!

 

[anliteralidiot]

This got last to last night, and I don't know who might find this useful, but Petco has started selling succulents for planted terrariums.

And one of the ones I've bought was an aeonium! I've never found other aeoniums at dedicated plant stores ... but Petco just had them!

 

[Layton Mysteries]

It is caterpillar season! I have lots of beautiful Monarch Caterpillars in my milkweed garden and am very excited to watch them turn into butterflies. A couple have already made chrysalises, while others are still quite small. You can see the wings developing inside one crysalis. One other crysalis has turned black in one area however, so I am worried that that one may not make it.

---

My husband got me a hoya succulent to make me feel better. And it did.
So that's a bonus.

Hoyas are so nice if expensive to buy. I have a Hoya Hindu Rope that is about 3 feet long and its very pretty. The blooms are so so perfect they look like plastic. I want to know how to get it to bloom because it didn't this year, but is still growing fine.

 

[anliteralidiot]

Hoyas are so nice if expensive to buy. I have a Hoya Hindu Rope that is about 3 feet long and its very pretty. The blooms are so so perfect they look like plastic. I want to know how to get it to bloom because it didn't this year, but is still growing fine.

I got the heart. It's so cute!
This is my long golden sedum, and my little black aeonium from petco! I'm not going to trim the sedum, because it has a new nub on the branch.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

I bought a plant at my local garden shop, and they threw in four small etiolated succulents they were just trying to get rid of before the Christmas stock comes in. I am really not a succulent guy and have no clue what types they are, but I've just sat them up in my strong grow lights and they all seem happy: I'll think about how to chop and prop them sooner or later.

Common houseplants in their native habitats:

Pothos:

(Yes, pothos fenestrate and can grow big leaves! The ones we grow indoors typically stay in a juvenile form due to lack of tropical conditions)
Snake plant:


Why do philodendrons hate me? Both my white princess and my birkin are all turning yellow and dropping leaves, but also have new leaves developing?

It turned out the white princess had the "mesh of death." I repotted it but it's too soon to tell if it'll rebound. But the birkin? I don't know! It doesn't have a root mesh. It's just being sad, but also has three new leaves developing.

 

[Aunt Carol]

Common houseplants in their native habitats:

Pothos:
View attachment 5362766
(Yes, pothos fenestrate and can grow big leaves! The ones we grow indoors typically stay in a juvenile form due to lack of tropical conditions)

Nope, I choose to believe that that's just a super tiny kitty. I want one.

 

[anliteralidiot]

I gave in to the plant goblins and bought a lithops. I noticed it had a turd coming out from it's lil plant buttcheeks....And it's a flower!

should I...let it use the energy to flower?

 

[The Skeksis Emperor]

I gave in to the plant goblins and bought a lithops. I noticed it had a turd coming out from it's lil plant buttcheeks....And it's a flower!

should I...let it use the energy to flower?

You must let it live its best life and get a funky hairstyle.

My dad used to have an extensive collection of these in our greenhouse and little dumb child me was absolutely terrified of them for reasons I can't recall now (maybe because they look a bit like tiny brains and/or human toes?). They're great!

 

[anliteralidiot]

You must let it live its best life and get a funky hairstyle.

My dad used to have an extensive collection of these in our greenhouse and little dumb child me was absolutely terrified of them for reasons I can't recall now (maybe because they look a bit like tiny brains and/or human toes?). They're great!

I will let it poop out that flower. Thank you for your wisdom.

It's so cute! I want to eventually get more, and a dumb skull planter so I can make a "brain."

 

[argine]

I've been scoping out orchids lately, and I've read they can be really nice house plants and even help with bettering the air quality inside of a home.
My questions are:

• What species of orchid would be ideal? Are there any that would require less sunlight than others? Would it just be better to have it outside?
• Are orchids really hard to take care of? I've seen mixed commentary on this.

Any other comments or advice would be appreciated as well.

 

[one_time_user]

well, better late than never, last night we cleared out the vines in the back portion of the yard. the area was 15 x 15 feet with portions being 6 feet high. I dragged the cut stuff into the woods and this evening I am going to have to spray roundup on the leftover portion after I rake and before I lay the tarp down. I am super conflicted with the roundup but those vines are 'invasive' and neighbors have had no luck with traditional non roundup solutions.

side note, sickles (like the reaper) are fucking badass.

 

[Swagstika]

Dearest plant nerds…
I have an update on my repotted and broken-vine’d pothos.
Last time, I tried to limit how much I wrote about this one specific plant, because… Is it honestly that interesting? No, seriously, I’m asking.
Anyways. I was (probably very noticeably) hesitant to cut up the broken vine and dead set on fixing it because:
a) It took me half a day to fix the damn thing to begin with and
b) With my luck, I was 99% sure that the broken vine was the singular, crazy long vine. So if that one was broken, it had fucked up like 85% of the plant.
But the broken vine end started rotting, so I had to get my shit together and see how bad it was.
I part untangled and part cut it out of the braided pattern.
Luckily, it was not the super long vine!
Instead, it was another noticeable vine I didn’t want to write about, because I had written so much about the pothos already.
It had this one, weird vine that formed a complete loop with roots firmly rooted in both ends. It looked quite old actually: Scarred, brown-ish in a lot of places and a lot less flexible than the other vines.
When I repotted the pothos, I simply pinned the loop-vine up against the climbing pole and used the other vines to “braid” it in and keep it there.
Anyways, that one was the broken vine. Not surprising when it felt a lot crispier than the rest, I guess?
I stuffed the broken end back under some soil.
After removing it from the rest of the plant, I cut it up like you have advised me to do and have put the pieces in water and they are already growing tiny little stubby roots.
So far so good?

 

[NoReturn]

Luckily, it was not the super long vine!

HOOWAY! Victory all around.

 

[fishercat]

This image reminded me of this thread.



How do you even do this?

 

[Layton Mysteries]

How do you even do this?

It looks like the owner overwatered the Aloe until the roots rotted. I just got a new Aloe actually, haven't had any in years. Does anyone have suggestions on getting Aloe plant to a size and growth rate where you can use a bit each week sustainably?

 

[NoReturn]

It looks like the owner overwatered the Aloe until the roots rotted. I just got a new Aloe actually, haven't had any in years. Does anyone have suggestions on getting Aloe plant to a size and growth rate where you can use a bit each week sustainably?

Move to Mexico.
Jokes aside, I don't think you can. It would put too much stress on the plant. You might be able to do it with an aloe patch, or a big planter-box of them.