Sunday, February 12, 2012

A case of rot

Here's a plant that was growing luxuriantly.
Unfortunately, upon closer inspection, the two original cutting were rotting. And all the new growth was sprouting off those cuttings instead of coming from the base of the plant.
So I cut the viable parts of the plant into cuttings
Unfortunately, the rot had spread up the midrib on most of the growth.
Once you lose the midrib the cutting will eventually die. I cut away as much of the plant as possible with brown midrib and threw it away. :( That means that unfortunately I lost about half of this plant. I would normally start a new plant with three or four cuttings together in a pot but in this case I am going to start each cutting individually so that if one cutting rots it will not spread to the rest of the new starts. Hopefully I can save this plant because it is a relatively rare variety called "Silverette." I hope to see it bloom some day.

1 comment:

  1. Nice informative article I came across whilst searching for a 'dry' rot problem on my Epi. I thought it might be the same but it isn't. Mine starts with a small red spot which enlarges into brown patches & has spreading all over the plant, I have done what you did & pruned the worst out & the couple of cuttings are not affected in the midrib, I have trawled Google for an answer but find nothing.Good luck with yours drastic surgery is hard to do & I hope your cuttings thrive. Julie

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