Are you asking us to bet? If the plant has roots, it will likely grow a shoot. I have seen almost completely shriveled Crassula leaves sustain a small group of plants, but sometimes they lose about a year doing it. Good luck, it is gratifying to see new life.

DZ: Well, no, I wasn't looking for anyone to place bets. :) I was hoping someone could lend an experienced eye and tell me if my little baby plant has a chance. I have kept quite a number of rootings over the past year, and the trend that I've seen is that the ones that don't form new leaves before the seeder/feeder leaf begins to shrivel tend to eventually die. I've just been so (cautiously) hopeful about this one because the roots look so good.



*CG*

Looks to me that it is rotting at the base of the leaf.

Jessica,

It's good to see you here. Yes, I'd guess that one's a doner.

Cactus & Jade: That's what I was afraid of. *sad sigh* Y'know, it's been a year, and I STILL don't have it figured out, how to keep these things alive! I'm either watering too much or not enough. They either start rotting or they completely dry out. I've tried different mediums and different watering techniques; I've tried indoors and outdoors, depending on the weather/season; I've tried more light and less light; I've tried really-well-drained containers and no-drain containers. Inevitably, I end up losing most, if not all, of my little babies.

I've got some leaves starting to root and sprout now, sitting on a bed of perlite, in dappled/indirect sun, indoors (it drops down into the 40s and 30s here at night this time of year - that'd be single digits for you, Jeff, I think, right?). The ones that are rooting are the ones that get water. I use something akin to an eyedropper and give them a drop or two every day or every other day.

{{gwi:475742}}

Here's the jade leaf in the top left corner:
{{gwi:475744}}

And some of the others:
{{gwi:475747}}

{{gwi:475748}}

I do have a small handful of somewhat successful rootings:

{{gwi:475749}}

{{gwi:475750}}

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A number of these, though, are regrowth from established plants that I somehow managed to knock the stems off of, and the underground portion of the plant had enough in it to put up new growth.

And some are just "caps" or "heads" that I accidentally knocked off of parent plants and just stuck in a medium in hopes that they'll root, like this one:

{{gwi:475752}}



*CG*

Hey yooooou.

Yeah, I wouldn't put money on that one creating a plant. It looks as though it's probably rotting. I have had a couple instances of leaves with edges beginning to soften that have miraculously started to put out the beginnings of a plant, but I don't think they've looked quite as mushy as yours there. I've had leaves that have put out roots like those you have going, but then begun to rot out, and after the mushy process has begun, that has been the demise of the leaf and the eventual croaking of the roots.

Hope you're well. You pray for my plants, in this cold weather, and I'll do the same for yours. ;) The big Aeonium gift of yours is inside the house for the night, keeping me company.

Colleen

Colleen: I will do that, and thanks for your support, too. :) Do you have recent pics of the giant Aeonium? I'll do a quick search of the forum. The ones I gave to my mother, she keeps outdoors, and it gets down in the 20s at night where she lives. I've warned her to bring them inside, but I think she thinks it's silly to bring plants back and forth, inside and outside, with the weather. I sure hope they survive.

*CG*

I hope neither of us loses anything this winter. It was threatened that we'd have some horrid wind chill of 12 degrees tonight, which is ridiculous for our area. Low of 21 tonight with that wind chill, low of 23 tomorrow night with possible wind chill of 10, gross stuff they're threatening. Wind chill really takes a crack at the greenhouse heaters. I had suspected the particular Aeonium might make it just fine, so thanks for that reassurance--not that I'm a risk-taker, though! I don't have recent pics of it because it had mealies and then scale not too long after it arrived. :/ The lower leaves still look like snot, but it's clean and growing nicely right now, soooo maybe in February, if it's not attacked by something, pictures will be in order. January *crossed fingers* should be our worst winter month.

CG,
Have you tired placing the pot in a plastic bag to hold moisture? If not, and you attempt to root his way, you'll want to keep the plant warmish. As you probably know, cool and moist invites rot. I put mine on heat, too, but I'm in Michigan and keep my house cool in the winter.
Gail

Jessica,

IME, a perlite / soil mixture, onto which the leaves are placed / slightly inserted into, then misted (not watered) every other day or so has yielded the best results.

Gail: I have not. That sounds like an interesting plan. I might give it a try. How long should I keep them in a bag? Since there's no photosynthesis going on (at least, not until leaves develop), there's no risk of suffocating the plant...right?

Jeff: I had tried that for several months, but was getting only very slow growth that eventually died off. Then my mister bottle broke, so I switched to the eyedropper thing. I'm sure I had to have been doing something else in there, or not doing something I should've, to screw things up. Maybe it goes back to my climate just not being suitable for Crassulaceae. *pout* What say you on Gail's suggestion?

*CG*

Putting succulents in a bag is likely to cause quick rot. That's something sometimes recommended for starting houseplants, but not succulents.

Broadly speaking, moistened mix for succulents w/no air circulation (like being bagged) is a quick ride to rot.

CG

I don't have advice, but would like to say that you have lots of good 'starts' there.
It seems to me that rooting leaves takes some time and not all of them will root either.
Some will root realy easy like Burro's tail, or Kalanchoe - but you know that.

I try to root leaves too, have them in mix similar to 1-1-1 but using the 'leftovers' - finer particles left after sifting.
Here is a photo of one of the dishes (with draining holes), two top leaves look similar to yours, but started to finally grow leaves. (Top layer is larger chicken grit to keep the leaves in contact with the soil.) They are in this dish for few months, so I think it's more patience than anything else. I water these little approx. every 5 days.
Rina

Another dish with leaves rooting - these are growing faster, have been in this dish since July (leaves in previous post probably since May).

PirateGirl: Thanks for that two cents. I would've tried the bag thing if you hadn't said anything. What you say makes sense.

Rina: What cute little babies! What do you do with them once they get large enough to live in their own pots? I don't think I have any that have ever reached that point, so I don't know. I do have a few now that I'm hopeful may reach that point, and I don't wanna screw them up.

What I use right now for potting medium for rooting leaves is either straight perlite, 1:1 soil/perlite, or the 1:1 with a top-layer of straight perlite. The different mixes are really just a trial and error, to see which one seems to do the best. So far, the straight perlite and the perlite-topper seem to do better than the 1:1 mix alone. (Probably because the perlite is infused with a fertilizer.)

For rooted/established plants from the store (when I can remember to repot them), I use a 1:1:1 mix of the potting soil they came in (minus any large chunks of wood or peat that I go through and remove by hand), perlite, and coarse sand/gravel. I'll check my photos and see if I have any that specifically show this mix.

*CG*

PG, you make a good point.
CG, I don't close the bag air tight and often open it to get some air circulation. When I use this method the duration depends on the time of year and conditions. WTS, I am, by no means, an expert succulent grower.
Gail

CG

These are my first rooted leaves, so no previous plan to follow. I think they are still too small so I'll leave them where they are for a while longer. Then will pot them in tiny individual pots - at least that's the plan. Will have enough to maybe gift and/or trade...
I am planning on using gritty mix.

I have tried to root gollum, only 2 out of 5 rooted - have tiny baby gollums growing.
E. Black Prince seems to root very easily from the leaves, have few of those.
E. Perle von Nurmberg - 2 out of 4 rooted.
E. Blue waves - 2 out of 5 rooted.
Have some more started from leaves, but have to double-check the names.

Rina

Growing little clones like that is one of my favorite things about succulents. My c&s obsession started about 8 months ago and I'm hooked for sure! I've got a few little one going right now and I don't do anything special really. I just put the leaves on top of some c&s mix with a little sand and gravel mixed in and wait. Once they get to be about dime sized, I try to cover their roots w/o hurting 'em. Then mist every few days. This is my first attempt, so there's no telling if they'll make it yet. Any advice on keeping them alive would be greatly appreciated!! Here are some pics:

Under grow lights

Close up

Another

Flash

These are living in a south facing window with partial sunlight. IMO, they seem happier than the ones under the lights.

More

Love the color!

One more

aklh86: Ok, I'm officially jealous. Those are darling! Mine never seem to make it to that stage of growth.

So you can get more direct responses to you request for advice on growing those lovelies, I started a new thread for you - it'd just be way too easy for those responses to get lost in the mire, since this thread was originally about my pitiful failed attempt at growing.

*CG*

Thanks CG, took your advice and reposted on the new thread. Thanks for getting it going for me! :) here's hoping for some good pointers on keeping my lil babies alive!