Software
Houzz Logo Print
emmsmommy

Help me with these suckers!

10 years ago

I know I've let this go on for too long, but I'm a bit intimidated, This is Loves Caress. I got it from tabb as a starter plant last year and realize I made a mistake by not removing these when they first started appearing but I honestly thought they were tiny little buds.

There's two plants that appear to be emanating from the very top of the crown with three or four small ones appearing at the sides. I would like to save the two larger ones and was wondering if I should remove one and attempt to root it and let the other become the main crown or if I should remove both?

Comments (5)

  • 10 years ago
    last modified: 10 years ago

    Also what's the best way to remove the suckers? I have an x-acto knife and the "sucker plucker" I saw on a previous thread looks a lot like a sculpting tool I have.

  • 10 years ago

    X-acto knife with a smaller blade. Remove all old and damaged leaves first - it will give you better access. Slice your suckers off the stem trying not to dig into the stem itself. It usually leaves with enough stem on a sucker to root it. Just pin the sucker to a soil in a solol cup or so and get them covered. Regarding the double crown - just take one side off, it will eventually fill up - no matter how weird it will look after the surgery - it will get better.

    You will need to repot the mama - all bare stem needs to be buried. BTW - you have soil quite low in the pot - for whatever reason - they like the soil to be up to the rim. If you water from the bottom - it prevents settling of the soil down - and keeps it fluffy.

    Buckeye Love's Caress is such a gorgeous plant - I would root all the suckers - makes great gifts to your plant buddies.

    Your soil looks too dark to me - adding some perlite to the mixture helps.

    Yup - because you didn't remove the suckers - you missed the bloom - but otherwise your plant is pretty perky and it will catch up when you relieve it from all the sideshoots. Octomom Love's Caress.




    emmsmommy thanked irina_co
  • 10 years ago

    Thank you Irina! I removed several leaves and saved a few of the nice ones to propagate. I removed four small suckers and potted them up. I discovered that there is three plants coming from the crown instead of two like I had previously believed. I still need to remove them but ran out of AV soil so it will have to wait a day or so until I can pick up more.



  • 10 years ago

    emmsmommy that sucker plucker is nothing more than a tool sold in any arts & craft/walmart/meijer/hobby lobby/michaels/ceramic shops stores. It started out as a tool to clean ceramic, porcelain and clay greenware!

    I am chuckling as I write this because someone on the internet has reinvented and renamed it and actually sold it for plants!!!! There was a discussion on this forum about it a while back. I was the one who didn't know what they were referring to when they mentioned "sucker plucker". Thinking it would be something to help me snag those tiny suckers before they grew larger I wanted to maybe buy one! Imagine my shock when I found out what everyone was referring to! I do ceramics/porcelain/clay and I got a drawer full of these!!! hahahahaha. So I put one in my plant box with the other tools, like my nut picks. They are also just as good to use! Just a little back story for ya! Rosie

  • 10 years ago

    I got a couple of suckers as part of a gift from another enthusiast. I merely put them on the surface of damp soil and they rooted without any other action on my part.

Sponsored
Top Choice for Reliable Tile & Stone | Franklin County, Ohio