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maria_jones1

Succulent stem turning blue/purple - help!

9 years ago

Hello, I have this succulent which is turning blue/purple at it's base. I've watered it once every 1.5 weeks. Is it dying? Is there anyway I can save it? Do you know the name of the plant? Thanks so much!!

Comments (8)

  • 9 years ago

    Hurry and get a cutting of the top half of the pot that isn't turning black with rot! You should be able to take off the leaves and get some roots on it.

    Maria Jones thanked User
  • 9 years ago

    Of the plant*

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hi, your plant seems very etiolated. That means it needs more sun. The leaves should be nice and compact. Like others have suggested, cut about two inches above the purple. Let the cut callous over for a few days and then you can pot it. It will grow roots in search of water, and only when it has grown roots you should give it some water. You can take the leaves that weren't in the cutting and place them on some soil, they will grow roots and a little plant. Make sure not to overpot or underpot it, in this case it looks a little overpotted. Make sure to give it way more sunlight, at least 4 hours a day and very strong. When it is stretching like yours is, it wants more light. Put it in a very sunny window or outside in bright light.

    Maria Jones thanked succulentss
  • 9 years ago

    Thank you so much! Going to cut it right away! Any idea what this succulent is called?

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    It's so stretched out it's almost impossible to get it's true I'd:). The stem reminds me of a Graptopetalum:).

  • 9 years ago

    It should look like a flat tight rosette on the surface of the soil.

  • 2 years ago

    1: this is a succulent called a ghost plant

    2: this is rotted from overwatering. 1.5 weeks is too often to water succulents like this i go weeks without wayering them. i would cut back to like once a month on the watering. i literally fixed this exact problem 5 minutes ago on my ghost plant (same as yours) that looked almost exactly like your picture. succulents are from the desert and hold water in their pedals and dont need/like a lot of water. they do however like LOTS of sun.

    3: how to fix… take the plant out of the pot, cut the rotting part of the stem off maybe like a half inch abpve where the rotting starts. you want a nice healthy stem to replant, so cut it high enough above the rot that youre sure it has no rot left on it. then remove a couple pedals from the healthy top and replant the succulent, making sure to bury the nodes where you removed the healthy pedals… those nodes will grow roots if burried in the soil. then put it in the sun and cut way back on the watering. like i said i literally did this a few minutes ago because one of my three ghost plants looked almost exactly like your picture. i was wondering out loud why only the one was having this issue and they are literally all the same plant (two of the three are peopogated from the ”mother” plant, the first one i owned and took cuts from to make two more. the mother and one of its clones is doing just fine) and my girlfriend pointed out ”wasnt that the one that got rained on a bunch this summer”… sure enough it totally was. it stinks but you can save it succulents are easy to propogate just cut the rot off and replant. and cut way back on the watering. succulents can go for months without water.


    hope this helps.