I'm hoping that I might be able to do something to with it before I go to bed in an hour or two, if anyone has anything to offer. Thank you!

I would love to help you, but I just don't know:). I know these aren't the best at putting out new roots on cuttings, but then again if it is rotting than what do you do?

I had an Agavoides that was rotting, but looked like yours. The stem was dark, but hard on the outside. Once I cut it the rot was present. Then again I've had stems that are totally healthy and dark, but that's usually on Graptopetalums and Pachyphyllums.

The leaves that fell off are not a good sign tho. I'm 50/50 on this one:).

Are the roots nice and healthy? They look kind of gray and dry. Gritty mix can dry out faster than you think. Did you splash any water on the stem prior to the problem developing?

Thank you for your input. Yeah, it's amazing how fast the leaves turned dark! I got off work late today and am exhausted for a variety of reasons, so I'm really not feeling like performing surgery tonight, but it may be my best option. Otherwise I won't get back to it until after 4 tomorrow. :/

it will probably be alright till them- just keep it out of direct sun and dry breeze, just indirect light till you can deal with it.

Hi Sans, the roots do look a little odd--they always have (though I feel like that's been the case with all my echeveria). When I first got it, I had a heck of a time getting off the pest that was stuck in and I wonder if some of the discolor is also from dust from the gritty mix (though I did sift and rinse the mix prior to using it). Maybe the roots aren't real healthy. When I pulled it out of the pot they had definitely grown through the mix.

And no, didn't get any water in the rosette that I know of. And I keep a fan on my plants during the day. In the occasions that it has gotten a little damp I dry it with a paper towel and put it right in front of the fan.

Hummmmm

Sans, just saw your second comment. Yeah, I'm thinking that if there is in fact rot up the stem, nothing I do tonight would save it anyway. At least tomorrow I'll be (hopefully!) better rested to investigate further. It's too bad the leaves don't propagate well, but at least I have two smaller purpusorums still. I loved that this one was so big and chunky! Found it at Lowe's back in May, was the last one. Thanks for your input!

With the roots looking so powdery, I'm questioning whether you're dealing with root mealy here. Usually I can make this call when the roots are still in soil (there are splotches of dusty white on the soil that are NOT feathery roots), but I'm not entirely sure how it appears when bare-root.

Thank you. If this is helpful, Tatiana, this is what it looked like with some of the mix still on it.

So I just did "surgery". When I got home today, as I eas inspecting, that loose inner leaf that I mentioned just fell off and looked like this:

(obviously it's the little one. The other one in the pic tore when I tried to remove it --a testament to how secure these are when the leaves are healthy.)

I removed some other leaves around the bottom so that I could clear an area that I could trim. The little kind of divot that you see is where one of the dried flower stems was when I first bought it.

Then I used scissors to chop the stem. Previously when I've used a knife I just couldn't get a real clean cut.

The part I cut off:

To me it seems like there may be a ever so slightly darkened spot at about 9oclock in the photo below. Hard to tell. Looks a lot healthier that I imagined.

here is what the remaining plant looks like: the concerning part is there are still some dark dots where I removed the leaves. And you'll also notice that the edges of those two inner leaves are slightly mishapen at their lower edge, like they might go bad too.

Not sure if I should just leave it be now or what. What do you think?

Out of curiosity, can echeveria callous over, survive, and continue to grow if the stem is cut vertically, as in if the above was cut to remove the part with the dark dots?

I would let it callous a bit.

I think it will callus on any cut - I would recommend to get a sharp blade or exacto knife for cutting. Scissors squish stems and are not best for any pruning.

Thanks Rina, I agree about the scissors. I did sharpen them prior to using and they seemed to go thru pretty easily, thankfully. I couldn't find my exacto knife and all the knives I have seem to be not very sharp. When I beheaded my echeveria subsessilis the other week I had a very hard time cutting/sawing thru with one of my newer sharper knifes. The purpusorum wasn't hard as the subsessilis, so the knife may not have been a problem this time. I digress though; I need to find something a little sharper that isn't scissors in the future.

Update: As suspected, I did not get all the exit Cut out and it seems to be all the way up the stem. One of the inner most leaves was looking rotted when I got home from work today and it pulled off easily. At this point I'm considering removing the rest of the remaining leaves to see if any might root. All but one of the leaves I've removed so far have had rot show up.

Interestingly it appears that in two spots little leaves or little roots seem to have already sprouted. Surprising given how slow this plant usually grows. Pictured last.

sorry for the excess of pictures. I just find good, in focus pictures most helpful when trying to help other people with their plants, and I just find it interesting in general. Perhaps others do too.

Good luck with your plant. I've (just about) given up on Ecchies. I have a very fast draining mix of approx 40/60 C&S mix/pumice, use terra cotta pots, water no more than every couple of weeks. Make sure that NO water, (not one drop) gets on any part of the rosettes. My family thinks I'm crazy because I go out and look at my plants EVERY DAY sometimes a couple of times a day to see if anything is amiss, looking for insects, etc. Everything is going along fine. Then one day I go out and it's dropped half of its leaves! CRAP! FRUSTRATING! Inexplicably and despite my best efforts. The E. Chroma did that just this week, but a couple of others have done the same over the Summer. On the Chroma, once the leaves dropped I saw the stem was blackening. The last time I watered was 2 weeks ago and 2 weeks before that. One of the others there was no rot, one is still barely hanging on, but I don't have much hope. I'll see.

I can't provide any better conditions for a plant that seems to be fine one day and is teetering on the edge the next. Too finicky and I don't have the time or money to replace them and baby them. So while loosing plants always sucks, it just makes more room on my succy table for plants that aren't so demanding. ...and they won't be ecchies.

Tyler

I had to cut my Purpusorum back from rot too! :''''( It was doing so well outside, but it rained this past weekend and Wednesday, and I guess it was too much. Everyone else seems fine, so maybe Purpusorum is just prone to rot. Hopefully our will bounce back! I think cinnamon dusted on the callous helps.

Tyler, if you have pumice, why not try a few in pumice only? I know I live in a quite different climate, but we have had an unusually wet spring and summer, with lots of rain and lots of humidity. Rina also mentioned that in another thread. I have three echies in a shallow glazed pot with a soilless gritty mix. They have been outside all late spring and summer, never protected from any rain. A purpusorum has been brought in when I thought there was too much rain for its companions, but it has been rained on regularly, plus the only way I can water it is via the rosette. The pot is too small to water around it, and I am too lazy to water it from below. Echies are not my main focus, so I only have a few, but I would just give it a try with soilless. What can you lose? A few plants you are ready to give up on anyway.

Thanks Dinie. Good point. I'll give pure pumice a try. I really hate that I lost the E. Chroma. It was coloring up nicely and had an inflo forming. I saved some of the leaves. I'll check and see if any of them look promising.

Tyler

Mine grow in 60/40 chicken grit and oilsorb. I only got pumice 8-10 weeks ago, and I am trying it out for fine rooted plants. The coarser ones I now have in Lechuza Pon, but many plants are still doing fine in the 60/40. As you mentioned pumice, I thought it was worth a try. Please let us know how it goes after some time.

Dinie - That's quite the pot, lovely!!

Thank you. It looks better after I took the poor wasp wrecked woollies out...

Your plants look amazing. In general I don't go too much for group plantings. Yours however is exceptional. Very nice.

Tyler

Thnx.