Tap root question like Elsa had

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

I have 4 plants that looked like Elsa's plant, pretty much no roots after I trimmed the long necks off. I think 2 might be doing well as there are new leaves in the crown. The other 2, not so much. They started losing leaves and I bagged them up for a couple of weeks. I think that one is a wavy leaf plant, but the other is not. The leaves on both are small, curled and crazy wavy. I'm wondering if they could have something wrong with them, considering I had gone overboard with the neck scraping on them. Here is a pic of them...see Aegis, I do not really have the touch, lol.

Top plant is Raspberry Crisp, bottom is Alamo Ruby. What attractive specimens they are right now. :-(

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Comments (4)

irina_co
9 years ago
Your top plant is going to recover, the bottom one is on the last leg. Take the leaves off it and put them down. The one at 8 o'clock - is easy - you just trim the leaf stem and pot it the rest of them - lost the stems - make a wedge out of the leaves and stick them in a soil too. Alamo Ruby is worth saving.
irina_co
9 years ago
Starting from a crown is always a risky operation - plant has a significant wound that can catch an infection. No matter what you do some die. So when you cut the crown off - you put spare leaves down as well. Like with any transplanting that involves stress - you put the plants on the tray - and cover - with dome or a piece of loose plastic - and keep them barely moist but humid. Not when they start to wilt - but as soon as you did your surgery. It is easier to to put a patient in ICU after the surgery - then to the room - then send him home - instead of letting him out of the hospital straight out of the surgery - and then bringing him back to ICU again with the ambulance.
dviolet1 thanked irina_co
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dviolet1
Original Author
9 years ago
Yup, managed to mess it up in every possible way. Good lessons learned here. I see what you mean about losing the stems. I'm wondering if that's root rot and whether it can it spread to my other plants.

You lost me a little on the leaf wedge thing, couldn't picture how it was done. But I found a great video that explains how to do it. It's worth knowing this method as sometimes there are broken leaves with stems too short to propagate...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdJMANM7hrI

Whether I can mess this up, too, remains to be seen, lol. These are not exactly healthy leaves I'll be working with, and coupled with my inexperience, I pity the poor leaf babies that do decide to grow.

I really want all 4 of these violets to make it, either by the original plant or by propagation. They'll be grown to honor the memory of the well-respected, beloved violet grower who, judging by the length of their necks, had cared for them for years.

Thanks Irina.
irina_co
9 years ago
I looked at the video - will work. I am too lazy - I just make a triangle instead of the artificial stem - and stick it in a soil.

If your leaves are wilty - wrap them in a wet paper towel for a night - they will rehydrate.

Why your plant is dying - it is not necessary a root rot - it can be it was too weak to regrow the roots and it is slowly drying. They rot if the conditions are too wet.