Any thoughts on what’s going on with my newly potted ZZ ? I pulled this one from my larger ZZ ~5 days ago and the bases of the stem have rotted and detached from the rhizome. I’m going to propagate the broken stems, but can I try to replant the rhizome? My guess is that I replanted it in soil that didn’t have enough drainage.
overwatered, friend. if those stems can root (I’m not sure they can?) it will take ages. Best bet is to trash this & get a new one, put it in terra cotta, and almost never water it. These are native to very hot, very DRY climates in africa — they want lots of light and not much else It’s a learning experience 🤪
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I think those 2 in the middle might be able to be water propagated, I have a zz and I accidentally pulled out a stems like the 2 on the middle. I waited a few days for them to callous and then put them in water, it took maybe a month or so for me to feel confident in the roots that it gave me. I just potted it back in the original plant I plucked it from and should do great. If the bottoms of them feel very mushy, I would recommend cutting the bottom and letting that callous before putting into water. The one I propagated after the month or so of being into water- not sure if this is possible as it was the first time propagating a zz plant- it looked like the plant was pushing off a new rhizome.
3 likes depends how much damage has set in from the rot. there’s a risk of bacteria having already compromised the leaf. it takes such a long time to root Zz — it would be a bummer to wait such a long time for no payout
2 likes I definitely agree, for me I just wanted to see if possible, once after about a week or two I noticed a slight root starting to come out. I have a rule when I try to propagate- if I don't see signs of roots in about 2 weeks then I throw the cutting away.
1 like Mara (I’m sure you’ve seen her around here) posted a Zz experiment she did recently. A good Zz prop will have formed a rhizome before planting and it took forever. It was a cool post if you can track it down! I wish we could tag things here!
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I successfully managed to propagate from a stem, but it took literally over a year before the root was developed enough to plant, and two years before it began to put up new shoots. Now the original stem I propagated had died off, and two new stems are forming. Started from the one stem in 2021! It’s possible 😅 but slowww.
1 like Here’s Inez 😊
