Next up is opalina🌱 This one was delivered with some rotten black leaves, some being completely detached, others I detached myself… the stem seems to be fine. How do I treat her? She’s been deprived of light so I know she needs more, but do I let her adjust or repot now just to make sure there’s no dead roots? As the leaves were pretttty bad :(
1. Take off all rotten leaves. Make sure you have a good at least 50% perlite/pumice soil mix on hand. 2. Unpot plant. Try to wash off as much dirt as you can, then inspect the roots. W how bad the lower leaves were, it’s likely a lot of the roots r rotten but see if there’s any that still look fresh and white. If there isn’t, cut the stem to the nearest healthy node (just like for the first plant you posted) and let the thing callus for few days, then repot into your fresh gritty soil mix.
2개 좋아요 I only have all purpose compost to hand atm, would that be okay to use or should I wait and buy some perlite etc?
0개 좋아요 Also, if the roots look healthy, should I still let them callus or can I repot straight away? Thanks again:)
0개 좋아요 If roots look healthy, no need to let them callus. While waiting to buy perlite, the plant will b ok to wait a few more days in the pot it came in. Just make sure the plant is in a place w good air circulation (Callusing out in open air is a drastic measure for when there’s a big gaping injury on the plant that needs to seal up. I.e. when a leaf is separated or a piece of stem is cut off of the mother plant. While drying out is bad for the roots, having a plant callus outside of the soil is a necessary sacrifice bc roots can b regrown, whereas stem/leaf rot does irreversible damage/can kill your plant.)
좋아요 1개 Could I mix the perlite with the all purpose compost I have or do I need the specific pumice soil you mentioned? Or should I just buy already mixed soil made for cactus/succulents?
0개 좋아요 Perlite works great! I’ve seen ppl mix perlite with compost for their succulents. Just go a bit heavier on the perlite, since compost holds a lot more moisture. For future reference, most succulent & cactus mixes are still too moist to use on their own, but are a good all-around amendment. For inorganic material, they usually contain some amount of perlite/pumice. For organic material, they usually opt for something like bark fines that aren’t as nutrient rich and don’t compact or retain as much water as compost. So some ppl like doing a mix of 1 part perlite, 1 part cactus/succulent mix, and 1 part compost As a rule of thumb, it’s good to shoot for 60-70% inorganic material and 30-40% organic material in ur succulent soil
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