How to save your plant from soft rot
I think the houseplant most commonly affected by soft rot is the jade plant. In the winter, stems become weak, then mushy then rot. This occurs because your plant has caught a bacterial infection. Any plant can be a victim.
Although over watering is blamed as the cause; the problem is really a lack of light. The rest of the year the water you put in the soil gets used and evaporated. During the winter the plant slows its grow and there isn’t much sun to speed up water evaporation. So by watering less in the winter, or giving the plant more light or both you can avoid the problem.
Two things need to be done once soft rot occurs. First you need to unpot the plant and put it in a new pot with fresh soil. If you must reuse the pot, run it through the dishwasher or scrub it down with bleach first and rinse thoroughly. You need to get rid of all the bacteria.
Next you must perform an amputation on the plant. Wipe the outside of the plant down with alcohol. Take a very sharp razor and sterilize it. Slice off the part of the plant effected plus some of the unaffected area below the rot. The bacteria spreads out before symptoms show. You must remove all the bacteria with out spreading it to the section that doesn’t have any bacteria.
2 Responses to 'How to save your plant from soft rot'
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Hello,
You’ve got a great site. Bump onto your site while googling for “houseplants” + “orchids”.
Well, Did not know that you have written a similar article on root/stem rot or damping off I too have a similar article on my blog after being frustrated with rain affecting my chili plants.
http://sam-marine.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-save-your-chili-plant-after-stem.html Anyways, I also share your enthusiasm for orchids as well. I used to in vitro propagate orchids (i.e Vandas and Cattleyas to mention a few). Have yet to setup a blog for orchids if time permits.
BTW, here’s a pic of my chili plant in a vial
http://sam-marine.blogspot.com/2009/02/update-on-vial-chili-feb082009.html
http://sam-marine.blogspot.com/2009/01/mission-tiny-chili-pepper-jan-14-2009.html
Sam
sammarine
24 Feb 09 at 10:25 pm
Cool chili peppers. I just recently found out that if you keep peppers a little bit water stressed ( drier than they like ) they get hotter.
Down here I have to keep the tomatoes and peppers in pots in pots to keep them from getting waterlogged during rainy times.
I’m hoping to do some tissue cultures soon myself. Perhaps in the fall when things get quieter. I’ve not tired it with anything but begonias so far.
ljmacphee
25 Feb 09 at 8:50 pm