Hello! Iām concerned one of my succulents might be rotting but Iām not sure so I wanted a second opinion.
A little while ago I moved it into a bigger pot as I thought it had outgrown the very small one it was in. since then Iāve had to adjust how often I water it as it takes longer for the soil to dry out. Iāve probably been watering it about once every 2 weeks but I donāt have an exact schedule, I check it every week to see if it looks thirsty.
a few weeks ago I noticed that it was dropping a lot of leaves. I wasnāt sure if the problem was too much water or not enough so I skipped watering it. The problem only got worse. I noticed that only two of its three stalks are affected - the central stalk looks & feels fine. The leaves on the affected stalk feel soft, like itās very thirsty. the leaves on the central stalk are firm.
the other day one of its pups basically fell apart and I noticed that the stem had turned black. I took it off and disposed of it so I donāt have a photo. it didnāt occur to me at the time that it might be rot.
this week I tried watering it again and thereās been no change (better or worse) and today I noticed that thereās a dark patch on one of the affected stems. Itās not black, just darker than the rest of the stem and kind of withered looking? it doesnāt feel soft, it feels as hard as the rest of the stem.
The whole plant - I hope you can make out the difference between the leaves on the middle stem & the other stem.
One of the sickly stems w some of the lower leaves turning yellow.
Close up on the dark patch on the stem - itās a bit hard to see because itās in the shadow of the rest of the plant, but the stem itself is darker.
Since taking the pictures Iāve taken it out of the pot and removed as much soil as I can to see if drying it out helps. if the problem is rot I gather the thing to do would be to cut off the affected stems which Iām reluctant to do unnecessarily. can you offer any advice? sorry this got so long!
(the good news is I took off one of the pups a while ago and itās been doing fine so I have a second jellybean plant)
Thanks so much for your help!
Okay - so I donāt think this is rot, but i do think you need to cut above it and re-root the cuttings. Iāve had this happen to a number of my plants, itās like the stem implodes on itself and shrivels up but itās not mushy at all. Regardless of why itās doing this the stem that does this canāt pass nutrients and water through it anymore, with more time Iām almost positive youāll start seeing roots growing above that shriveled section because it realizes it doesnāt have access to itās old ones anymore. This is why your plant is looking so thirsty, because it is! But watering it wonāt help at this point because it doesnāt have any roots anymore technically. The stems that arenāt effected should be fine and not need to be cut unless the same thing happens to them. I suspect this is from a watering issue but Iām not positive, it could be some type of defense mechanism in which the plant kills itās own cells to stop rot from encroaching too far (I know plants do do this Iām just unsure how extensive they get with it).
So all in all I think your plant will be fine it just needs a chop and to be given the chance to re-root. :)
