Worth trying to save?

[FairyCastles]

Good morning!

I have a Copiapoa here that I think has a bit of rot.
I haven't had it very long and it hasn't been near water so I'm not sure why (though I am aware they are quite funny little things).

The question - Is it worth trying to save? Less than a third of it seems to be affected. Would you cut the rot out or leave it and hope? Is it likely to repair itself?
I don't want to compost it if I can help it as I have the room (away from other plants) and time but if there's no hope, there's no hope.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[RAYWOODBRIDGE]

Hi Fairycastles

Is it a single headed plant or does it have offsets.
If it is a single headed plant its goodbye, but you could try taking it out of the compost and drying the root off somewhere very dry,leave it like that for two to three weeks to see if it is rot, ( which will not stop ) or if it is just an ageing thing like brown skin/bark, a Copiapoa can stand being dry for a very very long time, but a few days in damp air they don't like at all.
If it has an offset take it off as soon as possible, and put it on some very gritty/sandy compost that is bone dry and leave for two to three weeks, then check to see if it has started to send out any root.

best of luck Ray

[Julie]

Hi,

Things rot at the drop of a hat for no apparent reason.

I would take a sharp knife and either some meths or a candle flame (to sterilise the knife). Chop off the root, and look at the stump, does it have any dark colour on it? If not, sterilise the knife and cut another thin slice. Pot root hormone powder or sulphur on it, to dry it and act like TCP. It will sit there for ages keeping you in suspense, then make a root months later.

If yes, keep cutting off slices until you get into the clean bit, then cut off another for luck as the rot bacteria can spread through the veins faster than the flesh. They are very cheeky little sods.

The last cut should be with a sterile knife, and then keep it in a cool place with no direct sun, until it decides to root. And be patient... I have heard tales of it taking 2 years for a root to grow.

It's horrible the first time you're cutting a beloved plant, but think of it as taking the pet to the vet... they don't like it, but it's good for them and you can't explain it to them.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[FairyCastles]

As I said, I haven't had it long and only unpotted it yesterday.

Unfortunately, it is a single-headed plant.
It has got normal "bark" but the problem seems to be between that and the green part.
I can find somewhere dry but I don't know if it will do any good. It is the same squidgy-ness as a thirsty L. williamsii but more spongy.

This is my second plant with rot - the other one was bought with rot
That is a very very beloved plant and I cut the rot out of him and he now smells like a match....

The roots are really healthy to my (untrained) eye. Very sturdy, a good colour.
So, if I cut off the roots and wait, it may have a chance? If it's probably going to the great compost bin in the sky, I'm willing to try it even if it is just to learn (and I'm that stubborn that it won't dare to die...).

So, keep cutting until I reach good material then another to be sure? (I'm from Lincolnshire so I know what to look for - I never realised how much I'd picked up until I started this hobby...)

Thank you both for the advice and I welcome anyone else's opinions!

[Martin]

Can you post a picture ?

[FairyCastles]

http://s1165.photobucket.com/albums/q58 ... /Copiapoa/

[Aiko]

I have a Copiapoa hypogeae that started to rot a few years ago. About a third of the plant above the soil was gone. But the rot stopped out of itself. I have done nothing to cause it or to stop it. Just one of those things that can happen, I guess.

Amazingly the plant still flowers every year with multiple flowers (was in flower last weekend, even).

[Clarke Brunt]

http://s1165.photobucket.com/albums/q58 ... /Copiapoa/

As often the case, difficult to tell from photos. As you say, the roots look OK; the very top looks OK (unless soft and squidgy); and can't really tell about the brown part between the two from the photos.

Are you absolutely certain that anything is wrong at all? If there was just a single patch with a soft rot, then I'd set about srcraping it out with a knife and hope to come to proper non-rotting tissue. If it's rotten all the way across where the brown band is, then I'm not sure there's much to be done. The green top by itself (if not rotting) looks a bit small, and would have a very large cut surface if cut off - I think it would dry up rather than root. And I'm not sure whether the healthy-looking roots ever put out new heads - it looks like they should, but I've not known it happen in practice. Your photos 5 and 6 I think show the suspicious area best - what's underneath that brown stuff if you scrape a bit off. If it's healthy after all, then no harm done apart from a small hole; and if not healthy then you won't have made it any worse than it was already.

I recently lost a small clump of Copiapoa laui (not unlike C. hypogaea) to what I think was the same rot as I described in http://www.bcss.org.uk/foruma/viewtopic ... 1&t=156070 (Rot with nasty smell). Some of the heads had collapsed; a few looked sort-of OK, but deteriorated over the next few days after I removed them; the roots looked a bit like yours, but I decided that it was a lost cause and threw it away.

[FairyCastles]

I've just tried to scrape little bits away and most of it is green and nice but here and there are little bits of, what looks like, rot which seem easy to remove.
The top (green) is squishy in some places but not others which is making me worried (plus the weird bottom bit but that doesn't bother me as much).

I may just try scraping to new tissue and see if that works (but it still feels spongy).

[Phil_SK]

but here and there are little bits of, what looks like, rot which seem easy to remove.

Dry/spongy or slimy/squishy?