This was gently, then violently treated with the Atom Bomb of non-pesticide bug killers; Rubbing Alcohol (95%) and Ivory Dish Soap. I chose Ivory because it's easy on my skin but Tough On Bugs. When first attempts failed, I upped the ante and spritzed morning and night, for about 10 days, following each dose at the end of the day with a spray of clean water. I was terrified that this would reek havoc on my hens and chicks because they are after all succulents and constant drying of rubbing alcohol followed by being nightly drenched might do them in.
They recovered surprisingly well. The bugs could not survive what was essentially plant chemo, and are nowhere to be seen right now. I think they are just regrouping somewhere. I have in mind a Bug Camp, with a little Cocoon clad bug Napoleon.
The results above are after we lost the tiny guy, a casualty of war, he will be a sorely missed comrade. As his life slipped away his leaves turned brown, dry, crackly. His fellow plants seemed to be doing ok in the following months; one even sprouted some intense new growth while I was gone for a week. See it sticking up?
The weeks (week) went by since the new growth. Suddenly, the others took a dramatic turn for the worse. Their leaves were forming halos around the healthy plants of dying crackling foliage, it looks dehydrated, but was well watered...Confused I ran to the one place I thought an answer may exist! The internet. By the time I got to it, one of the groupings looked like this. Note: If your plant looks like this? It's already dead.
Notice its lack of roots.
It was then that I noticed on a sempervivum website- originally searching how to make my hens and chicks MAKE CHICKS ALREADY, that there are plants that are masquerading as hens and chicks. These plants also form tight rosettes, but don't make any "rollers" also known as chicks. They divide by forming a thick tuberous root and then splicing themselves, which is why hens and chicks grow flat, and these guys grow sideways, back to back. In the first pic at the top, notice that they seem to be growing like dice, with a plant on each face of a cube.
The way to get these apart you ask? NO IDEA. On the nets they say that you have to split them because they will not reach out and make new growth. Perhaps my plants are dying because they are too mounded? I'm not sure. They have adequate light, water, (read: not too much water, an appropriate amount of water)they are in adequate soil, and the chemo is a distant memory. I hacked em up anyway and threw them back in their pot. They are prolly gonna die, but they were anyway, so why not try a last ditch effort. Below is what they look like now. Soon there will most likely be one.
All the others tolerated both the chemo and a transplanting really well and are thriving. not putting out babies, but also not dying- Go ME! I'm not a total failure as a Plant Mommy!
No comments:
Post a Comment