Transplanted several different heirloom varieties a week ago, all pots contain the same compost, today discovered this Pink Brandywine flopped over. Is this stem rot? Should I just pile up dirt around it and hope for the best? Or cut it off and try to get it to grow new roots? How would you go about trying to save it?
by ColeDeBeer
4 Comments
This one is probably a goner. It is most likely white mold and/or a fungal infection that occurs during cool damp conditions or when a plant isn’t growing vigorously because of poor soil. The plant probably has some root rot going on too.
When you say the pots all have the same compost, what do you mean? Are you growing in straight compost? That will definately do it.
The 50/50 is probably too rich, and there may be drainage problems. Most potting soils are composted wood. If they don’t have enough porosity, the soil voids fill we with water, you can and the microbes decomposing the organic matter use up the available oxygen. This damages the roots and stresses the plants, which can lead to the onset of fungal infections.
Treating the soil won’t really do anything. The fungal spores are everywhere.
If it were me and I wanted to save it, I would gently remove it from the soil and look at the roots. If they are rotted and there is nothing left, I would probably pitch it, but you could try trimming off the damaged lower stem and most of the leaves and putting it in a glass of water on windowsill inside to see if it reroots.
If you pull it out and the roots look OK, you can get some high porosity potting soil like Promix HP or Sunset #4 and remove the lower leaves and pot it in a smaller pot deeper so the damaged stem is a few inches below the soil. In a week or two if it seems to recover, you can replant it, but you may want to consider mixing some perlite and maybe some coir or bark mulch in to lighten the soil a bit.
Pile up soil around it 👍🏼
Is this damage in just one plant or multiple? The location of the damage looks like it could be cut worm damage. They curl around the base of the plant and start gnawing away. They live in the soil and come out during the night, so the damage is usually first noticeable early in the morning by which point it is too late.