My first attempt at over wintering. It’s a Bahamian goat plant that did very well over the summer and was at least 4ft high. I cut it back, washed it down, roots and all. Replanted in this smaller pot in starter soil. Has 5-10 flies early Dec. Sprayed and all has been good with that.
But the branches feel dead, hollow. The main stem still feels dense. I scraped it and it’s whitish green inside. It’s sitting by a window, but no signs of new growth.
by tvaddict70
5 Comments
If there are no leaves, there will be no way for the plant to transpire. So I imagine you would not want very much water while overwintering. Obviously needs water but much less than any other time. Mine survive with only two light bottom waterings over the entire winter, ~2.5 months
The bark near the base is looking dead and brown. There might still be some life in the top and roots but that will kill it.
Always hard to tell. I had two of seven that I overwintered that I was sure were dead from being in the cold garage too long. Since being in the basement they’ve finally grown some new leaves near the base, despite the branches being mostly dead. I think a few more weeks and you’ll know for sure. No need to keep it super moist unless it’s near a heat vent. Just water every couple weeks and add only a bit of water once it’s nearly entirely dry soil. No need to drench the entire pot since the root mass was tampered with recently and repotted. Helps to overwinter more than one plant at a time so you have something to compare one another’s progress to.
Maybe cut branches lower. If you havnt been over-watering it, maybe give it one big soak of water and see what happens. Keep environment ideal.
Looks probably still alive to me. But a tip for next year, cut above a node instead of below it. A lot of your ends are not going to regrow anything, new growth will emerge only from the nodes when it wakes up.