What should I do?
There is a whole pile of tails which have broken off – can I water propagate them to grow roots and then plant them?
There are also hundreds of leaves fallen off – should I just pop them back into the soil in the pot and hope they propagate themselves into new tails?
by pv_mx
15 Comments
Your toddler is just in the propping spirit!!! /s
But really, all of those little leaves can be tossed onto dry soil to start new plants. I’ve found that while my burro’s tail leaf props are very slow growers in comparison to most of my other succulent leaf props, I have a far higher success rate with them…near 100%. So, you can get a ton of new plants/strands from this fiasco!
For any broken stems, let the broken ends callus before potting. General advice is to hold off on watering until they’ve rooted. If you choose to stick them back into the original pot with the main plant, then just water the plant as you usually would.
I wouldn’t recommend water propping. It’s not really necessary for succulents, and water roots have a tendency to die once transferred to soil.
Gonna call the !propagation bot for more helpful info!
Throw the whole kid away
This belongs in r/kidsarefuckingstupid
Hopefully you can get some props out of this mess!
Each of those broken leaves can be a new plant!
Agree this is an opportunity for new pots you wanna use and new plants everywhere.
Also when I have a plant that’s super overgrown I will give them as gifts and all.
I have a succulent that was my Mema’s and now I have about 30 copies and have given them to her other grandchildren and sons etc. To keep her around so to speak. Sorry for the non-sequitor
Toddler must go.
Omggg
Return to sender!
Like everyone said, the fallen leaves will grow new plants. I normally just throw them in a pot with other plants and let them grow, or I put them in a new pot by themselves and let them take off. The branches where a bunch of leaves fell off leaving bare spots probably won’t regrow anything, at least in my experience. I’d cut them off where the leaves stop closest to the plant and then cut off the other end leaving some stem to repot. I just stick it right in the dirt with either the leaves for prop or the existing plant. I’m impatient so I don’t wait for them to callus over, but have never had a problem.
I’m so sad for your plant. I had a huge burros tail freeze when I moved and I’m still not over it.
Adopt them out
Aww. The bare areas will not grow new leaves. Maybe start a few new branches but don’t count on that. So it will look funny for a good while, as pretty much the only thing is to get new growths covering the bare areas in time. The best way is to stick the broken off pieces into the soil and wait for those to grow over. The one good thing is it will eventually look ‘fuller’ than before.
I don’t suggest water prop. Just remove the leaves from the bottoms of the broken off stems and stick ’em straight into the soil. Not so shallowly as they’re “top heavy” and will pull out or fall out too easily due to that plus you want to encourage more root mass asap to support the weight.
Normally I am not about “repotting” but if you want, this is also a good time to move them to a larger pot, a pot that would be easier to keep out of toddler reach, or something like that. It’d be slightly easier to stick the broken stems in the soil and also if you want, plop the broken off leaves onto top of the fresh loose soil. Also it’s because you’re now basically putting more separate individual plants into the same pot than before, if that makes sense. But this is really not necessary so if you want to keep this pot, go ahead and stick the broken stems back into it.
Now you have five million donkey tail, congrats?
Oh. My god. 🤣 I’m so sorry. Agreed with everyone that the existing stems can be replanted and each leaf would also grow into an entire plant. I feel your pain though!
So easy to prop. I just throw mine on some dirt and forget about them more or less. You do have to occasionally water. You can have millions of new tails now!
Blessing in disguise, you’ll end up with a very nice full plant after all the props grow