😭 I saw this beautiful purple plant at the nursery and brought her home (her name is Bette) about a month ago. I googled it later and apparently she’s not supposed to be purple. She was full and even and lovely, though. I gave her water and put her near some new plant friends by a window that gets indirect light (not bright) and a grow lamp. I watered her twice when she was dry (1/10 on moisture meter), then repotted in espoma organic potting soil mix. Now she has bald spots and icky brown/yellow areas and I’m kicking myself because I think I repotted a sun-stressed plant. How do I make the bald patches regrow? Did I kill Bette? She was so pretty before I messed it all up. 😭 What do I do??
by BringMeCoffeePlease
7 Comments
Same thing happened to mine, mine died. I think I overwatered
That looks like a Pink Lady! Id say its definitely because of overwatering, try to get her to be a bit more dry before you give her some new water! Repotting it might’ve for sure made her lose some bits and pieces but this type of plant usually comes back pretty easily, I wouldn’t worry too much!
What you have is not a pilea aquamarine, that is a *Callisia repens* “Pink Panther.” The purple is normal. These guys loooove as much indirect light you can give them, and even a little bit of direct is okay. They’re not fond of getting their leaves wet and like to dry out pretty thoroughly between waterings, so that’s likely what went wrong here. Their root system is extremely shallow, so that pot is too deep and the soil underneath was probably never able to dry out properly. What I would do is cut out some of the mostly dead strands then take any healthy leafy ends, root them in water, and then stick them back in the pot in the bald spots. It’ll fill back in. I’ve nearly murdered mine a couple times but she’s always bounced back.
This isn’t pilea, it’s a variety of tradescantia although I’m not sure which one specifically. This also looks like under watering to me. Tradescantia is a ground cover plant rather than a hanging plant and will quite quickly kill off the lower parts of the plant to spread out further.
Good news is they prop super easy so just cut all the dry crunches off at the bottom then stick them back in some fresh soil it will fill out again pretty fast.
Source: I have half a dozen different varieties and cut off the bottom half of them every year, 80% of them will root just fine if you stick them in the dirt and leave them alone
I think it’s a tradescantia sillamontana.
Don’t trust a moisture meter. They’re notoriously inaccurate.
These need to be chopped & propped frequently or they get leggy & they get all brown at the base. Fortunately they’re one of the easiest plants to prop. Chop each piece above a node & stick it back in the soil. It’ll grow roots super quickly
https://preview.redd.it/4ebl387ihevf1.jpeg?width=1289&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=952f256664b937b11732b90dbb2d576d3a3692ba
Your dead is my alive 😮💨