My friends have built up this vine to be nice & long. I was trying to remove dead leaves but ended up breaking the vine off near the top. Now I know THEORETICALLY I could/should propagate, but I don’t want my friends angry I messed up the length + I’m pretty clumsy & don’t want to mess up more.
TL:DR- can I just stick the top back in the pot & hope for the best? Or do I need to come clean & try to propagate?
Watering: I’ve been misting while the friends are gone idk what their normal routine is.
Light: it’s in a big well lit window
by Pale-Composer-5975
7 Comments
Definitely immediately call your friend, tell her what happened, and have her tell you what she wants to do with this. She probably wants to propagate, but that’s not something that needs to happen immediately.
In the future, if you see dead leaves or anything, text your friend a picture and ask if she wants you to remove it. If I am plant sitting, I do nothing to the plant except what the owner told me to do.
These snap off quite easy, so chances are your friends know this as well. Remove some leaves at the snapped ends (so that there are no leaves in the water) and put the ends in water. They will make new roots in no time
Edit: they would probably root even if you just pop them back into the pot, but with such long vines I wouldn’t do it. Put them into water and tell your friends latest when they’re back 😉 this plant is prone to this happening so it’s not a big deal
Both – propagate and tell them. if the plants are the same variety as mine, these easily easily re-root with a few nodes directly into the soil and need it because most types want to vine (root along soil) rather than trail beautifully. I am on the fence with keeping all of mine as I’m being overrun. but they kind of need to be treated annuals in that they want to be frequently re rooted into the original pot. Not sure i have the time 🙂 but tell your friends! As these grow, in my experience, the leaves near the base crisp and the healthy nodes go back in the soil for fresh roots. They’ll get brittle and just snap as they like to move
Oh stoners
Just stick it back in the dirt. This is Tradascantia Zebrina, and it is basically immortal. This plant is sooo hardy and will survive almost anything, from drought and extreme heat to ice and extreme cold. And it roots super fast. Shove it in the soil like 2-3 nodes deep. It will root and be perfectly fine. But let them know it happened. In a few weeks you won’t be able to tell.
https://preview.redd.it/1ivwplc22o9e1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37ef1926434ee6822ec05e3dcf1de838d719e97f
Thanks everybody- I came clean & this is the reaction. We’re okay!!
These grow and propagate easily. Your friend will forgive you.