I've never fully mastered the care of my African milk plant; it loses its leaves every summer which makes me think I'm doing something wrong, I see many photos of others' plants that still have all of its leaves.
Last summer I kept it inside near a sunny window for the first time and it seemed to be happier there, it kept its leaves. It was a bit surprising because I thought it was a full-sun plant, but the sun is quite intense in the summer on my balcony (I'm in USDA Zone 10a, Northern hemisphere).
Then a few months ago there were heavy wind storms here and it got knocked over not once but twice; the top segment was bent, you can see that it oozed some milk at that joint which has scarred over now. It also lost most of its leaves after that trauma. As you can see in the photo, the plant is crooked now. Should I chop & prop? Beyond aesthetics, I can't rotate it in any other direction without it getting in the way of people passing it on the narrow balcony where it lives, it leans into the aisle.
I also wonder if it could use a larger pot for stability; I assume it would require very gritty soil to make sure that it doesn't stay wet for long (as you can see I have several other succulents so I'm familiar generally with soil, pot, watering requirements). Any thoughts on that?
Open to any advice about the crookedness and general care advice as well.
by veglove
2 Comments
The leaves naturally fall off when they are outside but generally stay on when indoors. So there is nothing wrong either way on that. Yours is too tall and thin to support the upper structure at this point. So you are correct that chop and prop is a good direction to go. Get a bigger pot and plant the chops in with this parent and you’ll get a cool group going. And for the soil, definitely gritty. I have all of mine in a pon/volcanic mineral mix (no actual soil at all) and they love it. But definitely fast draining is what you want.
I would personally chop right above your first branch at the bottom. Then that area will grow a bunch of branches. You can plant any pieces that were cut on both ends yes. Any cut tops will usually be a platform for branches too. Wait a few days to a week after cutting to let the ends dry out completely before planting. Otherwise they may rot. If you haven’t cut a Euphorbia before maybe watch a YouTube video on it. They have toxic sap so wear gloves and have a bucket or bowl to put the pieces in while the sap flows. You can put water in that bowl or bucket and it seems to help it stop faster. Then let them dry out before planting. New rooting can take a few months also. But I’ve done this a few times.