Transcript:
hi guys! Welcome to my channel lash gardener. I hope you guys are fine and are safe at home. So guys today. We’re going to be talking about that black leaf that tends to appear on a succulent. Is it a rot or is it not? I’m sure you must be curious to know why that happens and how it can be fixed. If you’re still confused about it, then watch this video till the end, and I’m sure you’ll be able to differentiate between rot or not so guys, let’s start the video on a positive note because this leaf can also indicate that there is a positive side to your succulent. Now, guys here. I have my graptocedum bronze. Now you can see that. The lowest leaf has turned black in color. Now, guys, this does not indicate that your succulent is rotting. And what’s so positive about this is because this indicates that your succulent has adapted to your new environment and it is starting to grow. Hence it is getting rid of those old matured leaves. Now when I’m touching the graptocedium bronze, you can see that all the leaves are very stiff and they are very firm. If it was a case of rot, then all these leaves would have just fallen down with the slightest touch of my finger. Now, guys, you might think that. Why am I not pulling out this leaf because it’s already dead, but I am not going to do that mistake because guys as you can see around the soil is very wet. It has been raining continuously and hence, if I tend to pull out this dry leaf, there is a high chance of this succulent, getting rotted. Hence I will leave it as it is and will not fidget with the leaf right now. So guys here is my ago virus as well, you can see that the lower leaf has got dried and turned black, But when I touch the other leaves, you can see that the leaves are very stiff and firm, which indicates that it’s not a rot and the succulent is just growing by getting rid of those old leaves Now, guys, as I’ve said this earlier as well that you must not leave the dry leaves as it is because they can house a lot of pests, but in this case, you will not pull out the dry leaf because the soil is completely wet as you can see over here now. The pest coming or not coming is just a 50 50 of a chance, but if you tend to pull out this leaf when the soil is wet, there is a high risk of almost 95 percent that your succulent will rot. Because when you pull out this dry leaf, there is going to be a cut, which will enter into the succulent and the succulent will rot now. Guys, a lot of you might have also noticed that the lower leaves tend to turn like this, or if you have recently purchased a succulent and you have potted them, they will turn like this, or if you have an existing succulent, and you have just repotted it. You’ll tend to see that the lower leaves start to turn like this now, guys. There is nothing to be worried about. This is a very common and a normal thing that happens to a succulent. This is basically, the succulent is time to get rid of all the older leaves in order to conserve that energy to grow. This means that the succulent is getting adjusted to the new environment that you’re providing and there is nothing wrong in this now. How do you differentiate whether this is not caused because of overwatering so guys, if you look closely even in overwatering, the leaves tend to turn yellow, but over here, what you’ll notice is that the leaves are yellow, but they are opaque, they are not mushy or they are not wrinkly, but they are just plain, yellow and opaque in an over watered succulent. You will also tend to see yellow leaves, but they will be transparent and they will be very mushy compared to these leaves as you can see in this video now. This is a very normal process, guys. You don’t have to be worried eventually. The leaf will turn yellow and then turn dark and get dried off. When you touch these leaves, you’ll tend to feel that leaves are very crisp and hence it indicates that these are not caused by over watering, but just because of changing of the environment, change of the soil and change of the water. The succulent leaves have started to change the color and this usually happens to the lower leaves. So, guys by now, you know that If the lower leaf tends to turn dark or tends to turn yellow in color, But when you touch the succulent, it feels firm and stiff, this indicates that the succulent is fine, but now the problem is if the leaves had to fall apart, what can be done? And how can it be treated so guys? What happened over here is my achieve area. That has these sharp fangs. During the monsoon season, I was using a plastic sheet over them, but the plastic sheet tend to get heavy because of the rain droplets and hence it pressurized against the echeveria and these sharp red fangs tend to poke out of the plastic sheet. Now what happened with this? Is there a couple of holes that were created with this pressure and the water started to drip in into the soil? Now, even though my soil was well draining, but it happened to remain wet for a very long time due to which the succulent next to it started to rot. So guys here you can see the tips are poking out of the plastic and that’s where the water started to get in. It rained for a couple of weeks, so the water was continuously getting into the pot and it was not giving a chance for the soil to dry. Hence the soil was moist and wet for a very long time, even though I have a well draining soil, but the soil was wet, hence the succulent started to rot. Now you can see over here. The water started to drop in as you can see the water droplets because it was continuously raining and it did give a chance for the soil to dry now. Guys, this is how the rotted stem looks like. I don’t have a video clip of the succulent while it was rotting or while I was cutting the stem because I was quite paranoid and in a state of panic, Hence the first instinct was to take out the succulent and check how bad the rod has been. Luckily that the succulent was not completely rotted, it was just starting. It was an initial stage of rot as you can see only the partial side of the stem had started to rot. And wherever you can see those black spots that is the place where the leaves started turning black with excess water. However, on the other side of the stem, the leaves were quite good and we’re still healthy. Hence I happened to separate them as soon as I seen them, but overall you can see this is how the rod had started. So if you happen to notice a rod in the initial stage, you have a high chance of saving the succulent. You can even save the leaves and use it for propagation, but if you wait for a very long time, And if the rod spreads throughout the succulent, then it is almost impossible to save the succulent and the leaves as well now. Guys, it’s always a good practice to keep a check on your succulents, even if you have kept them in a safe place, or if you’re covering them with something in order to protect them from rain, it is always a good practice to check on your succulents. If there is any kind of issue going on with them now. It was an initial stage. That is why I was able to save this succulent! I was able to separate the healthy leaves, and I was successful in cutting the Crown area so guys. This is the crown area that I cut off from the infected stem. You can see that the crown area is still healthy, and you’ll also notice that the cut is not uniform Because I had to keep cutting until I didn’t see any rot on the Crown area. So guys. This is the healthy part because you can see that the leaves on the crown area are still firm and stiff and they have not been affected. Now this was only possible because I had seen this rot in the initial stage. So guys, now I have gone ahead and added some cinnamon powder to the cut so that the wound gets healed faster as I’ve said that it’s the monsoon season and there is a lot of moisture in the air, and I do not want this cut to come in contact with any moisture, even though I have placed this crown area in a dry place, but I do not want to take any chance, so I have put some cinnamon powder because this will help the wound heal faster and also promote the rooting very fast because cinnamon powder is also known to be a very good rooting agent. So guys, three days later as you can see, the crown area is almost healed is almost dry, but it is not completely dry yet and I’ll have to wait for a couple more days before it’s completely dry, but the cinnamon powder definitely has worked out very well. Now as you can also see, the rot has stopped. There is no rot on this crown area and how I can be so sure is because now when I’m holding the crown area, it’s still intact has does not fallen apart because if the rod was still present, the leaves would have just fallen apart with the slightest touch so guys, as I said that it will take another couple of days for the circle to get completely healed and after that, it will take another two to three weeks for it to root. So I have another reference over here as you can see this black prince was also cut in the same way and you can see. After a couple of weeks, there are roots that are emerging out of the cut and this is exactly how it’s going to work out on this as well so guys, as I said that it was only a partial stem rot and the other side of the leaves was still healthy, so I happen to remove them and I’ve kept them for drying and as these leaves are still healthy. They will start rooting very soon now. Guys, this is how the rotted leaf looks like. I have taken it from the infected part of the stem. You can see that there is a lot of water that has been accumulated in the leaf due to which the cells inside the leaf are dead. Now you might be able to see the leaf, but if I have to explain how it feels, it basically feels like that rotted grape that you always tend to find, and when you squeeze, there’s a lot of water that tends to come out of it now. This is the exact way. The succulent leaf has turned into. It’s very mushy and it’s completely dead. Now guys, such leaves cannot be propagated. You will have to discard this leaf away from the pot. Do not put them near any plants or any succulents. Because eventually these dead leaves will start to develop fungus and molds. So it’s always advisable to discard them away from any plant that you have in your garden so, guys, I’m sure now you’ll be able to differentiate between a regular black leaf and a rotting black leaf, and I hope that this video was helpful to you if it was please consider subscribing to my channel until then take care. Stay safe bye.