#15 December 25, 2012. 1 month and three weeks old.
#15 stopped growing a while back after turning mostly purple due to presumably fungus of some sort. It has been declared dead, but apparently it is still surviving a few weeks after that episode. There were no new needles in over two weeks now while many other seedlings flourished and perished in the meantime. I chose #15 to be a victim because my hopes for its survival are very low, yet it remains visibly intact.
A very simple procedure was to cut through the ductape and unfold the two PVC halves.
Next, a great care was taken to slowly remove the soil starting from the top of the root. As I kept going down inch by inch using hands, a spoon and a water bottle, the root kept going on until it stopped at astonishing 9 inches long for a total of 11 for the entire plant:
The scary part is the segment immediately below the stem. It looked brown, thin and overall unhealthy:
As I started revealing the root, seeing this terrible section made me believe that it was all lost. However, as I kept going down I started noticing not only the bright white main root, but also little branches coming off of the main:
After half an hour examination I poured cactus soil in abundance on top, added some water and re-sealed the tube.
Whether this invasion is going to kill #15 or not remains to be seen. Based on what I observed, I will attempt to keep top 4" of soil as dry as possible by adding water through the side holes and a syringe.
The soil looks very wet in the 3 photos of the root. Was it that wet or did you put water on it to help reveal the root?
ReplyDeleteI used a water bottle to remove the soil when I could see where the root was going. Water moves dirt quite easily and without the danger of damaging the root. It was not nearly as wet when I opened it.
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