This was a very informative video. No need to apologize for the length when you actually went above & beyond with all the facts, tips & tricks.. Thank you so much! God Bless you.
CLEAR POTS are a f ing GAME CHANGER! Since making the switch I’ve had almost NO signs of over/under watering! I moved a ton to clear and now I’m working through them all. I’m so glad you mentioned this because I never hear anyone talking about it and I’ve even considered a video or something because of how beneficial it is. I feel like people need to know! I also have a super high tech🤣🤷🏻♀️ “moisture meter” method(more critical when not in clear pots) of putting a chopstick in the soil of my most finicky plants(micholitziana, I’m looking at you!), I walk around lifting pots and pull it up checking the moisture at the bottom of the pot. Easier than my finger all the way to the bottom and more accurate than a moisture meter imo ✌🏼 Btw, you are brilliant!
I like to use water/juice jugs/bottles and cups/soup containers from take out and create drainage with a soldering iron. Also, I use the leca I purchased and did not enjoy for semi hydro as the base of all my potted plants like your pool noodles. I know people say that “rocks” are pointless in the bottom of a pot for drainage and that it can’t change the perched water table or whatever(I’m not smart like you are with the science part) but I know that a leca layer helps with aerating the bottom of the soil which then dries much more evenly
Your videos keep challenging everything I thought I knew about plant raising (from the collective knowledge of the internet). Thank you for bringing the perspective of an actual soil scientist into this platform! I've had root rot before on an aloe vera, but thankfully those things just REFUSE to die so I was able to just cut out the whole bottom part and root it again.
I love a person who is willing to take the time to check her notes. I believe that's proof of an intelligent researcher and respectful teacher/mentor. So thanks for that.
🥰 and I appreciate you Ke Le! You’re one of my absolute favourite people in the crew. Your relentlessly supportive and one of the reasons I keep coming back week after week. I HONESTLY MEAN IT!
I love smelling my soils. Soil/repotting and mixing soils together trying to make a healthy soil is my favorite part of Gardning idk y. But as soon as i caught the gardening/plant bug that part and process always was the funnest and most satisfying to me.
Hands down the most helpful video I've ever seen on root rot!! I've struggled so much and done so many rescues and chop-&-props. I saved an orchid that was rotting even though I had bark (now I know it was likely drying out way too much) by using some sphagnum moss. But I can't just grow all my plants in moss! (Too bad cuz I'm losing a beautiful gardenia that I overwatered in the Phoenix heat - I was really thinking all the brown leaves were the hot dry air or salts in the hard water but the soil isn't drying out enough compared to before. It's so big, I'm not sure if I can save it.. 😭 But between this and your video on perched water tables, I hope I can greatly reduce my losses to root rot in the future!🤞🏻
This was a very educational video, I’m a new plant parent so I’m still in helicopter mode. Thankfully, my mother took the time to educate me about overwatering and this video has fleshed out my knowledge. ...also, am I the only who who eyed all her plants suspiciously after this video? No? Just me. EDIT: I forgot to ask, about your final point: if you didn’t water your plant for a long time, how do you safely water it in order to prevent root rot?
@@GardeningInCanada 👍 thank you! I have a couple of plants I’m rescuing from my friend so I’m probably going to have to deal with this 🥲 I want the challenge but hopefully I don’t kill them.
Once again, I search for an answer to my question and there you are. I had a lovely Bougainvillea that was showing signs of root rot. I read somewhere that i needed to toss the plant and solarize the bed. I did this the other day, but it did seem like killing off everything in the soil was a bit drastic AND I hated the idea of losing that bed right before the growing season. I did toss the vine-it's roots were orange, and tossed a lot of the soil. I can see now that my bed was tilted so the water crowded into the corner with the vine. I think I'll just pull up that horrible plastic, fix the angle of the bed and put in better dirt. Thanks once again.
Once again, real information based on science. A local plant page I belong to is constantly recommending watering with hydrogen peroxide every couple of waterings for pest control and root health because a big name plant-tuber said so. To the point of attacking others that caution against it. Your content is interesting and informative, please stick around and keep producing!
@@GardeningInCanada Yeah, internet myths need to be broken regarding houseplant care. I don't know if you've done a video on this or not, I'll have to search. Things being promoted such as pasta water for your plants, brewed tea, potato starch, egg shells, banana peels, coffee grounds, hydrogen peroxide in soil (all for indoor houseplants) Will Creed, the guy behind Horticultural Help, said compost wasn't a good idea to add to indoor houseplants because of the lure of bugs (I'm not a scientist, but this seems logical). I do compost in my garden, but I stick to my pretty boring regimen with my houseplants (although for transparency, I was recently "influenced" to start adding worm castings--which I already mentioned to you on a different video)
Haven’t done the tea or pasta water but those are on the list! And the compost claim for bugs is true if it’s not a hot compost, hot compost does a pretty good job of killing off any eggs
Thank you so much for this informative video, I appreciate how in-depth this was. Your puppy is so adorable! 😍 On a side note on root colors, carnivorous plants have black roots. I had no idea about that until I delved into the care of Nepenthes.
Good job on the root rot explanation! I have a dracaena that is 40 years old, I suspect it is developing root rot. So I will act on your advice although it’s a major undertaking to move the pot & trunks. I suspect the old pot is harboring the methane producing fungi. I’ll repot how it fares down the line. Thanks again for your efforts to share your knowledge with us!
Thank you for your scientifically fact based videos ❤️ I recently managed to get rid of root rot on M. Adansonii and Raphidophora thanks to the info from this video. What I did: I sterilized EVERYTHING (except roots) with chlorine, cut off infected roots and put them in white moss (sphagnum) that I just picked in the forest. Hydrogen peroxide is quite expensive and unavailable in my country, so I just checked the roots every few days and removed any new bad parts. This worked very well. I also sterilized the infected soil in the oven (to 96°C), when cooled I mixed in a few scoopes of fresh new soil and let it sit in a bag for one month in my basement to hopefully allow the micro organisms from the new soil to reproduce and colonize it. I planted the first adansonii back in soil 2,5 weeks ago and it's doing fine so far. I'm nervously hoping I managed to kill all the rot spores in the oven (!!). I also found that the leafs of monstera adansonii instantly turned yellow as soon as it had any rot, while the raphidophora didn't show any sign at all. I ended up cutting about 80% of the raphi's roots and it has only dropped 2 leafs in 1,5 months! haha
@@GardeningInCanada Too bad you couldn't make your eyes turn red and spin your head around, all the while speaking in tongues and projectile vomiting. You know, like Linda Blair in "The Exorcist".
I grow quite a few rot-prone tropical succulents and xerophytes in a temperate climate and use large chunks of broken styrofoam boxes in the bottom of the pots, it seems to work well. One thing with many of the tropical succulents tho, is that many are prone to rot if watered at low temperatures, most of these plants are from seasonally dry climates
Thinking more about this and your video I wonder if there are other explanations for why some of these plants can rot so easily if exposed to cold and wet conditions. Is it the genetics and temperature tolerance of the plants, or more prone to pathogens at lower temps? or something else? You got me thinking
You are fabulous! Real science, not just throwing things randomly at a problem and forgetting which thing worked. What a breath of fresh air! My question is about humidifiers. You mention that root rot is pathogen based - so I'm guessing cool mist humidifiers can be pathogen factories..? I'm not sure if warm mist heats enough to sterilize the water - thoughts? Also, I started using clear orchid nursery pots for some of my aroids who get a very chunky mix of coir, activated charcoal, coco chips, leca balls, perlite, pumice, and some worm castings. I'm seeing some mold or fungus near the holes, even with this chunky mix. Humidifier? I do sterilize everything (pots to implements) with rubbing alcohol. Thanks again for your videos and for taking the time to respond! You're such a blessing to the plant community and I'm so glad to have found you!
So informative. Thos has me feeling confident that I can handle my situation with knowledge. And currently replanting almost everything, cuz they are due for it. Great knowledge
The underutilization of water has been my exact observations as well. Plants that get enough light and are grown in the right conditions will literally never ever have rot. Even plants that are considered easy to rot or water sensitive. I grow mexican cacti in their native soil types, which are heavy clay loam soils that hold a lot of water, take long to dry, and become mud when wet and rock hard when dry and mine never rot. This is actually a movement from Italy called 'wild growing' - its goal is to replicate the natural conditions of cacti and the results are amazing. All the problems people usually have cultivating cacti just disappear. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the microbes dying off and an Acidic environment being created aren't the only factors at play here. Roots also need oxygen and they also need to be able to release CO2. I've read various research that stated that if roots can't get oxygen from outside, they will start taking oxygen that is produced from internal processes and that in turn takes resources, energy, oxygen, etc away from other areas that need it. Additionally, not being able to release CO2 causes a CO2 buildup in the plant, especially in the petioles, and that is specifically why leaves will wilt from the petiole despite being fully hydrated. It's also why the petiole turns black and eventually makes the leaves turn yellow/die/just fall off.
Thank you so much for such an educational video! I'm just starting my plant journey and trying to get myself as informed as I can be. I recently repotted a plant because the substrate was nothing but compacted soil, and I noticed the roots (and plants) had symptoms as the ones you mentioned, and this video helped me a lot to fix the issue! I must admit I'm a tad confused though, and would appreciate your insight on this matter: if the rot is happening due to the waterlogging, would that anaeorobic environment, that "mass extinction" include the killing off the pathogens and spores? Or would they actually thrive on it?
i saw other methods of "fixing" rot with hydro peroxide.. but like you said before, it basically turns to water the minute it turns to gas. which i believe is quite quickly, so a "few drops" does nothing for the plant, what fixes it usually is letting it sit out for 30ish min in the air then reporting with corrected sterile soil. that method works best for me and if its early detection its almost 90% success for me, if its bad, its usually because the rot was already too far along and the plant tried to spend all its energy rooting itself above the anaerobic level of soil to get air. so long story short, hydro peroxide is useless.
I have an on going experment on containers for my tomatos and one plant in a container with poor drainages seemed to have root rot yesterday the whole plant looked like it was going to die , the plant is too big to pull up and root prune , I took a bamboo kbob stick and punched about 50 holes about 10" deep all around the root ball area so it could dry out then i poured about a 1/2 cup of peroxide around the stem then sprayed the leaves front and back with a no wilt cloning spray so the plant would not loose water in till new roots are made . over nite my Cherokee purple has come back to look normal ! This is not a recomendation of what to do but an observeation of what is working for me , BTW I did this as soon as I noticed my plant was all wilted , I did not wait .update : maybe i was just getting my hopes up , she is wilted bad after being in the sun . i have about 15 other plants and none seem to have this problem ,update: the drain holes in the container were pluged by roots from a near by tree , the plant looks like it will die , I dug around the root ball and added kitty litter because its clay that loves to take in water , I wish i would have though of it yesterday .update , the plant seemed a tiney bit better but , I dont know how long i can watch this poor plant suffer ,its driving me "nuts" i😢 might pull her out and add some fresh soil and transplant a new tomato plant in its place , It might have helped if i gave the plant shade during recovery and maybe enzimes , im afraid that even if it did recover it has had too much stress at this point , I dont need a sick plant in the garden , I dont want my other plants catching somthing from it .update : the plant seemed to recover some over nite , i gave it some compost tea and now its recoverd and doing very good ! 🍅🍅🍅
oh my gosh, this is the exact kind of video i've been looking for!! i love learning more especially about the roots c: thank you for lending your brain, subscribed and am excited to learn more! i also have 2 questions if you wouldnt mind answering ! 1) so my pothos has root rot for sure and i've spent a lot of the day treating it, i've discovered that a lot of the roots have this brown/black film and i've been able to get it off and realize theres a very thin hairlike root still underneath! should i keep these when theyre white?? will they keep growing and become thicker again? 2) i've had to cut off quite a bit of the root system for my pothos.. this may be a dumb question, but what will the leaves response be? will some die off? or will growth just be stunted for a while?
I received birds nest sansevierias from my mom and after seeing the roots thought it either was something weird from her water or it had unhealthy roots. Glad to know that’s the only exception otherwise I’ll look for white roots.
Excellente video! I just change the soil and take off the dead root's (maybe i haven't seen all of them🤔) of my big pothos. But there was a little bit of the old soil on 2 or 3 place ont the roots, i wonder if it's really bad if there is juste à little bit of it🤔
Very helpful, and great to hear some actual science. My question is how do you treat your snake plants once you have cut off the bad roots and re-potted in a freer draining compost please? Should I keep it very dry, or just moist and hope it puts on some extra roots? Thanks.
SOS....I followed what some other plant youtubers have said, and poured hydrogen peroxide (in a 1:1 ratio) directly into the soil of my dieffenbachia camille. The plant was very healthy beforehand, but I suspected fungus gnats were laying eggs in its soil. When I poured it in, the soil puffed up like a baking brownie. Two full days later, it was still somewhat puffy (which surprised me because I thought it would re-compact once the H2O2 degraded), so I watered it with normal water to bring the soil down in case the air in the soil was why it was suddenly falling over. Now, its bottom leaves are turning yellow and dropping like crazy, and the stems are weak and drooping over. I don't think it's overwatering because I ensured the pot drained completely both times. I'm wondering whether the strong H2O2 just destroyed the good bacteria around the roots and now its struggling to hold the plant up and absorb nutrients. Should I just change the soil (and check for rotted roots), or is there anything else I could do? Thanks in advance for your help, I'm so glad I found this channel!
Holy moly I’m sorry to hear that. I’m thinking you most likely roasted off your root hairs which is integral to now only support but nitrogen uptake into the plant. The root hair acts similar to a magnet with a negative charge that attracts the nitrogen molecules. The yellow leaves is most likely due to lack of nitrogen especially if we are talking about yellowing leaves starting at the bottom and moving upwards. The hydrogen peroxide has, most likely rendered your soil “dead” biologically speaking as well so a repot is incredibly important as well. There is not much your can do to fix the issue other then reporting and removing the yellowing leaves as they appear. If you’re noticing the yellowing is getting worse and worse you may want to consider a rehab setup with a grow light and a warm space just to stimulate new root and shoot growth before there is nothing left. The other option (depending on how large the plant is) would be to remove some foliage, currently you have an imbalance between root mass and above ground biomass. Meaning your root mass is not large enough to nourish/contribute to photosynthesis/respiration in the volume you require. For fungus gnats in the future just use this stuff 🙂ua-cam.com/video/ZsfFt0udleA/v-deo.html
@@GardeningInCanada Omg a life saver, thank you for such a thorough reply, it's so helpful to learn about the science behind everything! I'll take your advice and repot it, remove the yellow leaves, and put it in a brighter location immediately. I had stopped fertilizing for winter, but do you think I should put some diluted liquid fertilizer in the water I use after I repot to give it a nutrient boost? Or would that just burn the stressed roots further?
We've had damping off, more often than anything else, along with vine borers and all sorts of creatures eating the leaves. You showed strawberry, there is something called dry rot or charcoal rot, which does it's thing in dry conditions, making it a lot more tricky. Last year the pepper plant was dormant and i had to pour out all the water, but slowly it put out leaves and needed more water again. That canadian air mass that went half way through mexico gave us optimal conditions for growing moss, but tomorrow should be a lot less like a Dennis Quaid movie than the past few days~
Yea that strawberry rot is in the same family as the “root rot” family. It sucks that the solution isn’t just simply stop watering all the time 😭. Pests ALWAYS need to ruin the harvest 🦠.
The kale got turned into lace, it looks pretty, but it's hardly food now. Maybe place it over a shirt and spray bleach through the kale to make the pattern~
I have my plants in clear nursery pots inside cover pots. Occasionally i notice a root which has grown through the drain holes develops a black end. I don't think I'm overwatering and i tip the pot and allow it to drain before putting it back in the cover pot. Is this root rot and should i be concerned, am i doing something wrong? I have trimmed them when i see it, and nothing has died yet. Thanks
Hi everyone…I There’s a cluster of sweet gum trees in my backyard and I discovered some root rot in one of the lateral roots about 25 feet from the nearest trunk. I built a raised bed in that area and suspect the rot occurred from over watering and fertilizers. The soils is clay a foot under the surface whic
Thanks for teaching us the science of root rot! I have a question about other youtube plant advice on not to water plants until they pass the Taco Test, where you wait to water until you can bend leaves that are normally firm(like hoya carnosas) in about half like a taco. From this video you mentioned letting the the soil dry completely might be hurting them if they go dormant and suddenly get water, is the taco test actually a sign of a plant going dormant and I should water earlier? Thanks.
Yea so the taco test is actually a test to see how close to permanent wilting point you are. You want to the plant to be stress free if possible. I would only wait until the soil doesn’t feel like there is moisture present
I have a Hoya Sunrise that never grew or changed in any way. Sprayed for Flat Mites and use PureCrop one on plants. This plant had some stiff leaves, no droop, no change in the leaves and no growth. Almost like she was frozen in time. Never changed in any way. All other plants are growing like crazy. Finally unpotted her and cleaned the roots and put the whole plant in Fluval. I am wondering what could cause this.😮😮😮
This video helped me so much! Thank you! It has so much information. I'm currently dealing with those pathogens and harmful fungi, as well as fungus gnats with my houseplants. I sometimes do quite overwater my plants and I've been trying my best not to, but recently, with the arrival of winter, the humidity in the air has gone from a summer dry to a winter wet air, causing many fungi to rise from the soil. My tropical hibiscus is planted in a Terracotta pot, and recently the pot started getting all white and smells like mold and humid terracotta but I'm not sure what it might be. I planted it on a terracotta pot just to prevent overwatering and now it got all moldy 😂. Would I need to bleach the pot; let it soak in bleach or repot the plant? As a matter of soil I sometimes get the white mold on the surface, but the plant doesn't show any signs of root rot neither smells like methane gas. Do you know what I should do? Also, I propagated some Rose cuttings in a cut water jug, with no drainage hole and have been watering only with the moisture thing that you water the seedlings with, very lightly. As the jug is transparent, I can see some white splotchs, I'm not sure if it could be mold, as it is very deep in the soil, or fungi. I'm afraid it might reach the roots, but as the cutting is still developing its first leaves, I'm concerned to repot and disturb the root system. What do you think? Again, thank you, now my babies will be better taken care of
Awesome I’m so happy to hear that let me know how it goes. You could bleach the pot to be safe but just make sure it’s rinsed and dried well before reporting.
Hi, I always say gardeners they put too much love on the plant they worry too much, for me plants need to be plants if you care too much you start over feeding and over watering. I live in Buffalo I grow all year around indoors my oranges and lemon they are picky plants like my kids, my banana tree did suffer from root rot because I left the plant outside too long. I replant and did a epsom salt bath soaked , new soil and in a month she was happy again and dancing all over I keep it indoors now because is 19 deg out. :)
hi, I was wondering if you have a video on fertilizers (homemade) with food that we don't eat like coffee beans, potato skins, etc.? I live in Montréal, Canada. I want to try out with that kind of fertilizers. Also, I was wondering if there's a name for like desert kind of plant or plants that doesn't need that much watering. I often forget plants and I don't want to have plants to kill them, they are so pretty, so I was thinking of plants that don't need too much watering. thanks for your video 👍
Root rot is the inability of roots to take on oxygen. Poke a hole or two in the soil near the center of the plant base or around it , two or three. It’ll introduce air to the bottom of the base and far enough to reach the roots. Should help. Logically speaking that’ll help dry out the excess and introduce some outside atmosphere closer to roots. I used a circular stick, half inch in diameter. I got down to almost a foot down when I pushed the stick down near the plant, small tree. Fingers crossed.
Your content is amazing! I’ve learned so much from your channel, basically everything I’ve been doing was not good for my plants 😰🫣 now I know why a lot of them didn’t survive… Thank you so much 🙏🏽
What do we need to look for after cleaning all the rot and repotting? I mean how do we know that the rot has stopped before it's too late? Keep checking the roots? 😥☹
Wow! This video is AWESOME!!! Thank you. I appreciate you keeping it real and giving great mix of science based well explained with practical explanations and tips! This answered so many questions. I do have one question- is it possible to have root rot with no pathogens or does the rot provide the conditions for the pathogen to grow (I’m thinking the latter is true?)
Also, I understand now how the moisture level can get too high even being on a schedule and particularly- my challenge is giving a little extra water if I’ve waited a few extra days and the plant is really dry. No I understand that it’s not I could practice! And grow begonias and have all the classic symptoms you’ve described but I haven’t checked the soil for outer but I will do that
I absolutely did find your video extremely helpful, so in depth with a wealth of great information! I'm now a new subscriber and off to help my dumb Cane plant 🪴from root rot! I'm in Canada too zone 3 or 4, will look forward to your other videos 😃🍃🌿
What would cause and entire garden bed and all the plants in it (almost) to get lower leaves turning yellow. The transplants are all 2 weeks in the ground. They’re in in full sun (sun hits around 10:30, getting sun through 3 o’clock till sundown) in this bed there are peppers eggplant cucurbits and beans. The soil is flipped sod (grass side facing down) with a layer of builders paper over it to discourage weed/grass growth (builders paper is like a brown paper bag) then it has a 4-12 inches (the sod chunks weren’t level when I layed on the soil I brought in) of 2:3 compost/top soil. I know some of the sod chunks are closer to the surface than I would like, and the decomposing grass can create ammonia?, definitely something that robs away nitrogen but last year I did flipped sod and planted in it right Away yet I didn’t see this. Continuing on, the soil I brought in has a lot of organic matter but is very heavy when wet (but crumbly AMD light when dry) The native soil which wasn’t tilled is heavy clay/silt, I don’t know if the transplant roots are are hitting the native soil and losing nitrogen bc of the deficiency in it or the decomposing chunks of sod in some planks? I fertilized with a miracle grow 21-18-18 diluted a little bit liquid feed and see no difference (I know yellow leaves usually don’t reverse but some plants are still getting more yellow) I don’t think it’s a disease bc it’s so many diff varieties of plants all started at diff times but all transplanted around the same time. Even the transplants from the store are starting to show signs of yellow lower leaves albeit at a lower rate than my other plants. Sorry this is long, my question I guess is could anybody surmise what could possibly be the problem. Plants that are being affected range from calendula flowers, all types of hot and sweet peppers, black beauty eggplant, pumpkins, the tomatoes in the bed do not seem to be as affected, and beans. There are also a lot of pest pressure on that side of the lawn where this garden is as opposed to my other garden which gets less sun and is up on the hill. I was thinking maybe it could be overwatering because the water drains down the hill into this flatlands area making it more susceptible to runoff so I water it a lot less and use a meter to gauge when the soil is dry. I am going to finish listening to this video to see if I can glean any insight as to what’s going on I might dig up a pepper plant to check the roots as I don’t want to lose the other 25 pepper plants that I have that are dealing with this and the other plants. If anybody has any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this I would greatly appreciate it
One of my peppers got root rot and then the stem started to turn brown and the outside layer started to peel of. If it is the ph in the soil, how does it go all the way to the stem and up? Is it because the water is stuck inside the stem because the leaves aren’t letting transpiration causing rot?
Ke Le hahaha just trying to make sure you’re paying attention 🙄. Honestly Ke Le you made my day SO MUCH better I had a troll on my succulents video basically calling me an idiot and was pretty upset about it . You honestly came to the rescue with your love girl!
@@GardeningInCanada Serendipity. So glad my timing was fortunate. I don't have a very thick skin, so although I know that trolls are miserable people, and their hate is about them - not me (and not you!) - it would still hurt. But I wouldn't answer the troll, it's what they want - to know they "got" you. I'd block the jerks, delete their comments, take a few deep breaths of fresh air outside, hug my animals, and walk on. You are educated and knowledgeable. You use those attributes to help people. You absolutely ROCK.
@@GardeningInCanada don’t let the haters get u down. You are the only soil scientist that matters. Think of them as fungal gnats, just a bother that u get rid of and forget about. It’s easy for ppl to hate when their online but would they say the same in person. Probably not because only cowards bully online! C’mon honey ur a redhead if anyone can take on bullies it’s us!
I have 38 % H2O2 so I mix it 38 water to 1 H2O2. I have many plants in a hydro culture so they have sat in water for years. I flush and remix the Part 1 and Part 2 of my organic fertilizer. I remove the strainer and flush and then soak in the 1% solution and swish for 2 or 5 minutes - then I do a total flush with water that has Cl gassed out...new mix of solution and Bobs your uncle and fanny is your aunt... ( what ever that means hahah ).
Awesome video. I recently let my scindapsus exotica dry out for too long and after watering it I noticed one of my stems dried up and died. I pulled it out to check it’s roots and they were completely healthy. Might this have happened because it started going dormant?
After listening to this video, I'm thinking that I should not cover my containers after pulling my veggie plants at end of season. They still have soil in them, and I imagine life is still happening in the soil. Also, earlier in the season I had a half-bag of potting soil that got wet inside. When I went to use it later to fill another container, I smelled "sewage". It didn't smell that way when I first opened the bag and used the first half. I was afraid to use it, so I just dumped it at the back fence. Thoughts?
Yea so it probably caused a VERY anaerobic environment. That means a lot of the microbes have died off resulting in that smell. The soil isn’t “garbage” but I would suggest utilizing it in a garden bed or mix it in with soil that’s on the newer side to allow some of the life to regain a hold.
I’m doing some container gardening mainly peppers and tomatoes and I usually keep them outside. I use a miracle grow moisture control potting mix that has coco coir. And it’s rained throughout the night for 2 days straight. It was followed up by 52 degree nights so I brought my plants inside during the night. I recently transferred the plants from the nursery before this so they are pretty new. I’ve noticed that since the weather during the day has been in the fifties the soil has been pretty wet and cold the past 4-5 days. Is there risk of root rot and if so what can I do to help dry up the soil quicker so they don’t get shocked or damaged? I did not add perlite to the soil mix so don’t think it’s as well draining as I’ve wanted it to be : ( Any advice?
Hello. Can you please explain to me one of life's most confusing phenomenons? If root rot happens because water suffocates the roots, how come plants grown in a fish aqurium stuck in 3 inch substrate never suffocate the roots? In fact my lucky bamboo is thriving. My second question is, if roots needs oxygen from the air, how come outdoor trees do not get root rot as they grow deep in the earth? I assume there is no oxygen down there.
So I seem to be either cursed, and or just the worst plant mom. I get budget plants and they usually come overwatered from the store. Emergency repotting brought me sometimes plant shock, even in a Jade. I repot and it seems if the healthy roots just stop drinking. Always thinking wtf I didn't water even that much. Mold on soil, dunno if good or bad one but deffo like no water usage. I just sped up rapid decay with repotting. Weirdest case was a young monstera that did bad in its original pot. I took away the soil to see that its roots were too tiny for the pot and by then also partially mush. Ok Off to water, after hydro soak. Did meh-ok. Then, since I thought water = rot, I put the ste,s with those sick roots into leca with some water. the monstera roots grew a pelt and it looked like decay. Sorry for this randomness. I'm on the verge of giving up my plant parenthood. It's such a mess. Thanks for reading and of course for this video
Sometimes the stuff in stores is actually just cuttings. And unfortunately this is becoming more and more common with the high demands. If you get them and they already are rootless I’d be treating them like cuttings rather then plants if that makes sense
When the plant has been underwatered and dried out enough that it has gone into dormancy and not taking up water, how do you wake it up again? Especially during winter?
yo darling... i gotta problem... root rot is wild with avocados in clay soil... i'm starting to mix clay with good organic matter, sandy soil just to give some air so that the avocado roots can breathe... what you recommend for phytophora cinamonni... like a copper product or like a garden fos ... a lot people say use monterrey garden phos... good product for that...
New avocado tree root rot? We got a ton of rain. It’s / years old and was doing great. Rains came. Leaves wilted and fell. The stick remaining is greenish…. Rains are gone now - but tree looks bad - haaalp
hello i have a mango and avocado nursery , we have more than 1000 trees in pots of 25,50 and 100L and we always discovers a new cases of root rot and dieback. the seedlings grow organic but recently we were forced to use chemical pestcides to stop this, what is you tips to stop the desease without chimicals? thanks
It is going to come down to the soil type you are in. But if you can add air to the system it is the best. Using a broad fork for example can be a major help.
This was a very informative video. No need to apologize for the length when you actually went above & beyond with all the facts, tips & tricks.. Thank you so much! God Bless you.
Thank you so much that means the world to me.
Best video on root rot here on yt, hands down. *Come on algorithms, push this out!*
Thanks so much I truly appreciate that
I’ve smelled soil all the time. I love the smell of fresh soil. Such a difference between rotting soil
3:07 "Never been possessed before. Not great at Latin." 🤣🤣🤣 I died!!!
CLEAR POTS are a f ing GAME CHANGER! Since making the switch I’ve had almost NO signs of over/under watering! I moved a ton to clear and now I’m working through them all. I’m so glad you mentioned this because I never hear anyone talking about it and I’ve even considered a video or something because of how beneficial it is. I feel like people need to know! I also have a super high tech🤣🤷🏻♀️ “moisture meter” method(more critical when not in clear pots) of putting a chopstick in the soil of my most finicky plants(micholitziana, I’m looking at you!), I walk around lifting pots and pull it up checking the moisture at the bottom of the pot. Easier than my finger all the way to the bottom and more accurate than a moisture meter imo ✌🏼
Btw, you are brilliant!
I love them 😂
I like to use water/juice jugs/bottles and cups/soup containers from take out and create drainage with a soldering iron. Also, I use the leca I purchased and did not enjoy for semi hydro as the base of all my potted plants like your pool noodles. I know people say that “rocks” are pointless in the bottom of a pot for drainage and that it can’t change the perched water table or whatever(I’m not smart like you are with the science part) but I know that a leca layer helps with aerating the bottom of the soil which then dries much more evenly
Love that!
Your videos keep challenging everything I thought I knew about plant raising (from the collective knowledge of the internet). Thank you for bringing the perspective of an actual soil scientist into this platform!
I've had root rot before on an aloe vera, but thankfully those things just REFUSE to die so I was able to just cut out the whole bottom part and root it again.
Haha they are pretty darn tough
I love a person who is willing to take the time to check her notes. I believe that's proof of an intelligent researcher and respectful teacher/mentor. So thanks for that.
🥰 and I appreciate you Ke Le! You’re one of my absolute favourite people in the crew. Your relentlessly supportive and one of the reasons I keep coming back week after week. I HONESTLY MEAN IT!
I loved your video. It was very useful. I was able to understand better my plants. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
I love smelling my soils. Soil/repotting and mixing soils together trying to make a healthy soil is my favorite part of Gardning idk y. But as soon as i caught the gardening/plant bug that part and process always was the funnest and most satisfying to me.
Hands down the most helpful video I've ever seen on root rot!! I've struggled so much and done so many rescues and chop-&-props. I saved an orchid that was rotting even though I had bark (now I know it was likely drying out way too much) by using some sphagnum moss. But I can't just grow all my plants in moss! (Too bad cuz I'm losing a beautiful gardenia that I overwatered in the Phoenix heat - I was really thinking all the brown leaves were the hot dry air or salts in the hard water but the soil isn't drying out enough compared to before. It's so big, I'm not sure if I can save it.. 😭
But between this and your video on perched water tables, I hope I can greatly reduce my losses to root rot in the future!🤞🏻
Awe! thank you i appreciate that
This was a very educational video, I’m a new plant parent so I’m still in helicopter mode. Thankfully, my mother took the time to educate me about overwatering and this video has fleshed out my knowledge.
...also, am I the only who who eyed all her plants suspiciously after this video? No? Just me.
EDIT: I forgot to ask, about your final point: if you didn’t water your plant for a long time, how do you safely water it in order to prevent root rot?
Gradually over time. So you’ll want to water just enough to loosen the soil snd leave it a few days. Then go back again and water
@@GardeningInCanada 👍 thank you! I have a couple of plants I’m rescuing from my friend so I’m probably going to have to deal with this 🥲 I want the challenge but hopefully I don’t kill them.
I’m sure you’ll do great!
@@GardeningInCanada restarting watering, bottom water or top? Wait for it to dry out again before doing a full watering?
Once again, I search for an answer to my question and there you are.
I had a lovely Bougainvillea that was showing signs of root rot. I read somewhere that i needed to toss the plant and solarize the bed. I did this the other day, but it did seem like killing off everything in the soil was a bit drastic AND I hated the idea of losing that bed right before the growing season. I did toss the vine-it's roots were orange, and tossed a lot of the soil.
I can see now that my bed was tilted so the water crowded into the corner with the vine.
I think I'll just pull up that horrible plastic, fix the angle of the bed and put in better dirt.
Thanks once again.
That’s really drastic wowzers
I think you’re plan is a lot better
If people can't afford new soil is there a way to treat existing soil, thank you so much for all valuable tips you can provide to safe our plants
I have done a video on that actually! but for root rot just allow it to get some air
Once again, real information based on science. A local plant page I belong to is constantly recommending watering with hydrogen peroxide every couple of waterings for pest control and root health because a big name plant-tuber said so. To the point of attacking others that caution against it. Your content is interesting and informative, please stick around and keep producing!
Ah don’t do that 😥 microbes are so important to nutrient cycling, inorganic fertilizer doesn’t even work without microbes.
@@GardeningInCanada Yeah, internet myths need to be broken regarding houseplant care. I don't know if you've done a video on this or not, I'll have to search. Things being promoted such as pasta water for your plants, brewed tea, potato starch, egg shells, banana peels, coffee grounds, hydrogen peroxide in soil (all for indoor houseplants) Will Creed, the guy behind Horticultural Help, said compost wasn't a good idea to add to indoor houseplants because of the lure of bugs (I'm not a scientist, but this seems logical). I do compost in my garden, but I stick to my pretty boring regimen with my houseplants (although for transparency, I was recently "influenced" to start adding worm castings--which I already mentioned to you on a different video)
Haven’t done the tea or pasta water but those are on the list! And the compost claim for bugs is true if it’s not a hot compost, hot compost does a pretty good job of killing off any eggs
Thank you Kelly Lewis so happy to know I’m not the only one!
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Thank you so much for this informative video, I appreciate how in-depth this was. Your puppy is so adorable! 😍 On a side note on root colors, carnivorous plants have black roots. I had no idea about that until I delved into the care of Nepenthes.
Good job on the root rot explanation! I have a dracaena that is 40 years old, I suspect it is developing root rot. So I will act on your advice although it’s a major undertaking to move the pot & trunks. I suspect the old pot is harboring the methane producing fungi. I’ll repot how it fares down the line. Thanks again for your efforts to share your knowledge with us!
That’s so old! Wow amazing
Thank you for your scientifically fact based videos ❤️ I recently managed to get rid of root rot on M. Adansonii and Raphidophora thanks to the info from this video.
What I did: I sterilized EVERYTHING (except roots) with chlorine, cut off infected roots and put them in white moss (sphagnum) that I just picked in the forest. Hydrogen peroxide is quite expensive and unavailable in my country, so I just checked the roots every few days and removed any new bad parts. This worked very well. I also sterilized the infected soil in the oven (to 96°C), when cooled I mixed in a few scoopes of fresh new soil and let it sit in a bag for one month in my basement to hopefully allow the micro organisms from the new soil to reproduce and colonize it. I planted the first adansonii back in soil 2,5 weeks ago and it's doing fine so far. I'm nervously hoping I managed to kill all the rot spores in the oven (!!).
I also found that the leafs of monstera adansonii instantly turned yellow as soon as it had any rot, while the raphidophora didn't show any sign at all. I ended up cutting about 80% of the raphi's roots and it has only dropped 2 leafs in 1,5 months! haha
Congrats that’s awesome! Huge accomplishment honestly
I like Bronx!
Little mass extinction was hilarious, but I'm also in conservation biology so I probably geeked out on that harder than most people.
🤣😂🤣 love that
"Never been possessed before..." ROFLMAO!!!! 😂🤣
🤣 I say that because I had a great aunt that’s was a nun and used to joke I was. 🙄
@@GardeningInCanada Too bad you couldn't make your eyes turn red and spin your head around, all the while speaking in tongues and projectile vomiting. You know, like Linda Blair in "The Exorcist".
Ke Le oh man I love Halloween... I wish I had that talent I would win EVERY costume contest this year
@@GardeningInCanada 😂🤣
I grow quite a few rot-prone tropical succulents and xerophytes in a temperate climate and use large chunks of broken styrofoam boxes in the bottom of the pots, it seems to work well.
One thing with many of the tropical succulents tho, is that many are prone to rot if watered at low temperatures, most of these plants are from seasonally dry climates
Thinking more about this and your video I wonder if there are other explanations for why some of these plants can rot so easily if exposed to cold and wet conditions. Is it the genetics and temperature tolerance of the plants, or more prone to pathogens at lower temps? or something else? You got me thinking
You are fabulous! Real science, not just throwing things randomly at a problem and forgetting which thing worked. What a breath of fresh air!
My question is about humidifiers. You mention that root rot is pathogen based - so I'm guessing cool mist humidifiers can be pathogen factories..? I'm not sure if warm mist heats enough to sterilize the water - thoughts?
Also, I started using clear orchid nursery pots for some of my aroids who get a very chunky mix of coir, activated charcoal, coco chips, leca balls, perlite, pumice, and some worm castings. I'm seeing some mold or fungus near the holes, even with this chunky mix. Humidifier? I do sterilize everything (pots to implements) with rubbing alcohol.
Thanks again for your videos and for taking the time to respond! You're such a blessing to the plant community and I'm so glad to have found you!
Thank you. I learned quite a bit.
So informative. Thos has me feeling confident that I can handle my situation with knowledge. And currently replanting almost everything, cuz they are due for it. Great knowledge
You can do it!
Absolutely STELLAR; thank you! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you!!!
Makes great sense, Like you usually know, Thanks
A very useful video for gardeners
Thanks! Glad to hear you enjoyed it!
WOW loved this .Thanks from Ontario Canada 😊😊😊
I am glad ❤️
We pronounce it as Phy - thph- ra in Australia. At least in the conservation world, other groups might pronounce it differently
Healthy roots smell sooo good!!
Outstanding! Thank you for the detailed lesson and understanding. So helpful.
glad you enjoyed!
You got me at root rot as a result of pathogens. Thank you for the wonderful explanations. Now I'm heading out to snip the bottoms of my plants. 😊
Glad it was helpful! Feel free to share
The underutilization of water has been my exact observations as well. Plants that get enough light and are grown in the right conditions will literally never ever have rot. Even plants that are considered easy to rot or water sensitive. I grow mexican cacti in their native soil types, which are heavy clay loam soils that hold a lot of water, take long to dry, and become mud when wet and rock hard when dry and mine never rot. This is actually a movement from Italy called 'wild growing' - its goal is to replicate the natural conditions of cacti and the results are amazing. All the problems people usually have cultivating cacti just disappear.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the microbes dying off and an Acidic environment being created aren't the only factors at play here. Roots also need oxygen and they also need to be able to release CO2. I've read various research that stated that if roots can't get oxygen from outside, they will start taking oxygen that is produced from internal processes and that in turn takes resources, energy, oxygen, etc away from other areas that need it. Additionally, not being able to release CO2 causes a CO2 buildup in the plant, especially in the petioles, and that is specifically why leaves will wilt from the petiole despite being fully hydrated. It's also why the petiole turns black and eventually makes the leaves turn yellow/die/just fall off.
Also carnivorous plants have black/brown roots - I thought my VFT had root rot but it was very happy (wild animals had stomped on it)
Thank you so much for such an educational video! I'm just starting my plant journey and trying to get myself as informed as I can be. I recently repotted a plant because the substrate was nothing but compacted soil, and I noticed the roots (and plants) had symptoms as the ones you mentioned, and this video helped me a lot to fix the issue!
I must admit I'm a tad confused though, and would appreciate your insight on this matter: if the rot is happening due to the waterlogging, would that anaeorobic environment, that "mass extinction" include the killing off the pathogens and spores? Or would they actually thrive on it?
Glad it helped!
Great video!!! Thank you, you explained so well.
I’m happy it as helpful! ❤️
i saw other methods of "fixing" rot with hydro peroxide.. but like you said before, it basically turns to water the minute it turns to gas. which i believe is quite quickly, so a "few drops" does nothing for the plant, what fixes it usually is letting it sit out for 30ish min in the air then reporting with corrected sterile soil. that method works best for me and if its early detection its almost 90% success for me, if its bad, its usually because the rot was already too far along and the plant tried to spend all its energy rooting itself above the anaerobic level of soil to get air. so long story short, hydro peroxide is useless.
I have an on going experment on containers for my tomatos and one plant in a container with poor drainages seemed to have root rot yesterday the whole plant looked like it was going to die , the plant is too big to pull up and root prune , I took a bamboo kbob stick and punched about 50 holes about 10" deep all around the root ball area so it could dry out then i poured about a 1/2 cup of peroxide around the stem then sprayed the leaves front and back with a no wilt cloning spray so the plant would not loose water in till new roots are made . over nite my Cherokee purple has come back to look normal ! This is not a recomendation of what to do but an observeation of what is working for me , BTW I did this as soon as I noticed my plant was all wilted , I did not wait .update : maybe i was just getting my hopes up , she is wilted bad after being in the sun . i have about 15 other plants and none seem to have this problem ,update: the drain holes in the container were pluged by roots from a near by tree , the plant looks like it will die , I dug around the root ball and added kitty litter because its clay that loves to take in water , I wish i would have though of it yesterday .update , the plant seemed a tiney bit better but , I dont know how long i can watch this poor plant suffer ,its driving me "nuts" i😢 might pull her out and add some fresh soil and transplant a new tomato plant in its place , It might have helped if i gave the plant shade during recovery and maybe enzimes , im afraid that even if it did recover it has had too much stress at this point , I dont need a sick plant in the garden , I dont want my other plants catching somthing from it .update : the plant seemed to recover some over nite , i gave it some compost tea and now its recoverd and doing very good ! 🍅🍅🍅
oh my gosh, this is the exact kind of video i've been looking for!! i love learning more especially about the roots c: thank you for lending your brain, subscribed and am excited to learn more! i also have 2 questions if you wouldnt mind answering !
1) so my pothos has root rot for sure and i've spent a lot of the day treating it, i've discovered that a lot of the roots have this brown/black film and i've been able to get it off and realize theres a very thin hairlike root still underneath! should i keep these when theyre white?? will they keep growing and become thicker again?
2) i've had to cut off quite a bit of the root system for my pothos.. this may be a dumb question, but what will the leaves response be? will some die off? or will growth just be stunted for a while?
I received birds nest sansevierias from my mom and after seeing the roots thought it either was something weird from her water or it had unhealthy roots. Glad to know that’s the only exception otherwise I’ll look for white roots.
That’s awesome!
Thank you for the science no Hokey Pokey thank you
Excellente video! I just change the soil and take off the dead root's (maybe i haven't seen all of them🤔) of my big pothos. But there was a little bit of the old soil on 2 or 3 place ont the roots, i wonder if it's really bad if there is juste à little bit of it🤔
I don’t think that’s a really bad thing at all.
Very helpful. Thank you.
awesome glad you enjoyed
Thanks 😊
SO helpful 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
Glad you found it helpful ❤️
Very helpful, and great to hear some actual science. My question is how do you treat your snake plants once you have cut off the bad roots and re-potted in a freer draining compost please? Should I keep it very dry, or just moist and hope it puts on some extra roots? Thanks.
I would keep it dry for a couple weeks and then resume watering.
Thank you.
Fi-top-Thor-a! Thanks 🙏
Very helpful video, thank you for sharing.
You are so welcome!
I loved this video! Very informative! About the brown edges on plants - do you know the most common reasons for this in monstera albos?
SOS....I followed what some other plant youtubers have said, and poured hydrogen peroxide (in a 1:1 ratio) directly into the soil of my dieffenbachia camille. The plant was very healthy beforehand, but I suspected fungus gnats were laying eggs in its soil. When I poured it in, the soil puffed up like a baking brownie. Two full days later, it was still somewhat puffy (which surprised me because I thought it would re-compact once the H2O2 degraded), so I watered it with normal water to bring the soil down in case the air in the soil was why it was suddenly falling over. Now, its bottom leaves are turning yellow and dropping like crazy, and the stems are weak and drooping over. I don't think it's overwatering because I ensured the pot drained completely both times. I'm wondering whether the strong H2O2 just destroyed the good bacteria around the roots and now its struggling to hold the plant up and absorb nutrients. Should I just change the soil (and check for rotted roots), or is there anything else I could do? Thanks in advance for your help, I'm so glad I found this channel!
Holy moly I’m sorry to hear that. I’m thinking you most likely roasted off your root hairs which is integral to now only support but nitrogen uptake into the plant. The root hair acts similar to a magnet with a negative charge that attracts the nitrogen molecules. The yellow leaves is most likely due to lack of nitrogen especially if we are talking about yellowing leaves starting at the bottom and moving upwards. The hydrogen peroxide has, most likely rendered your soil “dead” biologically speaking as well so a repot is incredibly important as well.
There is not much your can do to fix the issue other then reporting and removing the yellowing leaves as they appear. If you’re noticing the yellowing is getting worse and worse you may want to consider a rehab setup with a grow light and a warm space just to stimulate new root and shoot growth before there is nothing left. The other option (depending on how large the plant is) would be to remove some foliage, currently you have an imbalance between root mass and above ground biomass. Meaning your root mass is not large enough to nourish/contribute to photosynthesis/respiration in the volume you require.
For fungus gnats in the future just use this stuff 🙂ua-cam.com/video/ZsfFt0udleA/v-deo.html
@@GardeningInCanada Omg a life saver, thank you for such a thorough reply, it's so helpful to learn about the science behind everything! I'll take your advice and repot it, remove the yellow leaves, and put it in a brighter location immediately. I had stopped fertilizing for winter, but do you think I should put some diluted liquid fertilizer in the water I use after I repot to give it a nutrient boost? Or would that just burn the stressed roots further?
A diluted version wouldn’t hurt anything no. Just do a half strength formula.
My Alocacias come back from total stump status time and time again. As long as the stump is healthy, they always come back 🥲
Yea that’s normal actually.
We've had damping off, more often than anything else, along with vine borers and all sorts of creatures eating the leaves. You showed strawberry, there is something called dry rot or charcoal rot, which does it's thing in dry conditions, making it a lot more tricky. Last year the pepper plant was dormant and i had to pour out all the water, but slowly it put out leaves and needed more water again. That canadian air mass that went half way through mexico gave us optimal conditions for growing moss, but tomorrow should be a lot less like a Dennis Quaid movie than the past few days~
Yea that strawberry rot is in the same family as the “root rot” family. It sucks that the solution isn’t just simply stop watering all the time 😭. Pests ALWAYS need to ruin the harvest 🦠.
The kale got turned into lace, it looks pretty, but it's hardly food now. Maybe place it over a shirt and spray bleach through the kale to make the pattern~
AHAHAHAHAHA I love that! Please do
GREAT VIDEO LADY
Thanks!
I have my plants in clear nursery pots inside cover pots. Occasionally i notice a root which has grown through the drain holes develops a black end. I don't think I'm overwatering and i tip the pot and allow it to drain before putting it back in the cover pot. Is this root rot and should i be concerned, am i doing something wrong? I have trimmed them when i see it, and nothing has died yet. Thanks
Hi everyone…I
There’s a cluster of sweet gum trees in my backyard and I discovered some root rot in one of the lateral roots about 25 feet from the nearest trunk. I built a raised bed in that area and suspect the rot occurred from over watering and fertilizers. The soils is clay a foot under the surface whic
Yessss root rot plants 😮
This was so great. Thanks for sharing
I’m glad you enjoyed it. That means a lot to me
Thanks for teaching us the science of root rot! I have a question about other youtube plant advice on not to water plants until they pass the Taco Test, where you wait to water until you can bend leaves that are normally firm(like hoya carnosas) in about half like a taco. From this video you mentioned letting the the soil dry completely might be hurting them if they go dormant and suddenly get water, is the taco test actually a sign of a plant going dormant and I should water earlier? Thanks.
Yea so the taco test is actually a test to see how close to permanent wilting point you are. You want to the plant to be stress free if possible. I would only wait until the soil doesn’t feel like there is moisture present
@@GardeningInCanada Good to know!! Thank you for giving my plants a real chance of survival haha :)
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Awesome video (as always).
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Your videos are so great on root rot you are cute and funny thank you, is stem rot the same as root rot?
I have a Hoya Sunrise that never grew or changed in any way. Sprayed for Flat Mites and use PureCrop one on plants. This plant had some stiff leaves, no droop, no change in the leaves and no growth. Almost like she was frozen in time. Never changed in any way. All other plants are growing like crazy. Finally unpotted her and cleaned the roots and put the whole plant in Fluval. I am wondering what could cause this.😮😮😮
what about using hydrogen peroxide to sterilize shears / knife / scissors. glad i found your channel. answering questions i didn't know i had!
Yea absolutely! That’s works awesome
I appreciated this video! I'll be coming back to check out more from you! :)
Awesome! Glad it was helpful
This video helped me so much! Thank you! It has so much information.
I'm currently dealing with those pathogens and harmful fungi, as well as fungus gnats with my houseplants. I sometimes do quite overwater my plants and I've been trying my best not to, but recently, with the arrival of winter, the humidity in the air has gone from a summer dry to a winter wet air, causing many fungi to rise from the soil.
My tropical hibiscus is planted in a Terracotta pot, and recently the pot started getting all white and smells like mold and humid terracotta but I'm not sure what it might be. I planted it on a terracotta pot just to prevent overwatering and now it got all moldy 😂. Would I need to bleach the pot; let it soak in bleach or repot the plant? As a matter of soil I sometimes get the white mold on the surface, but the plant doesn't show any signs of root rot neither smells like methane gas. Do you know what I should do?
Also, I propagated some Rose cuttings in a cut water jug, with no drainage hole and have been watering only with the moisture thing that you water the seedlings with, very lightly. As the jug is transparent, I can see some white splotchs, I'm not sure if it could be mold, as it is very deep in the soil, or fungi. I'm afraid it might reach the roots, but as the cutting is still developing its first leaves, I'm concerned to repot and disturb the root system. What do you think?
Again, thank you, now my babies will be better taken care of
Awesome I’m so happy to hear that let me know how it goes. You could bleach the pot to be safe but just make sure it’s rinsed and dried well before reporting.
Did you mention repotting the plant, after snipping off roots? Maybe the soil composition is not draining enough?
Hi, I always say gardeners they put too much love on the plant they worry too much, for me plants need to be plants if you care too much you start over feeding and over watering. I live in Buffalo I grow all year around indoors my oranges and lemon they are picky plants like my kids, my banana tree did suffer from root rot because I left the plant outside too long. I replant and did a epsom salt bath soaked , new soil and in a month she was happy again and dancing all over I keep it indoors now because is 19 deg out. :)
That’s awesome!
Looks like I might have to replant my meyer lemon. Clear pot is genuis!!! Where can I find a 17 gallon clear pot?
Do you live near any farms? Ask for their old chemical drums and wash it out really well.
hi,
I was wondering if you have a video on fertilizers (homemade) with food that we don't eat like coffee beans, potato skins, etc.?
I live in Montréal, Canada. I want to try out with that kind of fertilizers. Also, I was wondering if there's a name for like desert kind of plant or plants that doesn't need that much watering. I often forget plants and I don't want to have plants to kill them, they are so pretty, so I was thinking of plants that don't need too much watering.
thanks for your video 👍
Root rot is the inability of roots to take on oxygen. Poke a hole or two in the soil near the center of the plant base or around it , two or three. It’ll introduce air to the bottom of the base and far enough to reach the roots. Should help. Logically speaking that’ll help dry out the excess and introduce some outside atmosphere closer to roots. I used a circular stick, half inch in diameter. I got down to almost a foot down when I pushed the stick down near the plant, small tree. Fingers crossed.
Where do you buy the large clear nursery pots? I can't find anything bigger than 6 - 7 inch. (I'm in Canada)
You’re not in Saskatchewan by chance are you 😂
@@GardeningInCanada No, I'm in BC. 😂
Your content is amazing! I’ve learned so much from your channel, basically everything I’ve been doing was not good for my plants 😰🫣 now I know why a lot of them didn’t survive… Thank you so much 🙏🏽
What do we need to look for after cleaning all the rot and repotting? I mean how do we know that the rot has stopped before it's too late? Keep checking the roots? 😥☹
if you keep it relatively dry for a bit it wont come back. its an anaerobic bacteria so it only service in the absence of oxygen.
But your show is awesome
Wow! This video is AWESOME!!! Thank you. I appreciate you keeping it real and giving great mix of science based well explained with practical explanations and tips! This answered so many questions. I do have one question- is it possible to have root rot with no pathogens or does the rot provide the conditions for the pathogen to grow (I’m thinking the latter is true?)
Also, I understand now how the moisture level can get too high even being on a schedule and particularly- my challenge is giving a little extra water if I’ve waited a few extra days and the plant is really dry. No I understand that it’s not I could practice! And grow begonias and have all the classic symptoms you’ve described but I haven’t checked the soil for outer but I will do that
the anaerobic environment is the conditions that cause the bacteria too grow
@@GardeningInCanada thank you!
I absolutely did find your video extremely helpful, so in depth with a wealth of great information! I'm now a new subscriber and off to help my dumb Cane plant 🪴from root rot! I'm in Canada too zone 3 or 4, will look forward to your other videos 😃🍃🌿
woohoo im glad
What would cause and entire garden bed and all the plants in it (almost) to get lower leaves turning yellow. The transplants are all 2 weeks in the ground. They’re in in full sun (sun hits around 10:30, getting sun through 3 o’clock till sundown) in this bed there are peppers eggplant cucurbits and beans. The soil is flipped sod (grass side facing down) with a layer of builders paper over it to discourage weed/grass growth (builders paper is like a brown paper bag) then it has a 4-12 inches (the sod chunks weren’t level when I layed on the soil I brought in) of 2:3 compost/top soil. I know some of the sod chunks are closer to the surface than I would like, and the decomposing grass can create ammonia?, definitely something that robs away nitrogen but last year I did flipped sod and planted in it right Away yet I didn’t see this.
Continuing on,
the soil I brought in has a lot of organic matter but is very heavy when wet (but crumbly AMD light when dry)
The native soil which wasn’t tilled is heavy clay/silt, I don’t know if the transplant roots are are hitting the native soil and losing nitrogen bc of the deficiency in it or the decomposing chunks of sod in some planks? I fertilized with a miracle grow 21-18-18 diluted a little bit liquid feed and see no difference (I know yellow leaves usually don’t reverse but some plants are still getting more yellow) I don’t think it’s a disease bc it’s so many diff varieties of plants all started at diff times but all transplanted around the same time. Even the transplants from the store are starting to show signs of yellow lower leaves albeit at a lower rate than my other plants.
Sorry this is long, my question I guess is could anybody surmise what could possibly be the problem. Plants that are being affected range from calendula flowers, all types of hot and sweet peppers, black beauty eggplant, pumpkins, the tomatoes in the bed do not seem to be as affected, and beans. There are also a lot of pest pressure on that side of the lawn where this garden is as opposed to my other garden which gets less sun and is up on the hill. I was thinking maybe it could be overwatering because the water drains down the hill into this flatlands area making it more susceptible to runoff so I water it a lot less and use a meter to gauge when the soil is dry. I am going to finish listening to this video to see if I can glean any insight as to what’s going on I might dig up a pepper plant to check the roots as I don’t want to lose the other 25 pepper plants that I have that are dealing with this and the other plants.
If anybody has any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this I would greatly appreciate it
Does it have any sort of smell from it?
Will put this information towards muh drugs, thx!
🤣😂
One of my peppers got root rot and then the stem started to turn brown and the outside layer started to peel of. If it is the ph in the soil, how does it go all the way to the stem and up? Is it because the water is stuck inside the stem because the leaves aren’t letting transpiration causing rot?
It’s the microbes working it’s way yo
"burnt the ever-livin' piss out of...." 😂🤣 yer killin me!
🤣😂 I’m going to consider stand up one day 🙄 I feel like you and my mom will be the only folks that will show up but still!
@@GardeningInCanada I'd be there! I think you're hilarious. Love how you sneak those little bombs in there....
Ke Le hahaha just trying to make sure you’re paying attention 🙄. Honestly Ke Le you made my day SO MUCH better I had a troll on my succulents video basically calling me an idiot and was pretty upset about it . You honestly came to the rescue with your love girl!
@@GardeningInCanada Serendipity. So glad my timing was fortunate. I don't have a very thick skin, so although I know that trolls are miserable people, and their hate is about them - not me (and not you!) - it would still hurt. But I wouldn't answer the troll, it's what they want - to know they "got" you. I'd block the jerks, delete their comments, take a few deep breaths of fresh air outside, hug my animals, and walk on. You are educated and knowledgeable. You use those attributes to help people. You absolutely ROCK.
@@GardeningInCanada don’t let the haters get u down. You are the only soil scientist that matters. Think of them as fungal gnats, just a bother that u get rid of and forget about. It’s easy for ppl to hate when their online but would they say the same in person. Probably not because only cowards bully online! C’mon honey ur a redhead if anyone can take on bullies it’s us!
I have 38 % H2O2 so I mix it 38 water to 1 H2O2. I have many plants in a hydro culture so they have sat in water for years. I flush and remix the Part 1 and Part 2 of my organic fertilizer. I remove the strainer and flush and then soak in the 1% solution and swish for 2 or 5 minutes - then I do a total flush with water that has Cl gassed out...new mix of solution and Bobs your uncle and fanny is your aunt... ( what ever that means hahah ).
Awesome video. I recently let my scindapsus exotica dry out for too long and after watering it I noticed one of my stems dried up and died. I pulled it out to check it’s roots and they were completely healthy. Might this have happened because it started going dormant?
Hey, cool video. Nice tats. If you were a plant, what plant would you be and why?
This is so informative. Thank you so much!
Will bleaching also sterilize the media so I can reuse it?
I am glad you enjoyed! I wouldn’t bother bleaching it. Just expose it to air
After listening to this video, I'm thinking that I should not cover my containers after pulling my veggie plants at end of season. They still have soil in them, and I imagine life is still happening in the soil.
Also, earlier in the season I had a half-bag of potting soil that got wet inside. When I went to use it later to fill another container, I smelled "sewage". It didn't smell that way when I first opened the bag and used the first half. I was afraid to use it, so I just dumped it at the back fence.
Thoughts?
Yea so it probably caused a VERY anaerobic environment. That means a lot of the microbes have died off resulting in that smell. The soil isn’t “garbage” but I would suggest utilizing it in a garden bed or mix it in with soil that’s on the newer side to allow some of the life to regain a hold.
Hi, new subs here. Very informative video. Thanks! Watching from Philippines.👍👍👍👍
Glad you enjoy it! That’s awesome
Amazing advise thank you! xxxx
Thank you for watching!
Cute
I’m doing some container gardening mainly peppers and tomatoes and I usually keep them outside. I use a miracle grow moisture control potting mix that has coco coir. And it’s rained throughout the night for 2 days straight. It was followed up by 52 degree nights so I brought my plants inside during the night. I recently transferred the plants from the nursery before this so they are pretty new.
I’ve noticed that since the weather during the day has been in the fifties the soil has been pretty wet and cold the past 4-5 days. Is there risk of root rot and if so what can I do to help dry up the soil quicker so they don’t get shocked or damaged? I did not add perlite to the soil mix so don’t think it’s as well draining as I’ve wanted it to be : ( Any advice?
Hello. Can you please explain to me one of life's most confusing phenomenons?
If root rot happens because water suffocates the roots, how come plants grown in a fish aqurium stuck in 3 inch substrate never suffocate the roots? In fact my lucky bamboo is thriving.
My second question is, if roots needs oxygen from the air, how come outdoor trees do not get root rot as they grow deep in the earth? I assume there is no oxygen down there.
I had never experienced root rot, my peace lily has. I've had athlete's foot long time ago though.
My seed starting mix smelled like Ammonia. Yup I knew I was done with those seeds.
Oh yea that not good that’s very anerobic soil then
I use hydrogen peroxide because I live in the tropics. Really helps the plants with water.
Hi does anyone know if root rot will live through a vermi composting process. Or is the soil tainted.
Sniffing the bottom of the pot dosent sound wierd. I sniff bottoms all the time 👌😂 ill see myself out
AHAHAHA
We can just wash out pots? Does it have to be soaked in bleach? I don’t use bleach or have it. I have isopropyl alcohol.
yup just let it dry
So I seem to be either cursed, and or just the worst plant mom. I get budget plants and they usually come overwatered from the store. Emergency repotting brought me sometimes plant shock, even in a Jade.
I repot and it seems if the healthy roots just stop drinking. Always thinking wtf I didn't water even that much. Mold on soil, dunno if good or bad one but deffo like no water usage. I just sped up rapid decay with repotting.
Weirdest case was a young monstera that did bad in its original pot. I took away the soil to see that its roots were too tiny for the pot and by then also partially mush. Ok Off to water, after hydro soak. Did meh-ok. Then, since I thought water = rot, I put the ste,s with those sick roots into leca with some water. the monstera roots grew a pelt and it looked like decay. Sorry for this randomness. I'm on the verge of giving up my plant parenthood. It's such a mess. Thanks for reading and of course for this video
Sometimes the stuff in stores is actually just cuttings. And unfortunately this is becoming more and more common with the high demands. If you get them and they already are rootless I’d be treating them like cuttings rather then plants if that makes sense
When the plant has been underwatered and dried out enough that it has gone into dormancy and not taking up water, how do you wake it up again? Especially during winter?
slow addition of water
yo darling... i gotta problem... root rot is wild with avocados in clay soil... i'm starting to mix clay with good organic matter, sandy soil just to give some air so that the avocado roots can breathe... what you recommend for phytophora cinamonni... like a copper product or like a garden fos ... a lot people say use monterrey garden phos... good product for that...
New avocado tree root rot? We got a ton of rain. It’s / years old and was doing great. Rains came. Leaves wilted and fell. The stick remaining is greenish….
Rains are gone now - but tree looks bad - haaalp
hello
i have a mango and avocado nursery , we have more than 1000 trees in pots of 25,50 and 100L and we always discovers a new cases of root rot and dieback.
the seedlings grow organic but recently we were forced to use chemical pestcides to stop this, what is you tips to stop the desease without chimicals?
thanks
It is going to come down to the soil type you are in. But if you can add air to the system it is the best. Using a broad fork for example can be a major help.