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| Howdy all! My friend's Plumies got inundated with saltwater after her home was flooded thanks to Hurricane Sandy. The usual advice has been to flush the pot with water as much as possible & let it dry out. Unfortunately she left them outside afterwards & they got frost damage to their leaves. I can't tell if they're still alive or not. The stems still feel nice & hard but the plants smell like seashells o_O. She's asked me to babysit them while her home undergoes repairs so I was wondering if any of you kind folks would have any advice to help me figure out what I should do for her Plumies at this stage? Would it be better to get fresh soil, clean out the pot (it's plastic), rinse the roots, & try to repot them now - or should I just wait things out & see if they recover? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| I think a good soil flush would be all you needed, but to be safe you could also bare root, rinse and repot. They should be ready to sleep for winter anyways. Im still a rookie so that may not be the best advice but its what i would do. Mike |
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- Posted by MissMudPuppy Long Island, NY 7 (My Page) on Mon, Nov 26, 12 at 14:12
| Thx Mike for your reply! Appreciate it! I'm still a rookie too lol. Have a great day :) ~ Angharand |
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- Posted by houstontexas123 z9a (My Page) on Mon, Nov 26, 12 at 15:16
| i'd repot with fresh potting mix. sea water is very salty. and since its cold, the plumies shouldn't be sitting in wet mix. |
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- Posted by loveplants2 8b Virginia Beach, (My Page) on Mon, Nov 26, 12 at 15:40
| I would agree to get them out of the salty mix and bareroot them in the chance of saving them.. ASAP... once washed from all of the salty soil, repot in a fast draining mix. I would even wait to water since you will have rinsed them pretty well as you are bare rooting them. Use a mild tempered water when rinsing. Time will tell if they will respond to the change in conditions. I would hope that they will since you are taking charge now.. Good Luck.. and thank you for your kind words.. : ) Please keep us posted.. Laura |
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- Posted by MissMudPuppy Long Island, NY 7 (My Page) on Mon, Nov 26, 12 at 18:29
| Thank you kindly dear Laura, especially considering all that you're going through right now. You are such a kind hearted soul - everyone on here has nothing but wonderful things to rave about you :). I will take my friend's Plumies out of their briny brew ASAP now & try to find enough of the ingredients to make a fast draining mix. I also hope they will make it because her Plumies are from a cutting she got from her Mother (who's passed on) over 30 yrs ago. Kindest regards, Angharand |
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- Posted by honeybunny2 Z9TX (My Page) on Mon, Nov 26, 12 at 20:55
| I just recently found out that if you add gypsum to my soil at the coast it removes sodium from the salty soil, and replaces it with calcium. It does not affect the soil ph or fertility. I can now grow plants that use to die because they could not tolerate the salty soil at the coast. You might want to add some to you yard this next spring. You just sprinkle it on the top of the soil and water it in. Barbra |
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- Posted by MissMudPuppy Long Island, NY 7 (My Page) on Tue, Nov 27, 12 at 8:38
| houstontexas123: Thank you for your response! My friend's Plumies are sitting in my room (70 degrees) next to my Plumies & Brugs so I'm hoping I can stave things off until I can find someone around here who's selling potting mix so I can do a repot. The soil is dried out completely (metered it & did the finger test) but I still don't want to let them overwinter in that soil. God knows what else got into it after it was flooded. I saw oil on the surface of the water in the canal & yards (!) & then learned the neighbor's oil tank flipped over & spilled out into the surrounding areas so that definitely gives me cause for concern. I think the best thing to do is repot ASAP & let nature take its course. honeybunny2: Wow, I didn't know that about adding gypsum to the soil! Thank you so much for the info! I'm definitely going to tell my friend to add that to her soil in spring. Thx again hun! Hope you are feeling better :)! |
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| Angharand, if you can't find potting soil, try mulch, just for keeping them over winter. After washing off the roots and cleaning the pots you can put mulch on the bottom of the pots, set the now-bare roots on top and add mulch over the top to keep the roots from drying out over winter. That way you don't need to try to make mix this time of year, and you shouldn't need to water the plants either as they'll be going dormant anyway. They'll probably just need to be propped up or staked. Good luck! |
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- Posted by MissMudPuppy Long Island, NY 7 (My Page) on Tue, Nov 27, 12 at 15:40
| Whew! Thank you for the heads up jandey! I was wondering what to do since I can't find their usual mix & this is my first time having to deal with something like this. Will let everyone know how they fare. ***UPDATE:*** |
This post was edited by MissMudPuppy on Tue, Dec 11, 12 at 15:41
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