Small catt rotting in s/h
 

It was a little add-on plant that I discovered while repotting a catt seeding. It had 3 healthy roots, but was very tiny, only 2 pbulbs. I rested it on top of the medium, but now the roots are black and have tiny white mold spores growing on them. I think the plant is a goner, but what did I do wrong? The green part looks okay, so I took it out of the medium and placed it on a dry surface. Dare I hope?

Whenever you repot a plant - whether into S/H culture or otherwise - the plant will need to grow new roots that are optimized for the new environment. The old roots may-, or may not do well in the new environment, depending upon just how different it is from the old one. Going to S/H from almost anything else is a significant change, so the existing roots will be less viable.

What that means is that you should move a plant into the new environment when it is just starting to grow new roots, so they can grow and support the plant before the old ones fade away.

I don't think it's a goner, I'm pretty sure it can be saved by using water culture. Rootless Catts do exceptionally well in it. Basically you set it in a cup/other container of water so that the water is level with the base of the plant. Change water once a week, and don't worry if there's algae growing! After a few weeks, with any luck there should be the beginnings of some new root growth, and possibly even new growths. Once you have a few decent roots, transfer it to S/H! Water culture is not a good long term growing method, but it works wonders to rescue Catts! :)

Thank you. So should I let the plant dry out first, then cut off the moldy roots and then put it in water? Ray, how much KelpMax should I add to the water?

To be honest, I don't see how water culture is all that different from s/h. Is it?

As Ray said, s/h only works when there are new roots actively growing. Also, the fact that you rested the plant on top of the media is a no no. All my failures with s/h and Catts comes from the fact that I didn't secure the plant. Thus, it would wiggle when there was a wind, water passed by, etc. This causes the new roots to abort and stop growing, just leaving the old, dying roots to support the plant. It took me a while to figure this out!! lol When you try s/h again, only try it with plant that is actively putting out new roots and tie down the plant as tightly as possible!!

If I was trying to rescue that plant, I would start by immersing it in tepid water containing a tablespoon per gallon of KelpMax for about 30 minutes. Then I'd pot it in a S/H pot, place it on a heat mat, and invert a clear plastic bag over the plant and pot to hold humidity. I would bet that within three weeks, it would have begun quite a few roots.

Heat mat it is! I dug out an old heating pad that I used to wrap around my back when I was recovering from a disk hernia a few years ago. It's waterproof, and just large enough to fit all my rescue 'patients', plus a few healthy transplants into s/h. Looks like I'll have to water every day - at the lowest setting, it's evaporating water at about 3x the unheated rate.

Ray, how dangerous is it to let the s/h media dry out or almost dry out?

It's not "dangerous", but if you're trying to get the plants established in that culture method, allowing them to dry out is counterproductive, switching if the semi hydroponics to traditional culture using an inert medium.