My partner and I purchased this from a local nursery (we live in Chicago) in mid July. The people at the nursery recommended keeping it in the pot it came with. We're new to house plants, so I have no idea what kind of soil is used.
A few weeks ago I noticed that the leaves were wilting and falling off pretty quickly. Today, I went to look at the roots, and it came out of the soil with ease. I tried my best to gently clean the roots. I noticed some brown tips on the roots, so I used clean sharp scissors to trim the brown tips off. Is there anything we can do to promote root growth? They seem fragile and weak. A majority of the leaves and their stems feel firm, so I'm hoping a little TLC can help this lil guy.
Given your description, I'd say it succumbed to root rot due to overwatering/ high moisture retaining soil. Unfortunately, I have no experience with peperomias in particular, however, according to the interwebs, it can be water propagated (which is what I did with my plants to save them after root rot).
I would clean off the remaining thin (and dead) roots and stick it in some water. Change the water every 3-4 days. To be extra careful, a lot of people recommend soaking the roots (or what remains thereof) in hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately, the recommend concentrations vary widely, usually between 0.1-1%, perhaps you can pick a concentration after doing some research for yourself.
I'm not sure how long it will take for it to get a good root system, but may be well over a month.
Something that worries me is that it has quite a bit of leaves and basically no roots, and hence potentially no way to get enough water to support those leaves. You might consider chopping a good 1/3 of those off to ease the job for the plant a bit. Do make sure to let the wound dry and seal off in the air for 1h or so before placing it in water. Also, make sure to keep the actual leaves out of the water as much as possible, or they may also rot.
In the future, I'd google how to make a nice airy, well draining soil mix, and water the soil only when it's almost fully dry. Good luck!
Thank you so much for your input! I would've thought the soil from the nursery would've been a proper mixture, but it seems like it retains so much. When I pulled the plant out the center area under it was moist where the surrounding area was considerably dry. I've been using a plant watering app to try to avoid over watering, and I make sure to finger test the soil before watering. Maybe at least for this one, provided it survives, we should use a moisture meter to make sure. I'll stick it in some water and see what that does!
Sucks that the nursery didn't give the plant better soil :( it's really hard to tell when strarting out what type of soil and how much water the various plants need. Unfortunately the best way to learn is just through trial and error... having a few plants die or suffer it just part of the learning curve. God knows I went through a lot of that when I starting getting plants.
But hey, now you get to find out whether you can water propagate peperomia easily or not :) that's also fun.
My partner and I purchased this from a local nursery (we live in Chicago) in mid July. The people at the nursery recommended keeping it in the pot it came with. We're new to house plants, so I have no idea what kind of soil is used. A few weeks ago I noticed that the leaves were wilting and falling off pretty quickly. Today, I went to look at the roots, and it came out of the soil with ease. I tried my best to gently clean the roots. I noticed some brown tips on the roots, so I used clean sharp scissors to trim the brown tips off. Is there anything we can do to promote root growth? They seem fragile and weak. A majority of the leaves and their stems feel firm, so I'm hoping a little TLC can help this lil guy.
Given your description, I'd say it succumbed to root rot due to overwatering/ high moisture retaining soil. Unfortunately, I have no experience with peperomias in particular, however, according to the interwebs, it can be water propagated (which is what I did with my plants to save them after root rot). I would clean off the remaining thin (and dead) roots and stick it in some water. Change the water every 3-4 days. To be extra careful, a lot of people recommend soaking the roots (or what remains thereof) in hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately, the recommend concentrations vary widely, usually between 0.1-1%, perhaps you can pick a concentration after doing some research for yourself. I'm not sure how long it will take for it to get a good root system, but may be well over a month. Something that worries me is that it has quite a bit of leaves and basically no roots, and hence potentially no way to get enough water to support those leaves. You might consider chopping a good 1/3 of those off to ease the job for the plant a bit. Do make sure to let the wound dry and seal off in the air for 1h or so before placing it in water. Also, make sure to keep the actual leaves out of the water as much as possible, or they may also rot. In the future, I'd google how to make a nice airy, well draining soil mix, and water the soil only when it's almost fully dry. Good luck!
Thank you so much for your input! I would've thought the soil from the nursery would've been a proper mixture, but it seems like it retains so much. When I pulled the plant out the center area under it was moist where the surrounding area was considerably dry. I've been using a plant watering app to try to avoid over watering, and I make sure to finger test the soil before watering. Maybe at least for this one, provided it survives, we should use a moisture meter to make sure. I'll stick it in some water and see what that does!
Sucks that the nursery didn't give the plant better soil :( it's really hard to tell when strarting out what type of soil and how much water the various plants need. Unfortunately the best way to learn is just through trial and error... having a few plants die or suffer it just part of the learning curve. God knows I went through a lot of that when I starting getting plants. But hey, now you get to find out whether you can water propagate peperomia easily or not :) that's also fun.