Hello everyone.
I registered here because I'm looking to see if there is a way to salvage my citronella plant. We just had a rough thunderstorm today, and I didn't shelter it well enough causing the main trunk to snap clean off. It's splintered, and the main root is quite large with the connecting trunk poking out of the soil. As soon as it happened (it had split about halfway initially, and as I was going to move it another gust tore it completely), I stuck it into the soil and have been keeping the soil quite saturated, hoping it can recover that way.
Sadly, I realize this will probably spell the end of the main plant, but I do have a few offshoots that are coming in nicely. I would just hate to see the bulk of it go, as I bought it a year ago and it just exploded into this monster of a plant, survived the winter in my mud-room, and even one bad week I forgot it existed and the whole thing was a sickly yellow/green before I nursed it back. And it worked wonderfully, I live on my porch in the summer and rarely will I have a mosquito bite. I know the little guys will keep trucking, but I was in the habit of plucking off certain leaves and giving myself a nice scent bath, and they won't survive that yet.
Thanks for any advice, this is my favorite plant and to start from scratch again would be heartbreaking.
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HatesMosquitos
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applestar
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"citronella plant" if I'm thinking of the same plant, is a kind of geranium (pelagonium).
Since you posted in a thread about tomatoes, I will be moving this to an appropriate location.
But I think you are in luck because geraniums are not too difficult to root from cuttings.... Not as easy as tomatoes, but it can be done, and during the growing season, the main plant will re-grow from what's left of it just fine especially since you are already seeing shoots.
How big is the broken off portion? It may be better to cut it down to somewhat smaller pieces to reduce moisture loss from the leaves while waiting for the roots to grow. You will need to prepare a separate pot or pots with moist potting soil to grow them in in a somewhat shaded location.
Remove the leaves from at least three leaf nodes at the bottom -- this is where new roots will grow and bury the bottom portion of the stem with the nodes. The potting mix should be well draining and need to be able to support the cuttings, so I would mix with 1/4 sand. You will need to remove some of the large leaves on the upper portion, and you may need to cut the branches up as I said. It would be better if you could post a picture of what you have.
For the broken main plant, you should cut where it broke with sharp pruners so there is a clean cut. Clean cuts heal better and reduce chance of infection or intrusion by bacteria, mold, or pests.
NOTE that you will want to water the main plant much LESS than before since without all those growth, it will take up/need much less. And the cuttings should be kept moist but NOT SATURATED. If the humidity is not high, you may need to provide a vented humidity cover -- how and what material will depend on their sizes.
The silver lining in all this is that when successful, you will have MULTIPLE plants to put in different locations or give away.
Since you posted in a thread about tomatoes, I will be moving this to an appropriate location.
But I think you are in luck because geraniums are not too difficult to root from cuttings.... Not as easy as tomatoes, but it can be done, and during the growing season, the main plant will re-grow from what's left of it just fine especially since you are already seeing shoots.
How big is the broken off portion? It may be better to cut it down to somewhat smaller pieces to reduce moisture loss from the leaves while waiting for the roots to grow. You will need to prepare a separate pot or pots with moist potting soil to grow them in in a somewhat shaded location.
Remove the leaves from at least three leaf nodes at the bottom -- this is where new roots will grow and bury the bottom portion of the stem with the nodes. The potting mix should be well draining and need to be able to support the cuttings, so I would mix with 1/4 sand. You will need to remove some of the large leaves on the upper portion, and you may need to cut the branches up as I said. It would be better if you could post a picture of what you have.
For the broken main plant, you should cut where it broke with sharp pruners so there is a clean cut. Clean cuts heal better and reduce chance of infection or intrusion by bacteria, mold, or pests.
NOTE that you will want to water the main plant much LESS than before since without all those growth, it will take up/need much less. And the cuttings should be kept moist but NOT SATURATED. If the humidity is not high, you may need to provide a vented humidity cover -- how and what material will depend on their sizes.
The silver lining in all this is that when successful, you will have MULTIPLE plants to put in different locations or give away.
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HatesMosquitos
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Sorry, I was searching under "broken plant" and that thread came up, didn't realize it was strictly tomatoes.
And thank you, I've got the main event going on in the larger, original pot, and a few of the branches I cut off (been meaning to do that for a while now anyway
) looked pretty healthy so I've got them in suitable locations in the ground as well.
I wish I could post pics, but my only digital camera is on my cellphone and that is in the car my brother borrowed this morning with still no word on when that will be over with, and I wanted to do this sooner rather than later. As best I can describe, the trunk is about half an inch in diameter, it split on one side and down the shaft initially, and then at the bottom of the vertical split is where the final break happened, all about an inch from the soil. It splintered, so as per advice here and there I cut it with shears to make a clean cut, then after de-leafing the bottom nodes I dug a fresh hole where it would have some room (it's a big pot) and was sure to bury at least four. Some were kind of woody, I hope that doesn't hinder root growth, but other sub-nodes on those were nice and green. I wasn't able to cut the soil with sand, but the pot drains nicely so I'm not concerned about drowning it.
Then I've got two branches I removed planted in the front garden, where they'll get about four or five hours of morning sun, and one in the back yard. There weren't any extra pots lying around, and the aforementioned lack of a car kind of put a damper on having them in something today. I know the outdoor guys will be annual, living where I do (PA, US), but if they thrive for the summer that's already a return on my investment, so no worries, really.
So, yeah, hopefully this turns into a fortuitous event, versus the catastrophe I was dwelling on yesterday. I had just given a re-potted shoot to a friend of mine, so I was a little hopeful, but considering the break occurred with basically the entire main plant I was concerned. I will pop back in the next week, this is my "Sunday" according to my schedule so I'll be pretty busy until next Monday, but I'll hopefully have pictures to show how well/not well it's doing, and go from there.
And thank you, I've got the main event going on in the larger, original pot, and a few of the branches I cut off (been meaning to do that for a while now anyway
) looked pretty healthy so I've got them in suitable locations in the ground as well.I wish I could post pics, but my only digital camera is on my cellphone and that is in the car my brother borrowed this morning with still no word on when that will be over with, and I wanted to do this sooner rather than later. As best I can describe, the trunk is about half an inch in diameter, it split on one side and down the shaft initially, and then at the bottom of the vertical split is where the final break happened, all about an inch from the soil. It splintered, so as per advice here and there I cut it with shears to make a clean cut, then after de-leafing the bottom nodes I dug a fresh hole where it would have some room (it's a big pot) and was sure to bury at least four. Some were kind of woody, I hope that doesn't hinder root growth, but other sub-nodes on those were nice and green. I wasn't able to cut the soil with sand, but the pot drains nicely so I'm not concerned about drowning it.
Then I've got two branches I removed planted in the front garden, where they'll get about four or five hours of morning sun, and one in the back yard. There weren't any extra pots lying around, and the aforementioned lack of a car kind of put a damper on having them in something today. I know the outdoor guys will be annual, living where I do (PA, US), but if they thrive for the summer that's already a return on my investment, so no worries, really.
So, yeah, hopefully this turns into a fortuitous event, versus the catastrophe I was dwelling on yesterday. I had just given a re-potted shoot to a friend of mine, so I was a little hopeful, but considering the break occurred with basically the entire main plant I was concerned. I will pop back in the next week, this is my "Sunday" according to my schedule so I'll be pretty busy until next Monday, but I'll hopefully have pictures to show how well/not well it's doing, and go from there.