Crassula problems

My mother has a huge crassula plant that we worked out must be something over twenty years old. We grew it from one tiny cutting and it has done really well but lately is looking very sorry for itself and we are at a loss to know what to do with it.

We wondered if fresh compost was needed and carefully unpotted it only to find that the rootball had not moved out from it's last repotting and it was just sitting in the middle of the compost. We knocked out the stale compost and replaced it with fresh back in the same pot but it still looks very forlorn.

We are wondering if it has reached the end of it's natural life but it is such a shame as it was once a very handsome plant.

Can anyone suggest what we can do for this poor plant?

Thanks

Nikki

 

Firstly Nikki ,
I would take a couple or more cutting that would secure your mother a new plant at least for the future .
Can I ask what size pot the plant was in before potting, did it still look healthy and were the roots healthy and solid or was the rootball soft and crumbly..?
How long ago did you repot ?
It could have been attacked by dreaded Vine weevil, in which case the rootball would be loose and crumbly as they would have destroyed most of the root system, but and old plant would continue to survive a long time before it finally gave up ..

Dave

 

Thanks for your replies. Mum has taken cuttings from it but it continues to deteriorate, poor thing. It was in quite a massive pot - I think tub would be a more realistic term. When we repotted it last time we only went up about an inch, inch and a half. It was strange that two or three years down the line, when you might have expected it to have grown into the new compost, it still retained the same size of root ball it had in the old pot. I wonder if you might be right about some kind of weevil attacking the roots. I think the roots were in reasonable condition, I don't recall them being crumbly. I did wonder if it was getting over heated as Mum keeps it in a conservatory that does get boiling hot during the summer. I have tried to persuade her to stand it in the garden during the warmer months which might benefit it.

 

Any chance of a photo Nikki?

Dave

 

Crassula what? what is the species name?

 

What you could do Nikki is take the plant out of the pot and have a prod around and see if roots are damaged and eaten away .Vine weevils will get way into the rootball but if the plant is showing bad signs of distress they should be more obvious .

Dave

 

I'll try and get some pix. I've double checked with Mum and she doesn't remember any of the roots being crumbly or anything suspicious like that. The only significant thing we noted was that the rootball had made no attempt to grow into the new soil we'd planted it in at last repotting. It was very odd. The sad thing is that it is so massive that it's a struggle to heave it in and out.

 

Look forward to the photos Nikki. It's hard to visulise what it looks like so it would help a lot I think.
Dave

 

It sounds like Crassula Ovata or Arborescens, they become very solid and heavy with age.

 

Hopefully this photo will help. In the photos it does not appear too bad but its leaves used to be really lustrous and emerald green. Now they are yellowing and it's dropping bits of itself in all directions. It just looks really forlorn.

 

Hi Nikki .
More thoughts on your mums plant .Most vine weevils will be preparing to turn into adults by now ,so if vine weevils are your problem (from the picture maybe not) you could perhaps give the plant a good liquid feed and a topdressing with a good potting compost .The adult weevils will lay their eggs which will be hatching in August so give the plant a soil drench of Provado just after this should eliminate the problem if they are present ...

Dave

 

Thanks for your suggestion. I'll give that a try. We did decide to give it a feed this week and see if that has any effect. It did seem a little more 'green' than it was. It used to be a lovely deep emerald colour but lately has looked a rather more sickly colour. We both thought it looked a bit perked up but it is still dropping bits of itself all over. Mum's taken some cuttings so we will persevere and see what happens.

 

I have several small plants similar to your mum's and I had forgotten that I had an old plant that I had cut down last autumn ..I had tucked it into a corner of the greenhouse and came across it today ..It has started throwing out new lush growth, so if all fails cutting back could be another option .I don't like to get rid of older plants but sometimes there is no alternative , but having cuttings form them first sweetens the blow....

Dave