The Death of a Succulent

Remember when I said only one or two of my plants appeared to have issues upon my return from Europe? Well, I was only referring to soggy looking leaves on some... Unfortunately, I had no clue that there was a far more serious issue going on with one of them. Over the weekend I was transferring some of my propagated plants into this planter below (one of my favorite little planters) and a bunch of the leaves rained down from the trunk, immediately I was on alert and inspecting it. I remembered that it had been left inside my apartment near the sliding doors while I was away on my trip and so I wondered if perhaps it didn't get enough sun, then after checking the soil I gave it a teeny bit of water because it was bone dry and left it out on the balcony for the rest of the day.

On Sunday morning when I went out to my balcony, to my horror and dismay, the largest trunk (circled in yellow) had turned a radical eggplant purple, shriveled and shed nearly all of the remaining leaves! I squeezed the trunk and discovered it was almost completely hollow, I smelled the roots and they smelled super moldy. Great, I fear it was root rot! I was so upset... I quickly pulled out all of my new baby propagated hen and chicks and the other two succulents in there and I quarantined them. Of course I was so angry and frantic to quarantine the soil and throw it away that I forgot to take a picture of the whole hideous disaster. I took the picture below the day before it happened, if I had remembered to take one of the shriveled purple mess you'd be able to see how rapid and drastic the downfall of this plant was!!! Incredible! I truly believe the bit of water I gave it just finalized the process! Good grief, oh well. I have plucked enough leaves from it in the past which I have been propagating already, and I pulled off the two youngsters that were growing from it and I have put them aside in quarantine to see if they die the same way or if they survive. Only time will tell.

Thinking back, this is one of the first succulent planters I made, over at my mom's house, it was before I had read up on succulents and perfected the planting technique. Therefore, when I pulled the soil from the pot I noticed there were no rocks at the bottom, which is a strong sign that the plant most likely did not have sufficient drainage. Anyway, I am definitely learning from this.

Here it is on Saturday.... I circled the part of the plant that shrivled up and died the following day....

And here it is during better times.... the difference becomes apparent...

Either way I am still very nervous about all my other plants, I am paranoid that maybe I am wrong and in reality there is an infection that could spread and kill them all... I would be devastated! Just in case, I'm keeping a vigilant eye....