oyster plant/moses in the basket

Well, its moses in the basket or the cradle, not sure. Anyway, I have a pink variegated oyster plant. It didn't get much sun before, and the leaves were falling off. Reading that they love sun, I've moved it outside. Now I have a little pup coming out of the potting soil and all the leaves have fallen off to the very top.....BUT now there are either new leaves or pups that have started along the stem/trunk/thingy. They began at the bottom and worked their way up. There is maybe one leaf left at the top, and all the new leaves are still small but have two to three leaves on them. What is it doing? Do I need to do something with it to help it along or should I just leave it alone?

Kristie

I have one that I always called Oyster Plant ... I have some planted in the ground and some in a pot in my screened pool enclosure! Sounds like those are new plants popping out along the stem! I would leave them alone. Once they are of good size you can then take them off and pot them up by themselves, but if they are real small, I would let them grow a bit first.
Here's the link to Plant Files so you can read about this plant:http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/109176/index.html

edited to say: oops ... here's the Plant Files link: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/109176/index.html


And, here's a photo of one of mine:




This message was edited Jun 1, 2007 4:48 PM

Yep, that's what I have! Except, mine doesn't look that good. It never has. It never got enough sun in the house, I bet that's why. Yours is beautiful! Do you feed it, and if so, how often? How many plants are in that pot?

Kristie

Oh, and how do you keep the leaves from browning? Almost all the pics on the plantfiles have the lower ones browning or with brown spots. What do you do??? Mine always did the same thing, and it drives me nuts! I have total plant envy now! :)

kristie

I really don't do anything except water it! I have never fertilized, I'm a pretty bad "Plant Mom" when it comes to feeding! The one in the photo above used to be planted in the ground in a flower bed in my backyard. Other plants grew over it and completely covered up until I found it and dug it up! I still have one in the ground (in a cluster) and I just pulled some stuff off of it and took a picture. I will have to post it a bit later - I am on my laptop right now and don't have the software to download pic's here. And, my hubby has the keyboard apart for the desktop machine, keys were sticking badly, so he's cleaning each one! I will have to wait until he gets it back together before I can post that photo! But, you will be able to see the difference of the two plants, even in the color. The one still in the ground looks pitiful ... it should perk up now that I've pulled all the other plants off that had grown over it! I just went out on my deck and checked the one in the pot .... it's ONE stalk/stem/turnk, with 11 of those plants coming off the one stalk! So, what you are seeing on yours along the stem/trunk is new pups!

Ok .. keyboard is fixed, so I downloaded some more pic's ... here's the Oyster Plant still in the ground. Both of these plants were identical - bought at the same time! This one in the ground is much darker in color because of it being shaded by stuff growing over it! I'm going to dig it up in the next few days and put it in a pot too.

That's the one that looks pitiful? You should see mine! Right now its just a stalk with little scraggly pups on it. *sigh I love this plant I wonder if I could talk my hubby into relocating to Florida so I can grow it! Yours also is darker colored than mine...probably from the lack of sun...hopefully having it outside will help it out! You should put your pic of it in the plant files, its a really good pic...in my opinion the best one I've seen (shhhhh....). Thanks for the photos and help....if I ever get ahold of a digital camera, I'll show you what a real pitiful one looks like! :)

Kristie

Yep Kristie ... I've been thinking of adding some of my photo's to Plant Files. I've done a few in the past, but never seem to take the time to sit down and do it! A good Winter Time Project maybe! :)

Here's a pic of my oyster plant...so far the new sprouts on the main stem have started to brown and die before they get too big. I'm not sure what to do with it to help it out.....

I need to know how to take care of my poor plant like this. Can anyone offer any advice, its needed badly. I want to have it as an indoor plant also. Thanks:)

I have an Oyster Plant on the counter in my bathroom. The room is pretty bright, but the plant isn't in direct sunlight. I just water it when it feels dry, but other than that I don't do anything special for it. It seems happy and has a lot of new growth on it.

Well, my plant ended up getting eaten outside....I don't have it any more :(

Boy, wish you lived closer, I'd give you all you wanted.
I don't take any real pains with mine... just leave them outside in the summer and when they get kinda leggy, I pinch them back real hard and take the cutting and stick it in another pot and there they go again. When they start getting brown leaves it is time to prune really good and get another start going. Real easy, just do it!

I just bought one of these tricolor Tradescantia spathcea "Oyster Plant".. All I can say is I'm just in love!!!

kls_01,
Don't throw your plant away just yet. We had an unusually cold winter down here last year and both of mine froze to the pot line. I left them alone and this spring they both came back. They were a little slow to recover but now both look great again. Yours may come back from the roots too. BTW, I do keep mine in bright light on my front porch and I've seen many around here planted in full sun in the ground.

lol, NatureLover. I posted on an old post.. its from 2007.. those plants might be loooong gone.. Sorry to confuse.. ; )

Tracey

ROFLOL! That will teach me to pay close attention to the dates :-}