Friends I come to ask another question,and this one concerns my Wandering Jew plant. I noticed today that my one plant has a crazy leaf pattern. It seams like the stems are missing leaves till it gets to the end and then I have the leaves. Its not on just one stem,there seams to be several. I can take more pictures of this plant including the growth of bird seed that has rooted in the same pot. Any ideas. Ed hope you can see the problem ( photo / image / picture from Edlou8181's Garden ) ( photo / image / picture from Edlou8181's Garden ) one last photo ( photo / image / picture from Edlou8181's Garden )
It is time to snip the ends, root them in water and start a new plant. You will like the newer plant. Periodically I snip ends of this one and start a new plant, I have had it for several years. 10 or 12 ends are good enough for a new plant. If you are concerned about doing a whole new plant, try a couple of ends. A wandering Jew can grow roots in its sleep. Zzzzzzzzz Grow a root Zzzzzzzzzz Grow another root. Jerry ( photo / image / picture from Jerry Sullivan's Garden )
Jerry Thanks for the info about my problem. I already had some stems in water and planted them this morning. I plan to snip those long ones and place in new water to get them to grow roots.. Will do it only for a short time as its getting VERY humid,only to get worse this weekend. Thanks again ed
Hi Ed, The leaves on your Tradescantia were not always missing. When this plant is under stress for any reason - inadequate light, improper watering, for examples - the plant will shed older leaves so that it can continue to grow new leaves at the tip ends. Once those older leaves die, they are never replaced. The result is what you see in the photo you posted. The only solution is to prune those mostly leafless stems back close to the soil. New growth will emerge on the cut stems just below those cuts. That is because new growth always emerges at the ENDS of the vines. Regular pruning, even of healthy stems with no leaf loss is a good practice with most vining plants. I like to select one or two of the longest vines every couple of weeks and prune them back to a 1 to 3 inch length. This keeps the plant from becoming leggy, ungainly and unmanageable. It is the best method for keeping it full and compact. Proactive pruning is the plant care technique most commonly neglected and often makes the difference between a beautiful plant and a healthy, but ordinary looking plant. ~Will
Most of the fault lies with that hanging basket. The one middle hole is 1/2-3/4" above the actual bottom of the pot, allowing a TON of water to sit in the bottom of the pot, rotting the roots. Tradescantia does not like to sit in water and you are seeing the results. Simply putting some holes in the true bottom of the pot should do wonders for your plant. These plants do not do as well when their roots have nowhere to grow. If you remove the bottom half of the roots with a shovel, then put the same amount of new soil in the bottom of the pot, your plant should take-off with new growth if it has enough light. Here's some with Begonia 'Castaway' Hmm... not very familiar with the coding on this forum, it usually shows a picture. Sorry, a link is all I could get it to do.
After looking at your pic again, I think it may be Callisia repens, not Tradescantia, but the care would be the same.
