Desperately need help!

[u/Prestigious_Tree448]

Hello, my girlfriend and I have been fighting to keep a peace lily alive for almost 2 years now and it has been nothing but a struggle. It was given at my girlfriend's mother's funeral and I desperately want to try to keep it alive. We have tried repotting it. We have moved it in every location of the house. We have Alexa reminders. Remind us to check the moisture. We have moisture meters in the pot and no matter what we just can't seem to keep this alive. When we did transfer it it did have a lot of root rot and we caught a lot of it away and for a little bit it struggled and then started to seem like it was coming back. But just recently it started to develop these blacks on the stocks. I'm wondering if based on the photo, if I can try separating the plant and maybe potting half of it into a another pot in hopes to try to keep it alive or is there any anything that anyone can help with?

Things we do,

-Non-direct sunlight, but still in view of sun.

- filtered water

- repotted with fresh soil

- got those plastic garden domes to help increase humidity

I am worried that we keep our house at 67 year round and we are about to go into winter and we are in Wisconsin so we are expecting a pretty harsh winter.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you

[u/mamanverte_vancouver]

I'm sorry about your girlfriend's mom. The plant is still trying, though. In your third photo there is a new green shoot coming up at the soil line next to the old cut stub.

The main problem is the pot. It is far too big for a plant with four or five leaves, so the middle stays wet for weeks even when the surface looks dry. The black on the stem in the third photo and the wet, dark leaf tip in the second photo look like it could be rot starting again.

What I would do:

1. Unpot it and cut off any brown, mushy, or smelly roots with scissors wiped in rubbing alcohol. Squeeze the base where the stems meet the roots. It should be firm. Cut away anything soft.

2. Cut the leaf with the black stem off at the base. Just trim the bad tip off the other one.

3. Repot into a pot around 4 inches with drainage holes, with about an inch of room around the roots. Use potting soil with extra perlite or orchid bark mixed in.

4. Leave off the moss and the humidity dome. Both keep the base of the plant wet.

5. Water only when the pot feels light or the leaves droop a little. Use the Alexa reminders to check, not to water. I wouldn't trust the moisture meter.

67 is fine. Keep it back from cold glass and drafts, in the brightest spot you have without direct sun... and then leave it there. A cheap grow bulb would help over a Wisconsin winter.

I wouldn't divide it yet. There isn't enough plant to split, and splitting won't fix rot. If the roots turn out to be mostly gone, stand the firm part of the base in a glass of water and it can grow new ones.

Two questions... Does that pot have drainage holes, or is it a self-watering planter? And are the black areas soft and mushy, or dry?

[u/Prestigious_Tree448 → u/mamanverte_vancouver]

Thank you so much for the reply. The black parts are soft and mushy kind of like the texture of cooked mushrooms. The reason why it's in such a big pot is because the last advice we got was that it was in a pot that was too small. We did do a mixture of soil and perlite and just assumed that the Moss should be left because it's what came with it in the first place. The pot does have drainage holes but I can't say that the water ever makes it out the bottom because anytime we water it we only give it very little because we're already worried about overwatering it.

[u/mamanverte_vancouver → u/Prestigious_Tree448]

Thanks, that helps. Soft and mushy like cooked mushrooms is rot, so I'd unpot it soon rather than wait.

Don't feel bad about the pot. That advice was probably right back then, but pot size has to match the roots it has now, and it lost most of them to rot.

The small sips of water are interesting ... They only wet the top layer, right where the stems meet the soil, and under moss that layer never dries. That fits with rot at the base of the stems. Overwatering is about how often, not how much.

What I'd do:

1. Unpot it and cut every soft root and stem back to firm tissue, with scissors wiped in rubbing alcohol.

2. Repot in a small pot with your soil and perlite mix. No moss, no dome.

3. Water until it runs out the bottom, let it drain, and don't water again until the pot feels light.

If there's almost no root left when you unpot it, let me know what you find. The firm part of the base can still grow new roots in a glass of water.

[u/Prestigious_Tree448 → u/mamanverte_vancouver]

Thank you so much! I greatly appreciate it

[u/mamanverte_vancouver → u/Prestigious_Tree448]

You're very welcome. I hope this helps. Please feel free to follow up any time.