Hello! Long time lurker, 1st time poster, I'm looking for help in saving my tree.... It recently went through a very wet period where it was overwatered and had little to no sunlight due to the west cost smoke that took over for a week.

It's been replanted for fear of Root rot as leaves started yellowing, wilting, and browning en mass. A stalk was removed as it was indeed root rot but am still unsure if anything more can be done.

Attached as follows are pictures I took. I think one stalk might be slowly dying because part of it's top is... showing the same look as the dead stalk, losing green slowly and getting these abrasive lesiony feel. I Apologize for the quality of pictures in advance.

Also not in the picture but there was some hard white legions that looked like cankers? (like in the mouth) but they are raised and grooved. There were only 2 but still weird.

Any and all advice is welcome so I can this tree! Please and Thank you!

Some of your pictures are very blurry. A picture of the whole plant might also help to get a better understanding.

From what I can see, I only find the sixth picture a bit concerning. The stem appears wrinkled (is that what you mean by 'lesiony'?) I had that happen once and the whole plant (money trees are usually sold as multiple plants braided together) died from rot (like you describe as well). I had to remove that one stem, the others are still doing fine. If the stem starts feeling soft or mushy, you're in trouble and that particular plant probably can't be saved. However, in your case the wrinkling starts above the 'growth node' (for lack of a better term), in my case it started from the bottom up. It might be that yours is simply drying out since the plant doesn't need that section for growth and is directing nutrients up the other section - if that makes sense. I'd watch that one closely.

On the other pictures, what I do see (and, as I said, I can't see much on some) looks perfectly normal to me - aside from the few yellowing leaves (which doesn't seem dramatic and could simply be the recent stress)

In any case, if you're concerned about a certain section dying, you could take a top cutting (simply cut off the upper part of the stem, including one to two leaves, leave at least a few leaves on the mother plant too) and root it in water - that way, you have the potential to grow a new plant from it. If the mother plant is healthy, it will simply put out new growth from the top. It takes 4-6 weeks for new roots to appear in water, btw, so be patient.
Of course, rooting won't work if that section should already be infected with rot. But if that's the case, the plant can't be saved anymore anyway, so you don't lose anything.

I've had to cut about 12 branches off of it's various state, this is what it looks like post my pruning,

As for the Stalk of the main piece (Stems, stalks? I call the green parts stems, and the hard branches stalks, like bean stalks) Yeah it's shriveling up and it LOOKS like it's progressing downward but the other stalks don't seem to have this symptom...yet?


Could you explain more in depth about the new plant? Before the rotting occurred, there was a cute sprout that appeared next to the entire tree in it's soil bed, which very SLOWLY grew, and split into two. Of course this was killed by the rot as well.

And by chance do you have any picture examples of "top cutting" Honestly I'm afraid at this point of doing more harm than good.

I'll try and post some extra pictures here after the son shifts a bit

Here are updated pictures, hope it's not as blurry. There are also better pictures of the "white lesions" I'm referring to.

About grammar: English isn't my first language, but I thought stem and stalk are synonyms and pretty much interchangeable?! I just googled it and at first glance it seems there's some disagreement on if there's a difference and what that is. Who knows
I might be biased towards 'stem' since my native language uses that (almost the same word). Anyhow, if anyone has a definitive answer to that (difference between stem and stalk), I'd be curious to know.

Sticking with your definition, I meant cut off the top part of the green stem and put it in water. Where you cut it is up to you. I'd say it's best if both cutting and mother plant have at least a few branches of leaves to photosynthesize, but I've accidentally snapped off the entire stem once and the stalk produced new growth even though it had no leaves left. The cutting shouldn't have many leaves as it will need its energy to grow roots. I usually leave one or two branches of leaves. If you've taken a longer cutting, simply remove the lower leaves/branches. The mother plant will put out new growth from a node below the cut within a few weeks (if it's healthy). Put the cutting in water and change the water about once a week if you can remember (I often forget and it roots anyway). I'll post pictures from my cell in a bit. I'm at my computer right now.

About the white lesions, I really have no clue if that's normal and what it could be, sorry.

Speaking of grammar riddles: Why is 'leaves' and not 'leafs' the plural of 'leaf'? It leaves (pun intended) me a bit confused.

Pictures as promised. I took the cutting from this stem maybe two weeks ago. You can see the little knob just above the last branch - that's the new growth beginning to form.

The cutting with the roots was taken around two months ago. The little baby leaf is new growth. I'll transfer it to soil soon. Nothing on the new cutting yet ...

Oh thats so cool! So if I just take some off the top of all of them and leave them in water like that, they'll root? Now it looks like, this only works on the top end of the WHOLE stem of the plant right?

Not just random side branches?

SadplantGuy said:Oh thats so cool! So if I just take some off the top of all of them and leave them in water like that, they'll root? Now it looks like, this only works on the top end of the WHOLE stem of the plant right?

Not just random side branches?

Yes and yes. They'll root and it has to be a cutting from the stem, branches won't work.

As always, there are exceptions to the rule. Every now and then, a cutting from any plant won't root for whatever reason (bacteria i.e.) but most of the time it works. Pachira cuttings root pretty well, some other trees are more of a hit and miss.

So, I've left it to dry, and the rate at which it's killing leaves has dropped. I've also finally watered it after surmising the damage.... it seems like the rate of decay has stopped... though still watching that one dried spot on the Wood trunk branch near the top I took a picture of....

So, when the cuttings root, and you replant them.... do they eventually become giant trunks like at the bottom?
I assume this takes a long time to happen...

Can stems (mother plant stems) eventually become trunks themselves still attached to the "trunk stems"?

SadplantGuy said:So, I've left it to dry, and the rate at which it's killing leaves has dropped. I've also finally watered it after surmising the damage.... it seems like the rate of decay has stopped... though still watching that one dried spot on the Wood trunk branch near the top I took a picture of....

That's good news.

So, when the cuttings root, and you replant them.... do they eventually become giant trunks like at the bottom?
I assume this takes a long time to happen...

Yes, they do, and yes, it does. Couple of years maybe?! Not sure

Can stems (mother plant stems) eventually become trunks themselves still attached to the "trunk stems"?

I'm not sure I'm following. Also, I assume you now call a trunk what you previously called the stalk?!
If I understand correctly, you're asking whether they'll "turn into wood"?! The only difference between the green and brown parts of the stems/stalks/trunks/whatever is that the brown ones are older and have already lignified (i.e. turned into wood). Recent growth is flexible and becomes rigid/woody over time due to lignin being deposited in the cell walls. This happens with trees in general, not just the pachira. So if that is what you're asking, then the answer is yes.

Oh terribly sorry for the misunderstanding!
So, to my knowledge, the stalk, is the green part that is the mother plant stem. Basically, where all the other branches come out of.
I was fascinated by the idea that eventually, the mother plant stem (the stalk) would lignify too. (turn into wood) which is super cool!
Also I'll upload some extra pictures here in a day or so. Just a couple leaf branches have been dying now but it's almost stopped.

I started with 4 stems now down to 2. The others got root rot and I got rid of them.

As you can see there is one stem in the picture that has no leaves and the trunk of it is also soft.

A few weeks ago the one without leaves had small branch with four little leaves that were browning and the trunk was getting soft so I cut the whole thing off re potted them while spraying them with peroxide to combat any fungus or bacteria. Since then it has just looked this way with the root of the one without leaves still soft. The other stem is fine the trunk is hard. Should I just get rid of the weak one ? Can I grow this with only one stem?

I am very new to potting but I would like to be successful. I'd appreciate any advice and tips

Thanks

La'Frederick