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[tiapia]

I have a large diffenbacha plant, the stem or canes of the plant are bare where the leaves have fallen off.  I would like to replant in a bigger pot, however there is new growth coming up from the dirt.  If I repot sticking the bare cane way down I will be covering the new growth?  What do I do?  There are leaves on the top of the plant.

[Gerrygolucky]

Hi Tiapia, let me have a go at this one, I used to have a diffy earlier. As it grows taller, lower leaves drop and the plant looks less lush, in my living room it would grow too high to look good on the coffee table when not in use so I had to shrink it somehow. What I did was cut the top off about half a foot below the remaining leaves, and I planted that in the ground but I rooted it in a glass of water for a month first.

In your case I’d do the same: cut the top bare part off and get it to sprout roots. If the stem is long, you can even make several cuttings and root them in the same tallish glass. It’s ok if some of the cuttings are only bare stem without leaves, they’ll sprout new ones in time. A good length is 6 to 8 inches. Then, when roots have appeared, transplant the cuttings to your new pot together with the offshoot that was left to grow, break the old clump up a bit so you can stick the new rooted cuttings in near the center so it looks good.

If you bury the offshoot too deep, it might not make it to the top and will rot instead, not good. But a few inches, like up to 4, should still be ok if you just want to plant it deeper, I think.

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