Pilea RESCUE 911!
Pilea Peperomioides Dying How to Revive & Care
My oh my how I know that feeling of your beloved Pilea Peperomioides Dying! Living in Coastal North Carolina, we were faced with our recent horrible Hurricane Florence. We were evacuated for 3 weeks from our home staying in hotels throughout. Sadly I had to leave my three beloved Pileas “Cali, Caroline and Virginia” behind to fend for themselves.
Who knew one could worry so much about houseplants…right?
Well I worried about these three lovely little girls like they were my own babies. After all I have indeed raised them from teeny tiny babies.
My heart simply adores these three plants.
The day had come, we were finally able to return to our home after being evacuated for the 21 days. After checking over the outside of our home, we thankfully did not suffer damage. The first thing I did when entering our home was head straight for my three Pileas.
I knew for certain in my heart they would be dead……
|| WARNING : GRAPHIC IMAGES BELOW! ||
What you see is a result of no water for 3 weeks, and no sunlight. Our home had to be secured while we were gone, which meant darkness.
My heart was broken, but at the same time there was HOPE!
I swung into action, it was time for Pilea Rescue 911!
Pilea Peperomioides Dying How to Revive & Care:
- STEP ONE: Water, Water, Water, drench the babies with water until it runs all the way through.
- STEP TWO: Soak, Soak, Soak, soak the babies within the same water that ran through in step one. I always do this when watering, however this time I let them sit in the water for a couple hours, verses my typical 20minutes soak time.
- STEP THREE: Light, Light, Light, keep the babies in as much sunlight as you can provide them. Many would tell you to place them outdoors, however I always advise against this as it’s a very risky way to get the dreaded Fungus Gnats. (read how to get rid of fungus gnats here)
- STEP FOUR: Love, Time, Love, Time, give your babies lots and lots of love and realize it will indeed take time for them to thrive again. You can now return to your normal Pilea Care.
- THE SOIL I LOVE
- THE FUNGUS GNAT TRAPS I ALWAYS HAVE ON HAND
It has now been 3 months since I preformed my version of Pilea Rescue 911 on my beloved girls and I’m proud to say they are thriving more and more each day! They have perked up, and have lots and lots of new growth! Just look at those sweet lil’ leaves popping out!
“Cali, Caroline, and Virginia” are all doing well.
So I leave you by simply saying, never give up hope on your Pileas and/or other houseplants. My Violets Survived as Much! Read their Survival Story.
Thank you for enjoying my Blog!
I sure do appreciate it and would love to hear from you in the comments!
Peace, Love, and Simple Living Friends!
~Erin
My pilea is suffering from having too much water! :( is it reccomended to trim off thedeflated leaves?
Hi Holly,
I’m so sorry to hear your Pilea is suffering from too much water.
What I personally would recommend is letting it fully dry out, typically this can be 1-2 weeks depending on your environment.
The leaves should fall off naturally if they are going to fall off. I wouldn’t cut them off because they may perk back up once the soil dries out.
Hope this helps a bit? Thank you for enjoying my blogs…I’m always happy to help other Pilea Lovers! It’s my all time FAVE plant.
I ordered mine through the mail and received it the day before we left for a week vacation. Planted in soil ( arrived wrapped bare root) and gave a thorough watering. When we got home it has dropped 5-6 stems and has few others curled. Seeing black spots as shown in the middle pot post above. Is this normal for new plant settling in to new home? Wishlist plant I would hate to lose her.
Hi Jeanette,
Congrats on your new Pilea!
To answer your question, I personally feel Pileas can dramatically react to change.
It’s almost as if they have a bit of a panic attack, and do whatever need be to survive their shock.
Don’t worry, as long as you provide her with plenty of light, do not over water then she will be just fine.
I’m happy to say mine are all still thriving and doing beautifully after their shock of lack of care from being evacuated due to last year’s hurricane.
Give her some time and follow my steps mentioned above and I think she will do just fine.
Thank you for enjoying my blog…I hope I helped a bit!
Hi! Great advice. Mine got waaaaay too much sun and heat (I left it in my car transporting… I’m a bad mom). Now the leaves are droopy and brown. What should I do? Trim the leaves and let it re grow? Please help!
I’m so sorry, but no worries…your Pilea will indeed most likely recover just fine!
They are tough. You can if you’d like go ahead and pull the damaged leaves off “or” you can wait for them to fall naturally.
Typically I personally just wait for them to fall off naturally to prevent less shock to them. However I expect it doesn’t make much difference.
The leaves won’t regrow on those stem/trunk locations, however it will indeed produce new growth towards the top of the plant and produce babies once the mother plant has recovered and happy again. I hope this helps!
Thank you for enjoying my blog..I’m always happy to help
Hi, my pilea grows really slow and the new growth is getting brown. Plse help my baby..
Hi Cyn,
I’m so sorry to hear you are having troubles with your Pilea.
Have you tried my steps to revive it? In reference to it growing slowly, some Pileas have a slower growth rate, for instance one of my babies has grown much slower than her sibling. In reference to the brown on new growth, do you have it too close to a window? Are you letting the soil dry out in between waterings? I’m happy to help if you can provide me with a little more info as to the care you are providing.
Thank you for enjoying my blog!
Hi Erin,
Thank you so much for replying. I may have water it too quickly, once every 3 days. I will let it dry out before the next watering.
The soil seems a little hard-packed. Do I ‘loosen’ it?
Hi Cyn,
You are most welcome! I’m always happy to help.
I do believe you’ve been watering too much, it’s natural for us all to want to water water water…when in fact Pileas are a member of the succulent family and don’t require to stay moist at all times. They like to dry out in between waterings (this will also help with any pests and disease)
I let mine dry out at least a week in between waterings. My soil is very loose and airy, this allows the little pups to poke their little head through.
Did you see the link in my blog for the soil I use? I love it sooooooo much! It’s been a life saver for my babies.
Hi Erin,
Thanks again. I will try out the potting mixed you’ve mentioned. I hope to be able to nurture my baby back to health.
Wishing you a Super weekend..
I have a Pilea that has been thriving for a long time, but now the leaves are starting to grow down.. they aren’t mushy and droopy, the stems and leaves appear healthy it’s just that they aren’t bouncy like they usually are. From the main stem the leaves grow out but then take a sharp turn down. Some swoop back up right before the leaf. Help!
Hi Beck,
I’m so sorry you are having troubles with your Pilea.
To be honest, mine do the same thing during different times of the year do to the direction and strength of the sun coming through the window.
Also my “older” Pileas do this quiet allot. As long as you aren’t over watering, yet watering enough…I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
Have you changed anything with them such as sun, watering, placement?
My plant has grown tall but almost all the leaves are gone and no sign of babies out the bottom . I never water more than once a week and sometimes have let it dry out probably too much. Can I save it and get leave to resprout?
Hi Wendy,
I’m so sorry to hear all of your leaves are almost gone.
Many of mine lost their bottom leaves, however continued to push out new top growth.
If you still have at least one leaf, there is still hope!
If not I would try to cut off the top and rooting it in water…it may or may not work for you, may be worth a try though.
Fingers crossed for you.
Thank you for your comment and enjoying my blog.