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So, this week my one croton out of the two that are budding flowers started to wilt. At first I thought it might be overwatering, as one day I put more water in than usual -- so I waited a couple days to water it again. Then, after a while I noticed it was only the one stem of this croton having trouble, and watering didn't help it recover, so it wasn't a water issue either way.
I figured something had to be wrong with the stem.. because this particular croton had three branches -- one very old, the other quite new (2 weeks old) and a third was starting to bud. The main stem at the top was wilting, and the rest was growing fine. Now, this stem has had (since I got it) a bulge in the stem. And low and behold, the wilting was occurring above this bulge. The oldest branch also has one of these bulges too. So I figured before it completely died, cut the main stem back, get rid of the bulge, and attempt to propagate. I also decided not to wait for this to happen to the other branch, so I made a cutting of it too. I noticed in cutting that the stems internally were near-hollow and dry inside below the bulge, and green and thick above the bulge. I wonder if maybe it going into seeding triggered something that was just too much stress for the system and it gave up.
Anyways, I'm attempting now to propagate this wilted stem, and the healthy branch, and letting the rest of the original grow on out. Does a wilted stem have any chance in surviving this, or did I just put another huge shock to its system? Also, if anyone knows what might have caused that bulging.. that would be valuable to know in the future.
