Is this Cotoneaster a lost cause?

[peh3]

I got this cotoneaster for 25 cents, right after a very cold night, -15°C. The soil was basically frozen solid with some ice on the bottom.
Will it survive? The leaves are very crisp and dark in color. I brushed off the dead leaves and this is what I was left with. I've also kept it since indoors till we will not have any freezing nights.

Anything I can do to help it? Is it already dead?
I was thinking about changing the soil to something suitable as I have not watered it once and one of these cheap moisture meters I bought is telling me that the soil is very wet. Maybe it would recover better?

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Hard to tell, but I am optimistic that it will recover. Do NOT change soil or do anything else to disturb the plant until it shows new growth / buds. Also be cautious about overwatering. Until it recovers, it will not be using very much water at all.

 

[discusmike]

I think it will survive,take the administrators advice

 

[JosephCooper]

looks to still be alive, but its probably very stressed.

Water carefully, like Bnut said.

 

[GrimLore]

It looks like mine which are outside under snow, they all needed to be defoliated mid-winter here because they never dropped leaf on their own looking a lot like that. They are quite alive though

Grimmy

 

[dirk hoorelbeke]

Don't see the problem.

 

[AlainK]

they all needed to be defoliated mid-winter here

Actually, the most common species of Cotoneaster, C. horizontalis is deciduous except perhaps in mild climates. Mine retained a lot of leaves this winter, when it was unsually warm.

Cotoneaster microphyllus are evergreen, same shape for the leaves, but smaller.

I suspect your plant was kept in a greenhouse, frost-free, and when you put it outside, it got a "temperature shock", it often happens with lots of species.

But like the others, I think it will recover, and like them, I think you should just leave it alone until the new leaves push out and the dead leaves fall.

 

[peh3]

When I checked on it today I saw that the soil was covered in mold, I still have not watered it. I brushed the moldy soil off and pulled the plant out of the container to check the roots, some bigger ones I could see were black and brittle.

Anything that I should do now?

 

[AlainK]

(...) the roots, some bigger ones I could see were black and brittle.

Anything that I should do now?

In that case, that's different: I would cut off the dead roots, and repot it.

 

[discusmike]

Your going to end up killing it,i would not mess with the roots

 

[peh3]

It is not such a big deal if it actuall dies, but I would prefer if I could keep it alive. It seems to me like I can learn something out of this atleast.
I had it since about a week and never watered it and yet still the soil seems to be too wet.

Could I do anything else to help the soil dry up a bit?

 

[AlainK]

"discussmike" says don't repot it, I say you should.

It's up to you, but if the soil stays wet like a sponge and some of the roots are already rotten, it's 50/50. But I think if you repot it, it's 51/49

 

[Solaris]

Your going to end up killing it,i would not mess with the roots

I've never seen a plant come back from root rot without rapid intervention.

 

[peh3]

So I decided to repot it. The soil was very wet inside, had some bigger black roots that just broke off.
Turns out it was not one but two plants. One had alot of roots, especially lots of feeder roots, they looked really healthy. The other one had only 3 roots left with basically no feeder ones, they looked like they were in a really bad shape. Seemed a bit weird to me as the foliage on that one looked healthier to me.
I separated them, gave the healthy looking one a bigger pot with seramis, mixed in some lava rock at the bottom and some pine bark on the top. The other one is probably going to die for sure but I planted it in a very small pot with 100% seramis.

Now in hindsight, would it have been a problem to keep them as they were or would I have risked the other plant to also start rotting?

 

[AlainK]

would it have been a problem to keep them as they were or would I have risked the other plant to also start rotting?

You did the right thing: what you found shows that what you removed was to be thown away, it was dead and could have contaminated the rest. Now the living half has more chance to make it through, I'd say 75%...

Did you add a little Bordeaux mix? Some garlic infusion? Cinnamon powder?

You know, the mild, organic treatments that can help keep fungus away....

 

[peh3]

Did you add a little Bordeaux mix? Some garlic infusion? Cinnamon powder?

I didn't think of doing that. Would it not stress the roots?
The roots on the healthy looking one were all looking really good, no black roots, tons of feeder roots. Won't the well aerated soil help enough in this case?
Then the other one had barely anything at all left. Maybe about 3 roots that were about 3-4cm. They were in a very bad shape, I doubt it will recover. Wouldn't the cinnamon especially stress them even more, doesn't it repell water?

 

[discusmike]

They can be finicky about there roots,if you bare rooted the tree its a good chance it will not make it,hopefully it will pull thru for you,ive had better luck in mid to late spring repotting these,but never bare root

 

[discusmike]

I would have allowed the roots to dry on there own angling the pot and left till better conditions,the good thing is there cheap

 

[AlainK]

I didn't think of doing that. Would it not stress the roots?

I'm sure it won't. I mean, you don't need to over-treat them, organic solutions are rarely as bad as chemicals.

Just balances, just weights.