My grandmother had a large umbrella tree for basically my whole life. I’m in my early 40’s now and she passed away in 2002. It stayed in the house until 2008 when my grandpa passed, made its way to my house in 2009/10. It was in rough shape for at least 5 years before I got it. My sporadic care combined with slow release fertilizer made it thrive and it did great for 10 years. Life’s been crazy the last 5 years with family health issues and the plant is in a downward spiral. It was comprised of 4 main stem systems. This spring it showed some new growth and I thought it had turned a corner. But it took a nose dive the last two months. I realize now that the room it was in is a lot more shaded due to new growth in the yard. I never repotted it, and it pretty much was left alone after my grandma passed.
2 of the 4 stems are dead, dead.
One has a larger root system that looks pretty much gone, but it has one branch of almost dead growth with a hint of green left.
The other stem has very little growth, is almost 4’ tall, and has some green at the top and one small offshoot with green.
I picked up some sushine mix 4, a bag of sushine all purpose potting soil, a local brand of potting soil closer to Midwestern loam, and a bag of mushroom compost.
I’m looking for advice on how to save at least one part of the plant. Do I clean up the limited root system on the long stem with the most green, or do I take the ends off as cuttings and try to revive those.
Do I take the almost dead brand off the large root ball and try to revive it as a cutting, or do I put the whole cleaned up root ball in a pot, leave it outside for the next month and hope for the best?
The two stems not completely dead are outside on top of my car getting washed off by a light rain at the moment while i come up with a game plan.