baby dend. roots going soft

[Gladys47]

I mounted one of my keikei's a few weeks ago. Usual mount with a small amount of spag under and over roots. Today I notice the leaves are soft. after checking roots they are too. What did I do wrong? I have several more to do, just waiting on the roots to get a little bigger. The roots in question were 3-4" long and 8 or 10 roots. It is Queen of south east. Thank you, Gladys

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

You probably should wait on the rest for spring when the new growth starts rooting. There is a problem that may arise that the current roots are not the right kind of root for the new situation. Roots that spend most of the time dry, your mounties, are very different in functionality from roots that might grow in a wet situation like semi-hydro, where the roots at the bottom may even be growing in the liquid. I always recommend that sympodials, those that grow a new growth sideways, only be repotted when the new growth is just starting to produce its flush of first roots. At that time, the plant has a lot of hormones to grow roots, and even the older roots will often throw out side roots.