Cinnamon Use For Plants – Never Give Up – Rescued My Baby’s Tears!
I have to share with you my experience with a plant rescue. In this case, it is some Baby’s Tears that I earlier wrote about in this post. I had purchased some Baby’s Tears and there was a “dying” plant of the same type that they told me I could have for FREE. Well, I couldn’t pass up free and I was ready and willing to accept the challenge to try and revive that plant.
As you can see in the top image above, it was a dark color and I wasn’t sure what might be the problem. But I started out with the easiest assumption that it got dried out and was not able to recover.
As you saw in the previous post, I prepped the normal pot for planting in a terrarium, but set the rescue plant in a terrarium also but separated it from my other plants just in case it had some plant disease and was going to die anyway.
As I told you previously, I forgot about this rescue plant since all my attention was focused on the normal pot, and when I discovered it a few days later, lid on an enclosed glass jar, it was full of fine webbing of white mold.
I didn’t take any pictures at that time, but it was similar to how these tomatoes look. It looked like spiders had been busy for days constructing a massive tent covering for the whole plant. OMG!
I thought it was doomed!
Immediately, before I even took a photo of it (and I wish I had), I grabbed the cinnamon, but as I told you before in the other post, I put a boat-load of cinnamon on that poor little plant. (In such a hurry, I didn’t remember that it didn’t have a shaker top.)
I set it aside to see what would happen. ( I did leave the top open now.)
My Cinnamon Rescue
Luckily, this plant was such a Trooper. Slowly but surely over the next few days, tiny green leaves of Baby’s Tears popped through the layer of cinnamon. Each day was more and more until I was rewarded by a decent little plant growing.
I was so excited and I feel that it was the cinnamon that did the trick.
And let me tell you, it has grown SO MUCH and caught up with the other plant. I am so happy that I have some Baby’s Tears for my hypertufa pot out front. As you have seen in another post about my front garden, I am planning to put these in my pot with Mouse-Ear Hosta.
So I am glad to say that I have a huge amount of Baby’s Tears to plant there. Watch me plant them in the hypertufa pot in the video and let me know if you think that “dead” pot was worth saving…even after I buried it in cinnamon!
So my moral of the story is to Never Give Up on a plant until it truly is “toast.” You can always try everything possible. What have you got to lose? It either will be dead anyway or will make a recovery. Check out the video and you will see what I mean.
My Cinnamon Baby’s Tears are proof of that.
What are some cinnamon uses for plants?
Here are some uses for cinnamon in your plants and/or garden.
- fights fungus
- stimulates root development
- great for cuttings as root stimulant
- revives old soil
- helps prevent damping off in new seedlings
- helps prevent powdery mildew
Have you ever used cinnamon for something different in your garden? Let me know.
Cinnamon water or cinnamon “tea” can be used to water plants occasionally and/or as a foliar spray . If you would like, add just a drop of gentle soap to help it stick to the plant.
Just make it like coffee using a 1/4 teaspoon or less in approximately a quart of water in your coffee maker. Try it and see what you think. Watch me make the tea in the video.
I hope this helps rescue or revive at least one plant for you. Don’t give up until you’ve tried everything. Those little plants (and big ones too) are worth it.
After putting the cinnamon in your baby’s tears do you still water it ? Thanks !
Yes, I water it enough to be moist, not wet.
I thank you for the info on using cinnamon tea to combat powdery mildew, etc. I find that my phlox has the habit of becoming powdery every year, to the point that I don’t want to touch it. It looks ghastly. I am going to have a bottle of the cinnamon tea on hand this summer and use the cinnamon when I plant seeds as well to try and deter damping off.
Thanks and I hope it works well for you.