I'm hoping someone can answer this question or give me some guidance...
I decided to overwinter my MB indoors this year. It was planted in the yard and I noticed 2 pups breaking ground. This changed my plans of mulching and hoping for the best.
I don't have a garage or crawlspace for cold storage. Just the mainfloor of a townhouse that is about 66F over winter in order to keep the other floors a comfortable 69F.
Anyway, I potted the MB up, have him under a growlight for 10 hours a day since our weather is so gray and dreary, even the southern exposure windows aren't getting much sun. The leaves didn't droop like my failed experiment last year and in fact I've got a new leaf in just under a week.
I sprayed the whole plant with a fungicide and have treated it for bugs. I haven't seen rot or bugs at all, indoors or when it was out. Humidity is around 45% indoors in the bathroom/growhouse where it's residing.
However, I noticed that the two pups that are still attached to the root ball aren't doing anything. One of them has withered and turned black, so I assume he's a goner, but the other one is still green, but with tinges of brown on it and isn't growing. It's still just a stub, about a half inch out of the ground. I haven't been watering the plant very much, only when the whole thing starts looking peaked.
I'd accept losing both pups if it meant the mother plant surviving (cold hearted huh?) but is there some way of ensuring the pups survival or prompting the pup to grow? Am I correct in assuming that the plant is readjusting to its potting, growing roots etc, and will concentrate its efforts on pups once the roots have stabilized?
As an aside, the leaf that just opened grew at a rate of about 2-3 inches a day. It's going to be inside for 5 months or so. This could be a problem!
Last years experiment ended in death and destruction all around. First the pups rotted, then the rest of the p-stem. Not sure if it was from overwatering, lack of light, drastic shock to repotting or combination of the 3.