Hello all, I recently acquired a (very) beaten up Dragon's tree cutting from a friend. I paid him a visit, and while on his property, I noticed a small branch from his dragon's blood tree had been cut off at a node. It appeared to have started to form roots lying right on the ground where it was. (San Diego, about 74 degrees Fahrenheit in the day, upper 50s at night.) I seized the opportunity to make a cutting from it, hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. I potted it on 12/2/13. A few days later, I took it back out of the pot and added a thin layer of rooting hormones to the bottom of the cutting, and, using a clean scalpel, removed a layer of the skin at the bottom of the trunk, and applied a thin layer of rooting hormone to that. Under the skin, it was still very green, and appeared to have a healthy cambium layer and sapwood. I've been keeping this cutting indoors, under two 5000 lumen 54 Watt Vitalume brand bulbs, one at 6500K (Blue) and one at 2900K (Red). The bulbs are situated about 4 - 5 inches from the plant. It receives a photo period of 16 hours, with little light coming from windows. It has an average temperature of about 78 - 80 degrees in the day, and about 65 - 70 at night. It's planted in an all-purpose soil, with a fairly mild fertilizer. I've noticed that since being planted, some leaves (Notably the damaged ones) have turned yellow, and even begun to have a slight red tint. Has anyone with any experience with these plants seen this before? I've also noticed some browning on the very tips of the leaves, although I can't tell whether or not that was since being planted. This is occurring dominantly at the base of the tree, however I'm concerned it will spread. Any advise is appreciated, these plants fascinate me and it would be a shame for this to go to waste. Here's a front view of the tree. Here's the back of the tree, where the most damage has been done. It was exposed to the elements for an unknown amount of time. Here's how it looked four days after planting: and six days after that:
