Soft Rot Symptoms

• Erwinia carotova and E. chrysanthemi may rot the stems or the roots of your Dracaena. You’ll see a soft, mushy black lesion at the soil line, and the stem will weaken; the lower parts may break. The leaves become discolored and collapse. The disintegrating roots and stem ends look wet, turning brown and mushy, and they often smell like rotting fish. If you cut the stems, you’ll find that the vascular system looks dark.
  
  

Dracaena

• Dracaena marginata is native to the hot, dry climate of Madagascar, an island off the southeast coast of Africa. Bacterial soft rot usually develops if you regularly overwater your Dracaena or the soil or plant mix does not drain well. Wait until the soil around your Dracaena is dry before you water it. Do not water with cold water. Be careful not to wound the stem of your Dracena when you transplant it or move it to another pot.
  
  

Control

• It does little good to attempt to cut out rotting parts of your Dracaena. If you plant an apparently healthy cutting from an infected plant, it might root only to develop bacterial soft rot later on. It sometimes helps if you dip the cuttings in bactericides containing copper or streptomycin before you plant them. Ultimately there is no way to control bacterial soft rot short of getting rid of your plant before the diseases spreads to other plants.
  
  

Fusarium Fungal Disease

• If you overwater your Dracaena, it might also develop fungal leaf spot and stem rot with symptoms nearly identical to bacterial soft rot. The fungus Fusarium moniliforme can cause irregularly shaped, tan to reddish-brown lesions on the leaves and stem of your Dracaena. Unlike bacterial soft rot, you can treat this fungus. Treat your plant with copper-based fungicides and keep the leaves dry; it may regenerate from healthy buds in the center. If you splash water onto a diseased Dracaena, you can spread the disease to other plants.