I went over my friend's house who is away, and I found her ivy plant suffering (her husband's been trying, but...) There's white over the top of the soil, and 2 of the stems, which were very dry, just fell out of the soil on me. There are still 2 good healthy stems and 1 that's just barely hanging in there. I'll probably trim and root the good ones to make a fuller plant, but in the meantime, what is this white stuff and how do i get rid of it? It's not fuzzy like a mold. It's almost crystal-like, as if the soil just turned white. This plant has been through a lot already-I previously soaked it in a bowl of water because it had become so dried out. I forgot to remove it before I left, and her husband then refilled the bowl and let it sit for about a week, on the counter with no natural light. Is there any hope? Thank you!

Thanks Amy! That put my mind to rest! I was just looking at the plant and scraping away the white stuff for appearance sake, and I realized that this is a really terrible plant. Or rather, whoever sold this plant is really terrible. It has 2 good stems, and 1 that was dried up. It previously had 2 other stems but they dried up also. I decided to rip out the last dead one and I noticed that it barely had any roots! I may be wrong, but it looks like they just stuck some cuttings with rooting hormone (I saw a little bit of white stuff on the stem as i've seen with my own cuttings) and stuck 'em to make the plant look fuller. I guess considering what the plant has been through lately, poorly rooted cuttings really didn't stand a chance. I've got to find out where she got it so I know to never buy anything from there! But anyway, I snipped 2 new cuttings that i'll add back to the plant once they have well established roots-wish me luck!