Hey guys, So I'm wondering whether pollinizing a cactus and harvesting the resulting seeds eliminates all viruses in the resultant offspring that the parent plant/plants were affected by. The reason I bring this up is because I volunteer at a garden where one of the other volunteers is a biologist. ...

Hey guys, Last march I sowed a bunch of lithops and conophytum. Overall the lithops have done well, most of them are on their second pair of adult leaves. The conos have grown more slowly, the biggest are only on their first pair of adult leaves. My question is how I should water the little cono see...

They will be pest prone if fertilized with high nitrogen amounts , and if grown in poorly ventilated places, mainly. Once you fertilize correctly (poor nitrogen fertilizer), and give them sun and air flow, pests will appear only occasionally. Hey mmcavall I stumbled across this theory recently, I c...

Hey Keith, For what its worth, I've learned that the lithops seem to go dormant during the summer based on the nightime as opposed to daytime temperatures. When nightime temperatures stay consistently above 20c they seem to go dormant. That said, I still watered my adult lithops sparingly even with ...

I purchased a small 1-2 year old Lophophora williamsii in early September. During September I watered it every two weeks or so, and the temperatures were still ranging from 15-25C. A few weeks ago it started getting soft (i.e. flacid, as opposed to turgid), and I started watering it more to get it t...

Hello Mordecai, I'm not an expert, but I also have Lithops seedlings I sowed back in March and April. The normal advice regarding the lithops seedlings is to keep watering them throughout their first year of life, so yes, keep watering them throughout the winter. This is different to adult plants wh...

Hey Hegar I'm still planning on trying to get a better picture for you. I'm going to need to use the macro mode on the DSLR because the iphone just doesn't cut it. I'm actually becoming skeptical this is scale as I just removed true scale from an e. anguliger and had an up close look at it. Of cours...

Hey guys just a quick update. I've had the chance to observe the paradoxa over more watering cycles and I'm starting to believe that it does in fact have a virus. The reason I say this is I have seen stems developing the brown lines and then the necrosis even when I'm absolutely sure that I haven't ...

Hey Hegar, I will try to take another photo when I get a chance. What makes you think that I could rule out mites? Also, I think we can safely rule out mealybugs, I'm sure I would have spotted them were they present.

Hey guys, after reading through Steve Johnson's post on various insect infestations I'm wondering if I have a flat mite problem. I think I would have seen red mites, and I've only seen one little spider web, but I think it was just a regular spider. I also should mention that this issue has been slo...

So after wondering for a long while what was causing my lepismium cruciforme (its a flat variety, formerly classified as rhipsalis cruciformus) to sort of wither away, especially the new growth, I think I've finally discovered the culprit. The problem was I didnt really know what to look for, as the...

Glad to be able to help! I personally love all of the color and pattern variation within the same lithops species. It also makes growing them from seed especially gratifying (if you have the patience!). Enjoy your lithops, hopefully some will flower for you this fall.

Hey guys, quick update. This morning I inspected the e. hookeri cutting more closely and this brown patch did indeed reach down to the base of the plant (contrary to what I said in my last post), so it was in fact plain and simple rot. I just transplanted this well-rooted cutting into a larger pot a...

Hey from0to10, I grow a fair amount of lithops myself, and I'm fairly confident that all of these lithops are the same variety (or the same hybrid), of Lithops hookerii http://www.lithops.info/en/gallery/lithops_hookeri.html All lithops have some color variation, even within the same variety of the ...

Dave I checked out the links you passed me along and it looks like it could indeed be the insidious virus X since there seem to be so many symptoms (I say that a bit tongue and cheek)! In any case, it is suffering necrosis which is one of the symptoms listed. Mike what you say about r. paradoxa gett...