Succulent Questions

[ObsidianBuddah]

Hello everyone!

This is my first post. I stumbled upon this forum because I've recently purchased a few succulents and wanted to know a little more about how to care for them and what to look for. I was very surprised to see a "Royal Flush" split stone at the store so I bought it along with this pot full of a few plants. I used an AI camera to find out what exact plants they were since the tag on the bowl didn't give any information on what they were. According to the AI, the bowl plants should be; Elephant Bush, Dwarf Clone, Coppertone Sedum, Echeveria Apus, Little Jewel, and Graptoveria.

I'm particularly interested in how the split stone is looking since I've heard that they're a little difficult to raise.

I haven't watered them since I bought them about a week ago now. These pictures were taken yesterday.

Any help or information would be appreciated!

[greenknight]

You were smart to hold off on watering. The "Royal Flush". a cultivar of Pleiospilos nelii, needs very little water. Ideally, they should have no more than 2 pairs of leaves at one time, the fact that it has more means it was watered when it shouldn't have been. I believe you should wait until the oldest leaves have shriveled before you even consider watering it. Here's a site that explains in detail: https://sucsforyou.com/2020/05/19/a-qui ... plit-rock/

It's got a flower bud developing, yay!

The ones in the bowl are easier - just let it dry out between waterings. You'll soon need to split up that group and pot them individually.

Graptoveria hybrid looks correct for that one - there are many of them, "Debbie" is a possibility. The plant with the big flat leave looks like Kalanchoe luciae (flapjacks plant).

We could advise you better if we knew what climate you're in, see: viewtopic.php?t=43816

[ObsidianBuddah]

We could advise you better if we knew what climate you're in, see: viewtopic.php?t=43816

Yeah I suppose that would be pretty useful lol. It gets very hot and humid in South GA. I know succulents are typically from arid environments and humidity might be an issue.

I want to repot the split stone at some point because I don't like the cheap plastic store pot. Should I wait until the flower blooms or would that matter?

Thank you for the info and help!

[Tom in Tucson]

We could advise you better if we knew what climate you're in, see: viewtopic.php?t=43816

Yeah I suppose that would be pretty useful lol. It gets very hot and humid in South GA. I know succulents are typically from arid environments and humidity might be an issue.

I want to repot the split stone at some point because I don't like the cheap plastic store pot. Should I wait until the flower blooms or would that matter?

Thank you for the info and help!

The flower will have no problem opening without being planted at all. If I were you, I would remove the plant from the pot, remove as much soil as possible (dispose of the soil), then place the root stock between 3 stones with half sun exposure. While your waiting for it to finish blooming, you'll have time to find a pot you like. 3-7 days is a good period to wait until re-potting.

[greenknight]

Tom has a point there - that soil is awful, you need to replace it. You will damage the roots in the process of removing that stuff - the sooner you do it, the sooner they can start healing. It's living off stored water now, doesn't need roots in the ground.

The new potting mix for it should be very open and free-draining. One site suggests 25% cactus mix, 75% pumice (perlite is okay, too). In your climate, that might still hold too much water, pumice/perlite does absorb some - I suggest substituting some hard gravel for half of the pumice/perlite.

For the other succulents, I'd use 50% cactus mix, 50% pumice/perlite. Widely available cactus and succulent mixes retain too much water and need to be amended. Avoid mixes that have large chunks of bark or wood, or sift that stuff out.

[ObsidianBuddah]

Thank you all for the info. I purchased some miracle-gro cactus succulent mix and some perlite. Do you think that should be fine for the succulents? I recently purchased a Mammillaria elongata cactus and was wondering if the same mix would be good for it as well? I'm going to get some gravel and pots soon to put everything all together.

(late edit: do you think I could put the succulents in the small pots into one large pot? Or would it be better to keep them separate? If I put each one in large separate pots, would they get large?)

Once again, I appreciate the help!

My new plants:

[Tom in Tucson]

Although it's appearance is tempting, community plantings have a myriad of problems I'd rather not discuss at this time.

I'm not a big fan of store bought soil mixes, they can lead to more problems as time goes by. Your best bet is to buy pumice and non-peat 100% organic soil such as shredded coir. Most common succulents do fine in 75% pumice and 25% organic soil.

HTH

[greenknight]

They should be in individual pots about an inch larger than their root ball. Not a good idea to go to larger pots as the mix will stay wet too long.

I haven't found peat to be a problem if it's mixed with enough grit - some of our members have had bad experiences with coir. 25% of that cactus mix should be very safe. Perlite works fine, but is extremely light weight when dry - adding some heavier gravel will make the pots more stable as well as insure good drainage.