Hi everyone,

I'm new here, this place seemed friendly so I joined up to start my journey in succulents....

Last week I got this guy from someone so it's kind of sentimental, hoping to get some help here how to keep it healthy

There's not much light in my room so I'm using the grow light in the pic, trying to run it like 10 hours so the plant has time to rest

Every evening I'm lightly misting the dirt, I've noticed in the past week the plant has stood up in comparison to how it was on receiving it so I guess that's good right?

Thanks

Hi & welcome! I think it is this one:
Golden Sedum (Sedum adolphi)

It looks good. When the soil is dry, water it so that all of it gets moist. Does the pot have a drain hole in the bottom?

purpleinopp said: Hi & welcome! I think it is this one:
Golden Sedum (Sedum adolphi)

It looks good. When the soil is dry, water it so that all of it gets moist. Does the pot have a drain hole in the bottom?

Hi, thanks for your reply-there's no hole in the pot. I've been watering it every night the way you described, light misting of the dirt using spray-bottle.

Hi.. Welcome. I think every day watering is too much for succulents, especially when you grow it indoor. Can you stick a skewer into the soil for one minute the pull it out to check whether the bottom of the media is completely dry before you water the plant? Sometimes the bottom part is still wet while the top layers may look dry..

to the world of succulents and indoor gardening.
If you can move it into a pot with drain-holes it will do better and you will be able to soak it when it needs water.

Hey there,

So since you're starting your journey into succulents you'll definitely want to repot into something that has drain holes and read through our sticky thread on soil for succulents and cacti to know what type of soil you should use when you re-pot it! Members have their personal mixes posted in there!

Once you've done that you'll want to wait a week before watering again to give the roots time to callous with potential damage during, and then once you resume watering you want to water fully so the soil becomes moist and drains out the bottom, and then wait to water again until the soil has completely dried. This is going to be very important since you are planning on keeping it indoors. Succulents do not appreciate being constantly moist and moist too long and welcome the soil drying completely! So the daily watering won't be good for it long term.

All in all you'll have much better success changing things from the very beginning and then you and your plant can make memories through the years!

Welcome to NGA, we have a wonderful friendly community here!

Thanks everyone....one thing I'm confused on...you're saying I need to repot into something with holes so when I water the water passes through the soil into the bottom wetting the entire pot?

If light misting of the soil is too much water won't completely drenching the soil drown the succulent?....right now I wait until the soil is dry before spraying water lightly on the soil down by the root just fyi.

My recommendation would be a regular cycle between properly wet soil and dry or nearly dry soil. You can't get the soil properly wet without holes at the bottom to allow the excess water to exit the container. I mean, you can in theory. But the danger without holes at the bottom is that water will end up pooling permanently down there and in the process provoke rot. Having a good amount of rock in the soil (pumice, perlite or gritty equivalent) helps speed up the cycle and thus make it safer for your succulents.

The top layer dries out much sooner than the soil at depth, which is what matters most when you're trying to work out the best timing of your watering cycle.

We have a sticky thread about watering that you may find helpful.

The thread "Watering your cacti and other succulents" in Cactus and Succulents forum

OK I think I understand now, I'll check the sticky too. Thanks

Not to confuse you while pots with drain holes are best.I do use various containers that do not have drain holes but about do put about 1.5" of pebbles in the bottom of the pot.
As stated above the goal is not too much water they are plants that survive in arid areas.

herrwood said: Not to confuse you while pots with drain holes are best.I do use various containers that do not have drain holes but about do put about 1.5" of pebbles in the bottom of the pot.
As stated above the goal is not too much water they are plants that survive in arid areas.

That's good to know, the pot was part of the gift too so I wasn't looking to get rid of it just yet but I'll pick up some pebbles for now...

This morning I've noticed the green tint is different, more medium instead of the light green it was over the weekend

That was an excellent question about watering. I do a lot of mist/squirt bottle watering over winter because it does allow only the surface soil to be evenly moistened, where most of the roots are on these types of plants, without risking accidentally gushing a lot of water onto plants that don't need it, and when they are in hanging pots, would drip all over my floor. When the surface gets really dry, it can take a dump of a gallon of water to moisten the surface again, not an option for some pots. I also have a few pots w/o holes and mist-watering the surface helps ensure that I don't add too much. If there's a time when you are concerned that there is too much water in the pot, lay it sideways and if water starts dripping out, you did add too much.

Hi everyone, just checking in...I've been cautious keep up with the succulent the past few months but this week I noticed things going very wrong




Tonight I dug the three stalks out to check the roots

I noticed some leaves starting to come off, the center of the stalk looks fresh but the leaves have pruned up, I think it's over watering cause they're drooping...

Did I hurt the plant by removing it from the dirt?

I moistened the dirt gently before putting the stalks in

I'm felling kind of sad I might have hurt it too much, I feel like if I fix it now it might be ok

It looks like there is just not enough light for that plant in the spot where that plant has been. If that is the most bright spot you can offer, I would recommend trying another plant that does not need so much light.

It is still in a pot without drainage. That is not good.
Did you stop misting the soil every day?
Soil looks too moist, too rich. Should have some sand or something in it to promote quicker drainage and drying.

And if the plant light is too far away and it is too weak in terms of promoting good growth, that is also working against you.

purpleinopp said: It looks like there is just not enough light for that plant in the spot where that plant has been. If that is the most bright spot you can offer, I would recommend trying another plant that does not need so much light.

There's nowhere in my room that has enough lightvso I've been using one of those disc grow lights which caused the succulent to thrive very promptly the first two months, could it be the soil?

I hate to be Debbie Downer but I think it just took a long time for the effects of insufficient light to manifest. I see these changes on all kinds of plants when I bring them inside for winter.

Agree, generally, with what Bill said about the soil. But nothing about the soil can compensate for low light, if one wants their plant to have a high light appearance.

Hello @PinetownTree, if it were mine, my first remedy is to move the plant to a container with drain holes. It is not just excess water you have to flush out when watering but also accumulated salts.

Then as you repot, try to add more pumice or perlite to your media. As already mentioned, your media seems too moisture retentive, got to make that media more porous, with better airflow at root zone. Roots needs to breathe too, and succulents do not like being too damp moist more than it is needed. That is why the earlier comments already advises you to use a container with drain holes and adding some more pumice or perlite will further improve your media.

I would caution you about misting/watering at night...better to do it earlier in the day so by night time all excess water has drained away. With an indoor set up it takes longer for media to dry up properly..unlike when it is outdoors, the dynamics are different, more air, light and warmth around that acclerates dry out time. Outdoors in summer, succulents may enjoy stepped up watering, depending on ones relative humidity levels.
If you really have no choice but do watering at night, I would suggest you run a fan overhead for a few minutes to simulate more airflow around the plant, and thus help too with dry out time.

Agree, but all a moot point w/o more light if the goal is to have a plant that looks like the first pics of this discussion, upright with straight uncurled leaves.

purpleinopp said: Agree, but all a moot point w/o more light if the goal is to have a plant that looks like the first pics of this discussion, upright with straight uncurled leaves.

First question, is it possible to save it?

I'll try to repot it with holes

Is it ok to run the light indefinitely? In my college they grow lots of plants succrssfully with grow lights running indefinitely