Hi! I am brand new to the forum, and am a budding cactus and succulent lover.

This plant was given to me by someone who no longer could care for it, and was in pretty rough shape. Several of the leaves were mushy and limp, and the plant looks pretty etiolated when viewed from the side. He also seems to have some bruising on the leaves. He's an indoor plant, and currently lives on a sunny windowsill in my apartment.

In my quest to save him, I've pruned off all of the leaves that were mushy or showing signs of rot. I've kept him pretty dry, watering only when the soil was fully dried. I joined this forum to get some advice.

There are some patches on the leaves that are greyish and scaly in texture, kind of a plant version of a skinned knee. I've included a picture of this. Do you know what they are? To me they look like bruises scabbing over, but I'm not quite sure.

I was also wondering if you have any tips on how to help him thrive and get him looking happier. He's still looking kinda sickly, but much better than when I got him. Thank you so much in advance for your time and help! (: I've read through this page a LOT for advice, and it has all been super helpful.

Top view:


Side view:


Here's the scaly patch (close to the stem)

I could be wrong but it does not look like a Sempervivum. It looks like Echeveria Chroma. The plant looks like it is not getting enough light.


The care and growth of Sempervivum and tender Succulents are different.

Can I suggest you post it on the Cactus and Succulent Forum and ask if anyone can positively ID it with more knowledge than me.

http://garden.org/forums/view/...

Hi Kara, and a great big to ATP. So glad you found your way here.

I see we have 4 members that have Echeveria Chroma. I think one of them could give you the help you need. I will see if Trish or Dave can move this thread to the Cactus and Tender Succulent Forum.

Seems like you are doing some of the things your lovely plant needs to help heal.
Cinta is correct, your plant is not a Sempervivum but probably Echeveria Chroma.
Lets see if we can get @Ecograndma, @MagerRooRHammer, @webesemps and @GigiPlumeria to help you out with this plant.

I look forward to seeing the advice that will come from some of our other members that know this plant. Another learning experience for many of us.

Hello Kara, to ATP!

From what I see, I think your plant looks more like a Echeveria Perle Von Nurnberg. I could be wrong but my Chroma has a thicker look with its chunkier and shorter leaves...Was it definitely ID'ed as Chroma?
Anyway, whatever it is, it is definitely etiolated and I do see what looks like a divot, which may have resulted from an injury or jab. If you see something looking more like a slight bump of a brownish color then I might suspect something invasive like scale...???

Plant looks healthy for now but, as Cinta suggested, it needs more light. With more light, the top center will become more compact but the rest will stay leggy. You also have a few fingerprints on the leaves which can take away from the frosty look of these echeverias. On some of these, there's a fine coating that fingers rub away...

Also, a few things you can do to get this plant more to its ideal beyond being in better health:

You can pull, with a slight twist, the very bottom leaves off and propagate them to form new plants.

Or you can cut the top half of the plant off and let the open cut callous for a few days. After callousing you can try and root the head. This helps in getting you a plant with a more compact rosette shape.

The leftover stem will hopefully branch out with two new heads.

Good Luck and Enjoy!

Hello and thank you for the warm welcome!

Thank you so much for the clarification on its identity. When I was given the cactus, I was told it was a sempervivium-- now I know it is definitely an Echiveria. I agree it looks most like an Echeveria Perle Von Nurnberg rather than a Chroma.

I live in a small apartment at school with West-facing windows. This doesn't seem to be giving it the light it needs. Should I supplement the daylight with some sort of light inside the apartment? Maybe a lamp?

Thank you once again for your responses! I'm excited to see this guy get healthier.

Do you have it directly in the West facing window sill or near the window?

Planto

I have it in the sunniest window in my residence, sitting on the sill.

kararenee,
Hi again! Hmm... South is best for growing cacti/succulents indoors. I did read that all you have access to is West windows. It would be okay to supplement lighting but not any ol' light will do. I believe you have to have compact fluorescent bulbs, and specific ones at that (plants need certain spectrums of light, I think red and blue). I'm sorry I can't be of much help in this area, I have never grown C&S under lights and don't know much about growing plants under lights in general. I hope someone else will chime in on that for you. Again, sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Planto

Hello again!

I think LED lights would be best. They're more efficient than fluorescent and the bulbs don't burn out as quickly. I'm hoping I could just adapt a desk lamp to supplement.

I've never heard of using LED lights, that's definitely something you'd have to research. They do make CFLs that you can use in a lamp, but again, I don't know about the light spectrums in those and the ones that plants need.

Planto