The cultivation experience of succulent experts, don't let succulents be sacrificed in vain

Dormancy or "death"?

Often, novice succulent growers treat dormant succulents as "dead" and ignore them, causing unnecessary losses. In fact, most succulents need to go through dormancy or semi-dormancy in summer or winter. During this stage, most succulents will have leaves falling off, wrinkled, and in poor condition. The succulent plants that are truly "dead" must be completely succulent. But as long as there is still a little bit that has not shrunk, there is a glimmer of hope. At this time, you need to reduce watering, provide appropriate shade, or place it in a warm place. With careful care, succulents can quickly recover to a good condition after the dormant period.

Choose dark flower pots carefully

For succulents placed near windows, when the sun is strong in summer or autumn, the sunlight will shine directly through the glass onto the dark flower pots, causing the temperature inside the flower pots to rise rapidly, affecting the growth environment of the succulents. If improper watering occurs again, succulents can easily "die". Therefore, it is best not to use dark-colored pots for succulents placed near windows, or choose to place a white reflective plastic board in front of the pots to avoid direct sunlight.

The first choice for watering succulent plants - squeeze-type curved spout pot

When watering or spraying succulents, avoid watering or spraying the leaves. Succulents covered with water droplets can easily get sunburned when exposed to the sun. When watering, water along the edge of the flowerpot. You can choose to use a squeeze-type curved-mouth pot for watering. This can control the amount of water to prevent excessive water from damaging the roots, and avoid watering into the plant to prevent leaf rot. For some succulents and mini succulents grown in bottle landscapes, you can also choose to water them with a dripper. When spraying, spray around the pot. If water drops onto the leaves, wipe them off with a paper towel as soon as possible.

If succulents are injured, they need to be taken care of more carefully

When succulents are propagated by leaf cuttings, beheading, etc., they are usually cut. The wounds left after cutting must not come into contact with water or soil. If they do, they should be wiped off with a clean paper towel immediately, otherwise the wounds will easily be infected with bacteria, mold and rot, causing the propagation to fail. Cut succulents should be placed in a bright and ventilated place and inserted into sandy soil after the wound has healed. During the drying process, avoid direct sunlight, otherwise it will easily dry out. If the leaves become moldy or rotten, be sure to dispose of the bad leaves as soon as possible and do not put them together with healthy leaves, otherwise the healthy leaves will easily be infected with bacteria and become sick.

Leaves are the key to leaf cuttings

Many succulent plant players have experienced leaf cutting failures, with the leaves becoming hydrated or moldy halfway through the process. There are many reasons for this, but it mainly has to do with the health of the leaves themselves and whether the leaves have been exposed to water before leaf cutting. Therefore, when doing leaf cuttings, be careful not to rinse the leaves with water just because the surface of the leaves is not clean. The probability of leaf cutting failure will increase if the leaves are rinsed. In addition, some leaves will take root first and then sprout, while some leaves will sprout first and then regenerate roots, or both will appear at the same time. For those leaves that grow roots first, they must be buried in the soil as soon as the roots grow. The roots are exposed to the air and can easily dry up and die.

Should we pick or not pick the small leaves after leaf cuttings?

After the leaf cuttings are successful, roots will grow at the base of the leaves or adventitious buds will grow from the base of the leaves after about 2 to 3 weeks. As the adventitious buds grow, the leaves of the leaf cuttings will continue to dry up and shrink. There is no need to manage them for the time being. When the size of the adventitious buds exceeds that of the leaves of the leaf cuttings and the leaves of the leaf cuttings are basically dry, you can pick them off directly.

A bug is found, alarm bells sound

When you find a bug on the leaves of succulents, don't take it lightly. There is a high possibility that there are many bugs lurking in the leaves and roots of succulents. At this point, you need to sound the alarm immediately and take action. First, use tweezers to pick out the small insects you find and then prepare insecticide to spray them. For example, scale insects can be killed by spraying 800-1000 times diluted Suposu Emulsion, and red spider mites can be killed by spraying 1000-1500 times diluted 40% trichlorodicofol emulsifiable concentrate. Otherwise, if you act a little too slowly, your succulents will probably be taken over by bugs.

Protect succulents from birds, cats and mice

In addition to the hateful insects that will harm the health of succulents, succulents actually have many other opportunities, such as curious cats at home, mice, sparrows, cockroaches, etc. They may harm succulents.

The best way to deal with birds is to buy some net covers and cover the succulents grown outdoors. You can also put a few colorful windmills or red plastic bags around the flower pots. These can effectively prevent birds from visiting. To prevent sneak attacks by kittens, you can place succulents on higher windowsills or balcony shelves, and insert a few pointed toothpicks on the edge of the flowerpot. To deal with rats, you can use sticky mouse traps and place them in places where rats have passed by.

Weather forecast, a daily must

To care for succulents, you need to pay attention to the weather forecast every day. Due to different weather conditions, succulents have different requirements for water. Succulents need more water when the temperature is high, and less watering is needed in midsummer and when the temperature is low. Generally, no watering is done on rainy days. Only by accurately understanding the weather conditions can you develop the best plan for watering succulents.

Don't touch the white-powdered succulents too much

Some varieties of succulents will be covered with white powder. This white powder only appears once. Once it is wiped off by hand or washed off with water, it will not appear again. You can only wait for new leaves to grow, which will greatly reduce its ornamental value. Therefore, on weekdays, do not often touch succulents covered with white powder, and avoid the leaves when watering or spraying, otherwise it will leave ugly marks.

Give the seedlings space to grow

Many succulents grow in groups, that is, small seedlings grow under the leaves at the base. Plants like Jade Butterfly and Red Tower are easy to grow in groups. Generally speaking, no special management is required, but if there are too many leaves at the base, they will squeeze the seedlings and leave them no space to grow. Especially in summer, young seedlings may even be suffocated under the base leaves. Therefore, it is necessary to properly trim or directly break off the leaves close to the seedlings to give the seedlings space to grow. The broken off leaves can also be used for leaf cuttings to grow more plants.