Succulent novice here, with first lithops. He came in a very tiny pot from a mail order succulent nursery, and a little bit of soil was lost in transit. I read that during our summer they are dormant and should not be watered, so I just put him in my sunniest window and did nothing else for a few weeks. Eventually, I noticed some wrinkling and went ahead and re-potted him and I did water him at that time. He seems to have grown a ton height-wise
since then. So far, he seems very healthy. But all of the pictures I see they are much shorter and closer to the soil. Wondering if this is normal or if it’s etiolation? If he needs more light, we might be screwed because this is my sunniest south facing window, and my other succs do great there. Thanks in advance!
by Left-Programmer-6528
3 Comments
In my experience, they often grow taller before fully splitting. But I am relatively new in this venture myself. 🤷🏻♀️
I think he does need more light. Lithops should not grow tall like that. He needs direct sunlight, as much as he can get. I tend to move my lithops around the house or deck so they sit in direct beams of light as the sun moves around. Could you do that?
He also needs different substrate asap. Lithops grow out of almost straight gravel in their natural habitat, and you have him in moist looking soil. He’ll rot that way! Take him out and make a mix of 10% soil, 90% grit (small gravel, aquarium gravel, perlite, sand, even not clumping cat litter, whatever you’ve got). And plant him so he’s maybe just an inch above the substrate.
Check out some pics of lithops in the wild, they are meant to mimic actual rocks and they lie almost flat with the ground. That’s what we want to emulate for them.
I have mine in the backyard with morning sun and afternoon shade thanks to the tree. Central California gets really hot and I didn’t want it to perish before it had a chance.
No long stalks yet. One plant is very soft, so I lightly watered it.
Keeping my fingers crossed.