I know there is sun damage from when I got new lights but there are a lot of fresh green sprouts. I have no idea what I’m doing. I tried to google like I usually do and look through blogs and articles but I don’t know where to start because well, this looks like literally nothing I ever see posted 😂 I’m new to succulents but the others seem to be doing pretty well in spite of some clumsiness on my part.
It’s got succulent mix soil with a little extra perlite. Is this supposed to be in a wider but same depth pot or does it need a deep pot? Are these even almost ok? Idk why this one throws me off but it does.
Also, if you read my title and responded “Lemon, it’s Tuesday” then I hope it made you at least lightly chuckle.
by Ayeayegee
6 Comments
Bestie this isn’t lithops. You should try posting in the r/succulents subreddit because I think these are baby toes!
Looks great… lil sun burn but you know and have likely addressed that.
New growth is just the plant telling you it is happy and growing… ur soil sounds decent… if you just watered they look normal but be careful to not overwater.
Other items you could add to the soil would be: Akadama, sand, vermiculite, pumice, lava rock and any small unpolished stones.
I would look at larger pots soon… I like to give about 2 inches around for room to grow… also, you likely know but get a pot with a drainage hole if you haven’t already.
These are Fenestraria (Baby’s Toes, as someone mentioned). I have mine in about 70/30 inorganic/organic mix. They like to be buried a bit deeper than other succulents. Light enters through the window at the tip of their leaves and in their natural habitat. That’s really all that is above ground. Mine are buried about halfway up. Hope that helps.
Don’t water. It’s engorged
These are “baby toes”…..**Fenestraria**. Not a lithops, but it’s an amazing plant.
I bought some of these from Trader Joe’s. TJ’s had them mislabeled as lithops.
It turns out that I had the *Fenestraria aurantiaca* version [yellow flowers], which I loved, but one vacay lasted a little too long, and I never could get it to recover. 🥲 [subsp rhopalophylla has white flowers.]
It was a very profuse bloomer!
If a leaf should crack from over-watering, don’t fret too much. The cracks tend to callous over pretty quickly. But let it be an indicator to space out the watering interval.
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My plant cultivation history:
Purchased and repotted three days later. I potted¹ into a heavily inorganic mix. Maybe 70% inorganic by volume, the rest succulent mix. [I don’t recommend vermiculite as previously suggested…all the other materials are fine.]
It was situated about eight inches from a 60W, full-spectrum white grow-light. I only watered when the leaves are slightly soft to the touch. And I only lightly water at the substrate surface…as the leaves can crack if overwatered. “Light waterings” for me, means just until the water starts to seep out the drain hole.
Watering was approximately every fourteen, maybe twenty-one days based on the substrate and my growing conditions.
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✂️ IMORTANT: The plant is a sequential bloomer, so don’t remove the spent stem. You can dead-head just the bloom itself but no further. I learned the hard way. I destroyed a growth point by pulling out the spent flower stem. I decided to go “hands off” if my plant decided to grace me again with a flower. Lesson learned!
¹ 🪴 I learned another important lesson in repotting this plant. I left most of the original substrate around the rootball as I didn’t want to stress the plant too much.
The new substrate I used was a different composition. Turns out that they were incompatible. The material around the roots was more moisture retentive. The new stuff on the periphery was faster draining. I changed up my watering technique one time and almost lost the plant to water-boarding, which was due to inaccurately assessing the plant in the wrong spot… the new substrate, which wasn’t an accurate reading around the rootball.
👩🏻🏫 So the lesson: Use the same substrate composition when up-potting, or remove as much as reasonably possible if changing out the substrate.
Do NOT water it until those windows on top become much less transparent. I knew nothing about them, came in the mail. I drenched it…they ended up popping up outta the pot, many split halfway down. I was so sad. They looked like yours at first, now a couple months later only two or three have survived. Definitely a learning curve.