It’s been shooting up like this for months now… so I don’t think it’s a flower? It’s under fairly high intensity light where all my other succulents get stress colors. I just repotted, rootball wasn’t very big. I’m wondering if I should chop the top or see what happens!
by SignificanceMost8826
9 Comments
I could be wrong but since that’s the main stem, and the very tip of it seems to be growing the leaves much closer together, it seems to be growing so tall to get closer to the light. Different plants require different lighting needs. So just because your light is strong enough to give stress colors to other plants, doesn’t mean it’s strong enough to give this guy all the light he needs. If you do decide to chop and prop, move it significantly closer to your light. Like as close as the top portion currently is to said light
It is etiolated. It wants more light. See how it turned toward the light source? That does not look like a high intensity light to me.
They do get RIDICULOUS flower stalks- this one’s been growing for about 3 months now and is still only about to flower. Check for buds forming at the tips cause otherwise it doesn’t look in bad health to me
https://preview.redd.it/0o5saqpmatrg1.jpeg?width=1816&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1470512e6d46df45bf934b42e3035f25990e8d50
This succulent needs a lot of light! Yours is etiolated
You’re getting so many misinformed answers here. This is not etiolation!!
This is what they look like when they flower. They put out ridiculously tall flower stalks. I made the mistake of beheading mine when it looked like this thinking it was etiolated.
People often grossly underestimate how close many of their succulents actually need to be to their grow light. There are charts out there online of light spectrum and how much it dissipates the farther away you get from the source of light.
It might be a flower stalk….
Or it is stretching out like that because it wants more light really badly. See how the top of the plant is more compact, and not all stretched out with all the spacing in between the leaves like the rest of the stem? The compact growth tells you that it’s happier with the amount of light it’s getting in that spot.
unless that is a flower stock, and that is the flower buds!
I grow all of my succulents on a wire rack mostly, outfitted with full spectrum LED shop lights that go from 3000 to 6500K. And I keep most of my succulents up on risers to get them closer to the light. Some of them are practically kissing the grow lights… like my echeveria PVN’s. They are light hogs! Others can be lower down in the front of the shelf, like my jades.
And then I just watch them closely to see if they look like the spacing between the leaves is staying relatively compact as they grow. If they look like they’re starting to stretch, or the leaves are down turning because they are trying to maximize their surface area for life absorption, I just move them up a little higher closer to the light.
For pot risers, I use stacked empty pots, blocks of wood, candlestick holders, meant for chunky candles, etc. and then I have everything arranged on the shelves kind of like a choir… the ones needing more light being towards the back and closer to the light.
I think your kalanchoe tomentosa looks like it’s stretching out even at the bottom… See how the spacing between the leaves is getting further and further apart as it grows? That leads me to think that it wants more light.
Yep. Just a silly inflorescence. Here’s my chocolate soldier.
https://preview.redd.it/ud4ld3lfitrg1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62093c1ea2293f398c5d5c9796a6ccb0e20c5b10
And that’s outside in direct sun. Not Etiolation at all.
It’s beautiful 😍
I just had to cut mine down! It was going to flower and since I still have my plants inside, it was literally invading everyone else’s space! Once/if you decide to cut it back, you should get a ton of new branches. I have 3 starting to grow from where I cut, plus a ton of axillary buds on lower leaves that are now getting more light. Happy growing!!