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Cacti & Succulents

Succulent advice please?

9 years ago

Hi, I am new to the world of succulents and cacti and could really use some advice on an unknown Echeveria I got a couple of months ago, any help would be gratefully received!
The plant seems to be doing ok in general, it has been constantly forming new flowers and sprouting new stems since I have had it, but I am a little concerned about what is going on on the lower levels, the lower leaves just seem to slowly be turning yellow, wilting, then eventually drying up and falling off!
There are 5 new plants growing from the stem underneath, so I am not sure if it is these that are causing the lower leaves to die or if it is something I am doing? Should I remove these new plants and repot them separately?
I water it once a week, letting the water drain through and feed it every other week. It sits on my desk by a south facing window and I rotate it each week to even it out a bit.
If you could offer any advice on what I can do to stop these leaves dropping and get my favorite plant as healthy as possible I would be very grateful! Thanks in advance!

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Comments (3)

bikerdoc5968 Z6 SE MI
9 years ago
Welcome to this forum. First, it is normal for Echeveria to lose its lower leaves in the manner you describe. I usually remove them well before they get very yellow and brittle, because they don't help the plant, they are unsightly IMHO, and they can be a source of disease, if they rot. Next, no, the pups are not causing leaf loss. Looking at the pups, I would venture to say, your plant could use more sunlight, because they look "anemic".
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Denise
9 years ago
Echeverias need maximum light. You don't say where you are, but up here in Nebraska, I can only grow a few well. They do fine outside in the summer, but in winter, they tend to get leggy. When grown indoors, they need to sit right against the glass in a south window. When spring gets here, I move them outside as soon as the last frost is past and move them from a semi shady spot into full sun over about 3 weeks. If you put them right out in full sun, they'll burn, but they do adjust pretty quickly.

I agree that it is natural for the lower leaves to die off as the plant grows. Leave the babies on - they will only enhance the plant as they grow, and they will hide that bare stem. Here is one I have grown for many years, started out as a single head.

Denise in Omaha
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I would not remove any leaves from the clipped rosettes. Remember that the leaves are stored energy (water and food) for the plant. The same goes for the stem left behind. You can always trim that last rosette off later, hopefully after you get some back-budding and more rosettes. I like a longer stem, an inch or so, to stabilize the cutting, but that is just my preference. Sometimes that is not available. Let the cutting dry for several hours or over night. Then insert the stem into DRY potting mix, or lay the rosette atop the mix. Your plant takes up water through the roots. If there are no roots, no water is given. Otherwise you may get rot. Here is a rosette that I just rooted. (just rained, so that's why it is wet) It's ready for me to plant in the yard. See how it is sitting on the mix? And here is the plant I took it from. It has sprouted a pup that I will root eventually. I will probably use those leaves for propagation, too. But I am in no hurry so I will see what happens with this plant. (The stem is black because I put cinnamon on it after cutting.) Leaves will sprout just about anywhere. I'm not kidding. This one fell off a plant and landed between pots. I found it when I was trying to clean up some. LOL Often, my leaves sprout roots while laying on the counter. That's because I get busy and forget about them. Other times I lay them on my potting mix. Sometimes I tuck the end into the substrate, other times I do not. Some leaves simply do not grow, so don't fret if some of them don't. Some people mist them, but that has lead to rot for me. I only mist if there are roots. Again, no roots, no water. =) After I carefully arranged leaves in this pot, the wind mixed it all up! Leaves were buried and I probably didn't dig up all of them. A lot of the mix blew out, too. But they are doing their thing! I hope this helps some. Gardening should be fun, so don't let it stress you out. Some plants are easy for me, and others I cannot grow for the life of me. Trial and error - with good advice from friends here - has helped me choose. Good luck! You have a very nice looking plant.
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bikerdoc5968 Z6 SE MI
9 years ago
A word about cutting... I am very passionate about my Eche's. I do some things that many possibly would not do. Our plants are for our personal enjoyment as well as sharing both success stories and those that might not meet our expectations! What is important, IMHO, is 'Different strokes for different folks'... Ah the 60's/70's! Anyway, not all Echeveria produce a plethora of offsets, while others seem to abound in their efforts to reproduce. I'm not certain as to th ID of Denise's plant but it appears to be one that enjoys producing pups. As I started to say, I remove offsets because I enjoy having lots of plants to sell/trade or just give away. Next, the pups require energy which will limit the size of the main head, so I remove them as do I remove most flower spikes well before they open unless I've not seen a particular plant's flower. Keep in mind, some Echeveria grow as small to moderate sized rosettes and not a huge display making offsets questionable as to size of th main plant. Now, I don't disagree that the offsets can hide an otherwise unsightly tall stem. Here again, when my Eche's get to this stage, they get whacked!!!!! I don't like top heavy plants or bare stems. This process of beheading isn't any different than someone doing whack job on their favorite jade. This provides me with a nice looking head that will now grow new roots and a larger showy head and provide me with new offsets from the old stem.

So in the picture we have an old beheaded E. limbicata, center back. The small rosettes will remain until their stems are long enough for me to harvest and I will toss the old stem. The plant, stage left, has no ID as of yet but produces lots of offsets from the base, which I will remove sooner or later and behead the main plant. The plant on the right was beheaded about six weeks ago. The stem has produced several new offspring which, hopefully, by September will be large enough to remove. The head is growing larger and IMHO looks much better down in the pot than blowing in the wind....

Bottom line we all do what we want to do and there is no "Right way" about it.
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