Hi Emily,

There are a few things I would suggest right away. Ammend that soil with at least 50% perlite or pumice and get them more direct sun. South facing is best but Ive never had the pleasure of have a south facing window or balcony. My balcony faces west so my plants get full afternoon and evening sun and they do well with that. For the soil, I know you said that its a brand specifically for cacti and succulents. Unfortunately, I have never seen a bagged C&S soil that isn't too water retentive for said plants. The perlite or pumice will help with that. Once you really get into this hobby it is likely that you'll switch to Al's gritty mix. I'd estimate that 80-90% of us on here use that. It is a bit time intensive and expensive to make, which is why I say to wait and see if you catch the bug (so to speak).

All that being said, there are a few things that could be going on with your plants. Could be some rot which is common and likely under stated conditions. Or they are experiencing stress from the repot and whatnot. I strongly suggest posting picture so we can see what everything looks like and some more experienced members can provide additional advise.

What Deva said — unfortunately, "dark and squishy" are often synonyms of "rot" (and from what you've described, I think it is the case — but I may be wrong); visuals are welcome because they always help more than words alone...

I don't know if your plants are salvageable but if they are — or if you want to give succulents a try again if they're not — as a beginner myself, I strongly encourage you to switch to a soilless media: soil simply retains too much water, even when mixed with perlite; which makes overwatering your plants and killing them a bit too easy... Succulents need a mix that drains well, and gritty mix (which is usually a mix of grit, turface and/or perlite) does exactly that (if you're interested in how and why, here's a post worth reading).

I'm in the process of repotting my plants into gritty mix (because of my location, I wasn't able to get turface or perlite, so a few people suggested I crush LECA balls instead and add grit) which is something I now find not only necessary to avoid overwatering, but essential to check roots for pests and diseases at the same time (one of my plants had root mealies, another seems to have root knot nematodes).

About sunlight, I found out the hard way that a bright room may not be as bright for a plant; direct sunlight means direct sunlight (okay, I may not have been very bright on that one... pun intended). I don't know what your location is but, perhaps, light from that North-West window is not bright enough... or maybe the window has been treated...

In any case, don't get discouraged; learning comes with trials and errors along with successes. You'll get there :)

Actually " if " your plants are stressed then brighter, stronger, longer times of brightness of sun would be the least of the concerns

A stressed plant isn't a growing plant, it's in surviaval mode it has no energy to grow and will continue to become worse if you attempt to grow it in growing conditions.

Bright stronger sun with the higher warmth from the STRONGER longer lasting UV sun light is intended for plants that are healthy and able to grow. A healthy plant isn't a stressed plant

Suggestions: ASAP get them out of what ever they are in and lay them on a damp napkin or some dry soil that you have on hand after you've cleaned as much of the unhealthy soil as you can ( all if possible) from the roots that remain before you post pics ( In my opinon what an experianced person(s) would want to see is what remains of the plant including it's roots not just a stressed or sickly potted plant )

Care while bare rooted and out of a pot: Not easy but some misting of the remaining plants would be reqiured as it may be out of a pot for a while. IE as you shop and find the better draining soil you discover or gritty mix ideas are being founde. Lighting indirect but bright temps can range from 58 F to 80 F Ventilation is relative and constant circulation if lower temps but more if warmer as plant tops also like to breath they need more air to breath if hotter

What you should expect,as there is no gurantees and at worse case you may be better to find or buy new succulent plants or replace the ones you got ( the easier way to go IMO) A full recovery of at least one or more of what you already have will take time. How long it takes is a mytery for any plant in stress. Example: As little as three hours in the woods a plant can be stresed for a year, some can survive stress even longer before theybecome close to being ready to come out of the woods. Some don't every get out

Hi Emily,

I'm sorry to hear about your plants, if you can have some time to post some pictures it will definitely help us better focus on the problems your plants are facing.

Succulents are essentially like cacti, they need ALOT of sun and very dry soil to thrive.

And right above me are some experienced growers giving very sound advise to help you through.

My take is, priority to remove them from the current containers, check the roots - don't be afraid to brush all the soil residue from the roots, even if it's losing the root hairs. If they are dry and healthy - you're good and they can rest without a pot for a couple days until you find a better alternate potting mix for your plants.

Once potted, they will need lights, at least 13 hours a day, unfortunately, a couple hours of sun by the window will never be enough for these plants and they will eventually wither away and die.

I've actually left my manager's plants under a grow light for the whole weekend, and I'm surprised to see new leaves growing. My office is also facing a northwest window, covered by high rise buildings in the city, so lights are the only way to keep these plants alive.

Best of luck to you and your plants

- Bernard

Um, I've never grown plants under lights, but I was looking into this alternative and that's not what I read about them: direct sunlight is said to be better and stronger than grow lights — that's why grow lights are left on longer than normal daylight hours...

Besides, my experience with succulents is that quite a few do okay with partial sun — and that is three to six hours of direct sunlight...

Finally, I seem to recall that plants have a different breathing cycle night, so they will need a break; so, personally, I wouldn't recommend leaving lights on all day, 24/7...

That said, I'm no expert in the matter, so please don't take my words for granted — I just figured I'd add my two cents as they are very different from Bernard's (who, perhaps, has read a lot more about grow lights than I have and knows better)!

Natural light is definitely better, but if one doesn't have it supplemental lighting will help a lot.

I use them for overwintering plants; succulents are still slightly etoliated but they would be much worse without lights. Some nighttime is good, most often I see recommendation for 14-16hrs/day.

Six Silver - Interesting read there; I don't think there is any hard or fast rule about lighting - but I'm no expert too, just trial and erroring my way through. As Rina has mentioned, natural light is the best; but in a controlled environment, we can only do the best for our plants.

I've used my manager's plants more as an experiment, she doesn't even care if they die because she just replaces them every 6 months anyways. (which is great for me, because upon close to death, I try to resurrect them and if they lives I get to keep them) She's pleasantly surprise her current plants are growing new leaves by just introducing a simple lamp.