Yeah? That really stinks. I just wish I knew why! Literally, one day they're fine and the very next morning? Nothing but mush.

I've got a few more, so hopefully they won't wind up with the same fate :(

Haven't had mine for too long, but no issues yet. Breton2 - were you able to figure out what caused the death of yours? Quite frustrating.

I found these two threads, which may be helpful?

What went wrong? - Faucaria tigrina.

See CactusWorld post by iann.

No, not really. One did get knocked over by my toddler, and was mush the next day.The others just melted, seemingly overnight. Perhaps I let them getr too dry and the roots died, leading o rot when I watered it, but this is the only species I've had this recurring rapid death with.. I have been growing several other mesembs fairly long-term without any issues.

If I see one for sale again I may give them another go....I do find them appealing!

Mine seems to respond well to water. Honestly if I didn't know it was a mesemb, I would have watered it almost as much as my other succulents.

Would it have anything to do with fertilization? I'm just grabbing at ideas here.

If mine suddenly dies, I'll make sure to get some photos. =P

I had that happen with a split rock, but not with tiger jaws. I've had mine for a few years, but it lives outdoors in zone 9b in a small pot with cactus mix and no fertilizer. With the split rock, I suspect it was a watering issue.

i water mine the same way i do lithops. the soil just slightly damp and completely dry between waterings.

i never put enough water on them to actually wet the lower soil.

Hm, I actually didn't realize that it's a mesemb. So... Yeah, I've been watering them exactly like the rest of my succulents. I'll take your watering advice Dave; maybe that will save my other two.

I've never been able to find an split rock for sale locally, not for lack of trying, so I haven't had a chance to try and grow them.

Igteacher, I'll keep that in mind about the fertilizer too.

I think I should've realized sooner that this plant is a little more sensitive than my others :P

It really doesn't look that similar to many of the other mesembs, which makes me wonder a bit about how sensitive it really is to over watering (at least in a very well-draining soil). The larger size/surface area makes me think it would require a lot more water than a lithops or similar type ever would.

Were your Faucaria grown inside or outside? Do you think warmer temperatures add an extra level of "forgiveness" while growing them?

Where mine are growing, light is partial sun, temperatures are about 35C (95F) during the day and 23C at night (74F). My clay pots seem to dry out every few days and I do sometimes worry that they could be getting too dry.

Today I almost bought some Lithops - seems like a worthwhile challenge!

Just like Breton, I've had 3 of these plants in the past year. All 3 have done the same, turning to mush overnight. I have decided that I will not be getting any more.

faucaria, like lithops, are extreme desert plants. even in summer they probably shouldn't be watered when the weather is cool and humidity is high.

lithops lack an internal sensor which tells them when they've absorbed enough water, they will take up water until the cells burst and the plants turn to mush overnight. people frequently mistake it for rot.

faucaria-from the same area-may have the same problem. i dunno, but it's a thought.

ewwmayo, definitely inside and almost all of my succulents are in a west facing window. It's the best I've got at the moment. I'm not so sure about forgiveness. It has been fairly warm here lately, up around 95 for most days the week before last, but the only thing that seems to have done is encouraged more growth on the plants I've got trying to etolate. No change on my faucaria, really.

It sounds like our plants are actually grown in very similar environments. I've been dying for a lithops. I'd actually like to attempt to grow them from seed, but I'm determined to get a handle on this first!

addicted2plants, that's a shame. I don't blame you for not getting anymore, but I'll be the first to admit it's frustrating to not know why.

Dave, you may have just solved the mystery. I soak my plants in old mixing bowls I picked up from a yard sale, rather than top watering.

The last time I was watering I had to leave suddenly, leaving one group of plants in the bowl for a few hours. I'm almost certain that specific faucaria was in that group. I never thought that it would hurt any of them, but it was healthy up until that point!

And I had no idea that lithops did that. I'll have to be much more vigilant when I next water them and see if that makes any changes!! :)

Well, I've sadly joined the club of mushy Faucarias. Mine looked completely fine last night and was mushy this afternoon. I suspect Dave is correct that they are very similar to lithops and are unable to cope with overwatering.

This is how my Faucaria Candida looked this afternoon. Soft spots spreading from the center of the plant:

Here are my soil excavation results. Bone dry for the top 3" of my mix, slightly damp on the bottom 2". You can see the split in moisture differences in the bottom half of this photo. This is an unglazed clay orchid pot, with additional holes on the sides for air. I had used 1:1:1 bark, turface, grit for my soil mix.

Here is what the entire plant looked like, after I removed it. The roots looked fine to me? Where the roots joins the plant base did not seem rotted at all. The top 2/3" of roots felt dry. The bottom 1/3" of roots was still damp and in contact with the damp gritty mix.

I watered 3 days ago, enough that a little extra ran out the bottom of the pot. Normally I water lightly only when the plant looks a tiny bit wilted. This Faucaria has been recently sprayed with insecticide and isopropyl alcohol (had a bit of damage deep between the leaves from mealybugs).

In the future, I will use a much different soil mix for my Faucaria, with far less bark and turface. My interpretation is that the plant absorbed most of the water without any issues, but the remaining 1/3 was too much for it to handle.

If anybody else has any additional insight, feel free to chip in! I am planning on buying another and will hopefully avoid this from happening again.

One question...when you potted this, did you remove all the old soil completely from the roots before you put it in this current mix?

Christopher

Chris - Yup, removed everything but some bits of perlite stuck to the roots. I had used a sprayer to remove the old soil. Here is a closeup, if that helps:

I just had one of mine melt on me too. It had been PIGd in that spot for years, but it went from hot to cold and rainy late in the season.

Nil - Sad to hear that. Was the whole plant lost?

Looking back on my lost Faucaria candida, it was significantly overpotted and my mix was far too water retentive. A 3.5" pot would have just about been perfect, along with around 80% grit in my gritty mix - aka. what I am doing now for my other Faucaria.

I discovered mine in the same condition just yesterday. When i pulled it out of the pot to see if i could let it dry out, i discovered the root ball was super dense, and incredibly wet. It hadnt been drying at all. i broke it up and am going to let it dry out. We'll see how it does here soon. Not sure it will survive though. ;-;

Best of luck! Since this post I had to get rid of all my plants in a move and haven’t had the chance to restart my collection.

From what I remember, mine seemed to just be mush, much like a plant that’s had the cells burst from freezing. There wasn’t any saving any of them, they all ended up doing the same thing.

Even if you can’t save this one, maybe you’ve hit on what happened and can give it another go!