How to repot, deadhead or not & propagating Echeveria Coccinea
I found this beautiful succulent that stopped me in my tracks at the local grocery and juse had to have it. It is the 1st succlent I'm adding to my beloved indoor container garden which mainly consists of orchids and spider plants. I'm completely new to succulents but have fallen in love already! I will be adding many more to my indoor container garden as I can...there are so many beautiful & interesting ones to choose from! The one I have a bunch of questions about is an Echeveria Coccinea (on the label it was called a red velvet echeveria). I will be keeping it strictly indoors.
(A photo from when I purchased it about 2 months ago)
I know that the medium it came in can't be good for it. It is hard, really compacted & seems to have mold starting w/really tiny bugs that I can see on the top. I just ordered new soil made in small batches especially for succlents/cati that I plan to use to repot it in the next few days whend it arrives.
It came in the generic plastic green pot that is 4 1/2in tall & 3 1/2in diameter. I want to repot it with the hope to keep it beautiful & alive!!
*What is the best way to take it out of its current hard medium w/o damaging the root system?
*How to tell if any roots have rotted & how to deal with that?
*If I need to cut any roots do I need to put anything on the cuts to prevent infection before I repot it?
*What size/type of pot to replant it in?
It's current size is about 11in tall from the base of the soil with about a 10in spread. Has just about an 1in thick base (not sure on the correct terminology).
*Do the spent flowers need to be deadheaded? If so, how do you do that? Do I just cut it at the base of the flower or take it down to a certain set of leaves?
I hope this all makes sense! Like I said I'm completely new to these beautiful succlents & don't know correct terms.
I would also like to try a propagate it since it seems to be getting crowded close to the base now (see photo below).
*Since I am going to repot it in the next few days should I wait a certain amout of time from when I repot it to cut/propagate or can it be done at the same time?
*For propagating I was thinking of cutting here & here (see photos below). Are these good places to cut? If not where would you suggest?
*How long should I wait what I cut to callus over before planting?
*Finally, approx what size pot should I start the cuttings in & can they be put in the same pot or should I put them in two separate pots?
Sorry for such a lengthy post but I haven't been able to find much online about this specific succlent!! Any advise, links or anything else that will be helpful would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance for your time:)
Comments (6)
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
8 years agoflowerlilies77 (zone 6b - PA)
8 years agoRelated Discussions
When To Repot (Gritty Mix), Feeding, & Watering
Comments (8)Awesome! Having a specific list of plants is so helpful. Completely agree with ez for the Echeveria and Crassula - you have a lot more to gain from a better soil like gritty mix than a bit of additional stress on the plants. For the Sedums, just be careful when you repot. S. morganianum can be pretty fragile but will grow back. Any leaves that fall off your S. rubrotinctum can be easily propagated by laying them on top of gritty mix. I'm going to assume that Senecio radicans is similar - people have mentioned using a bent paper clip to hold similar plants down, if they don't stay put in the gritty mix before the roots get re-established. Schlumbergera bridgesii will not do well in gritty mix, it's an epiphyte / tropical cactus. Normally grows on other trees in the jungle. Some people are growing them very well in just fir bark fines (same stuff as for gritty mix). Bark is very expensive in Canada, so I'm growing my Schlumbergera truncata and buckleyi using a mix of large perlite and granite grit. Rina suggested this mix to me and it's working quite well!...See MoreEcheveria leaves wrinkling and bottom ones wilting?
Comments (7)It’s too soon to gauge whether the plant has enough light or not, but if you’re watering once a week indoors in winter with suspect lighting during the off-season, you’re likely drowning your plant. Watering it once every 3-4 week’s indoors over the cold season is not uncommon. :) The ailing leaves don’t usually propagate well. I find they normally sit there and begin melting to crap. Normally, I propagate leaves that I accidentally knock off or fall off, or if/when the plant gets etiolated, you can take a cutting or a healthy leaf to propagate a new plant. As a rule, indoors, it’s almost inconceivable to give your succulent too much sun. I know nothing about plant lights but many in the forum use it, so someone will definitely help you with that. There are also some good threads you can look up....See MoreHelp Needed: Trying to Revive Deadheaded Echeveria
Comments (6)By no means do I consider myself an expert of any sort but I have been learning from my mistakes over the past two years or so. So I apologize in advance if I’m mistaken. Your echeveria looks like it was sunburned. That’s how mine started to look around August and September this year and I ended moving everything under a porch because of how intense the sun was. So perhaps it was just stressed and is now growing due to the semi great weather we’ve been having? I’m also in zone 9b and find that these cool days (surprisingly we haven’t dipped into freezing temps at nights) are making most of my succulents very happy. I do throw a frost cloth on at night but only so that the most tender succulents are not exposed to the moisture in the morning. The echeverias I beheaded lost their outer leaves as well but I haven’t watered them to be honest. I felt their is sufficient moisture in the air right now...See MorePropagating severed echeveria stem
Comments (6)Sharon When buying C&S soil get a bag of perlite (or pumice if available). This should be sifted or rinsed (see my comments IN THIS THREAD where I posted example photo of sieves, and described process). If my plant in that pot, I would check moisture of existing mix using a long wooden-bamboo skewer or chopstick or thinner dowel or stick. Stick it deep inside of pot - I would aim to go 3/4 deep, could be all the way. Use stick no thicker than pencil. Long bamboo skewers could be found in dollar store too - just make sure it is long enough to reach deep. If stick comes out dry and clean soil is dry. Depending on when you watered last - deep pot like that holds lots of soil and take longer to dry up. It is little trickier to water correctly. It could be difficult to tell at the begging, you need to learn. If you determine that it drains well, add some new mixl and try to mix it with existing as much as possible, using thinner stick. Maybe you can attempt re-potting next year? I am saying that since plant looks ok (besides needing some more sunlight), so perhaps existing soil drains quite well. Is there any chance of asking previous owner what soil he/she used and when last re-potted? Also, roots of your succulents are not that deep that they would need such deep pot. So it is important for them not to sit in 'muck' - but there are few 'levels' with plants, so I would keep checking soil for moisture couple/few inches below. It may look scary to repot such big plant in such big pot, but you will learn...:) Worse that could happen is that more branches would get snapped - but they can be re-rooted. Sooner or later it will need to be re-potted, and you can start learning by rooting the broken branch. I guess you got it because you like how it grows and trails in that strawberry jar? - It looks pretty good, so I understand. But huge pots like that are trickier to handle when re-potting. It is also recurved on top, making re-potting bit more difficult. I have plant that grows in similar way. It is in much shorter bowl-type pot, wide at the top. I may do some beheading this year, since some stalks are getting too long (last years photo - it is even fuller now): Stick ends A and C into mix. NOT B - if you did, that part of plant would be upside-down, and may have difficulty to grow (some plants do not grow at all). It should still grow; and make sure you do not water it immediately: no roots - no water (you can find more comments about that in BEHEADING threads) Sorry for such long post - that is also why I refer to other threads. Ask should you have further questions....See Moreflowerlilies77 (zone 6b - PA)
8 years agoflowerlilies77 (zone 6b - PA)
8 years ago
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a