Remove the bottom few leaves of each cutting so that you can insert the stems without having any of the leaves touch the soil...or another plant. I've never waited for a succulent cutting to callus over...so get them into a coarse medium pronto. Water them well initially.

The brown patches on the leaves are sunburn, I know from experience, as in my eagerness to put my plants outside my window on a rare warm sunny New Hampshire day, I left them in the sun for several hours, and a few days later saw the brown patches from being put out in the sun suddenly, without gradual exposure. And your soil is way too water retentive, leads to root rot... I would leave the cuttings out until I see roots start to form, don't need to be in soil for that. And I would repot the plant with roots into a fast draining mix in a smaller clay pot, and not water for at least a week...best of luck! Christopher

And, btw, go easy on watering at first - usual advice is to let cutting to callus first for few days (whenever I have cuttings, I let them sit outside of the soil for few days, even weeks & usually don't water immediately after putting into soil-maybe after few days or a week), then pot into a well draining mix. Watch the area circled on your photo for any sign of 'softness' - just in case you see/feel it, you should immediately take the cutting out, re-cut, callus and pot without watering as already mentioned. Your cutting looks good otherwise, wants to live... Rina This post was edited by rina_ on Sat, Dec 28, 13 at 8:52

Thanks for your input. Perhaps I did overwater it in the past. The soil is not wet. It is totally dry. I have used a coconut substrate not garden soil so perhaps that's why it looks like it is wet. BTW The 'If you don't mind, please post photos direct.' was sufficient. You don't have to be so passive-aggressive and bitchy to someone who just joined the site! You are not forced to click on the links, everything action you take in life is a choice. I have only joined and the text box did not appear to show any formatting options at the time that's why I had to use that method. For some reason, it has appeared below now and I will obviously use that in future. I actually work in computing so I already am aware how forums work and had looked for an image upload button. I assumed that this site did not provide image storage capabilities (as some don't) and I had to link from somewhere else. Great welcome! Thanks! 4th Feb 24th Feb