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Cacti & Succulents

Leaves are falling off my Echeveria

8 years ago

last modified: 8 years ago

Hi guys, a few days ago I got my first succulents so I'm completely new to this. I depotted my Echeveria into a glass container for a terrarium look. I didn't water it the first day since I noticed that the soil it was in was damp enough to stick to the bottom of the plastic pot it was contained in. The day after, I noticed that the leaves from the middle would fall off with the slightest touch. The leaves look completely healthy. No spotting or withering at all.
Can someone tell me what's wrong with my Echeveria? Some articles I've read seem to suggest that this is a sign of overwatering, but the soil seems to be crumbly and dry. Is it because it's in a shallow glass container (it doesn't have any draining outlets)? How can I keep these plants in these containers without them dying? Please help :'(

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Comments (5)

rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
8 years ago
'Terrarium look" is nice, but very often a deadly environment for succulents.

Leaves falling off with slightest touch usually means that the stem is rotting. You need to post photos for better 'diagnose'.
ohmaii
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks rina! I've updated my post with photos of what the plant looks like now, the leaves that have fallen out (it's been left out for a few days now though), and also one photo to show the container it's in (note that this one has filters on it, so the colouring of the plant won't be accurate!).
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Oh, I read your post wrong -- I was thinking you lived in Texas, not Tennessee! As far as I know Tennessee is humid, which means you probably need to water less than I do (in one of the top 15 driest cities in the U.S.) Never trust what they say at the store, unless it's a specialized nursery that clearly knows what they're talking about when it comes to succulents. If you bought a bagged C & S mix, the easiest solution would be to cut it with perlite. I use about 60% perlite to 40% mix here, but I would suggest around 70% perlite in your climate. If you want to get more serious you can read about Al's Gritty Mix here on the forum. I use that for my favorite/rarest plants, a pretty good mix from a local succulent farm for the rest of my collection and the perlite/potting mix for plants I'm just planning to sell and not grow long-term (it does the job, it's just not my favorite). If you think it's not getting enough light indoors, yes there are grow lamps available. You can even find just the bulbs at a hardware store if you have an extra lamp lying around :)
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@cari, yes, I will work on acclimating it so it doesn't get shocked. I use pebbles on top of most of my other plants and will do that here too. @rina, I don't know a ton about growing succulents and was trying to err on the side of not being too wet. (Most of my other plants are ferns that I water with mindless abandon and they couldn't be happier. I know succulents need to be treated differently.) I read that succulents absorb water through moisture in the air around their roots, which is why it was important to have coarse soil. Is that incorrect? Mostly I didn't think about it being difficult to rewet until Cari asked, and apparently I was somewhat overconcerned about accidentally drowning the plants. I plugged up the drainage hole last night and have it a long, slow watering to completely soak the soil, and then opened the hole again. Should the echeveria completely dry out until the soil is bone dry before I water again (provided it doesn't croak) or can it be watered when it's just a bit damp still? I was thinking of seeing how the plant does with more water before trying to repot. What are your thoughts? Here's a picture of the soil mix I used. The white bits are pumice. I'd say that picture makes it look like there's more pumice in the mix than there is (meaning more has settled toward the top), but there's definitely a lot more in this than there is vermiculite (I think) in "normal" potting soils. Also this is a pretty small bag, maybe a total of two gallons, just to give some scale to the size of the pieces. Thanks!!
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If overwatered, take it out of pot. Get all soil off the rots. Cut off any damaged - rotted, dry or broken (clen cut those). Let air dry for few hours. Get a pot with dainage hole. Prepare well draning mix. If nothing else, get perlite and mix it with soil 1:1. Perlite should be sifted or rinsed to get rid of dust. Pot plant in it. I would also trim (clean cut) those dry ends - not crucial, but looks better and plant will grow 2 or more 'arms'. Water only when almost completely dry: insert bamboo or wooden chopstick deep into pot, leave for few min. If dry when pulled out, time to water. If wet-damp, there is still lots of moisture and wait. They can grow many feet long in right conditions. Example photo from net (could grow even much longer than that): Slowly introduce to good amount of sunlight.
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If plant gets lanky, it s best to behead it. My chroma grew one of the long stem too, and I have to do it yet - maybe I'll wait until Spring. I probably will cut it where the black line is since there is an offset growing lower on the stem: You can also see one dry leaf - that is normal ageing and will soon fall off (or I'll pick it off). As plant ages, and receives enough light, stems should become harder and corkier too. How much sunlight are yours receiving? To make sure it doesn't happen again (stem rotting), perhaps increase drainage. Your mix looks like it has quite a bit of perlite or pumice, but iI am looking only at the photo. If your mix contains lots of peat, there is a chance it may create problem: if kept dry, peat becomes hydrophobic. Another possibility is to use topdressing of gravel - it keeps stems and/or lowest leaves away from moisture. Some ppl do not like topdressing, but I use it on almost all my plants (all succulents, and most non-succulents too). ETA: gravel topdressing helps to keep stems upright too. Your plant is mostly green and that suggests to me that it was kept in relatively low light. Low light is also cause of week stems. Another is that rosette is not as compact. Here is the same rosette showing how much compact it is. Leaves are also darker in color:
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ohmaii
Original Author
8 years ago
Upon closer inspection, it seems like some of the middle leaves are starting to wilt/shrivel up at the tips and the outter leaves are yellowing. Oh my gosh. What do I do?! :'(
LH CO/FL
8 years ago
It looks too wet - the soil is retaining too much water, and there's no where for the water to drain. I would get it out of that container quickly.
rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
8 years ago
Get it out of the container; shake off all the soil from the roots, hopefully there are roots left. Let it dry on some newspaper or kit. towels.

You need to check if the stalk/stem is firm. If it is very soft or mushy, there may not be any chance of plant surviving.

Never use containers without drainage holes, and the potting mix should be grittier - fine soil (even cactus&succulent soil sold in bags) is very water retentive and plant sitting in that kind of soil usually rots rapidly.

If you have only that kind of soil, buy a bag of perlite. It is best to sift the perlite to get rid of dust. Mixing perlite 50/50 with soil (could be more perlite), will help somehow. Soil should dry out between watering, but not only on surface but around the root ball.

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