"peaty?" OMG I thought it looked pretty good, but I guess not!

I can try to save it. The center is soft, not slimy, but there is not much left once I remove the dying leaves. Shall I let it sit on the counter a day or so, then repot in pumice?

Thank you for all the tips. I can see these are not as easy as other succulents.

I'd repot it right away, actually. and water it as well. Then put it somewhere sunny but cool. An east-facing window, for example. I'm more iffy about removing the dead leaves in the center. I probably won't bother if I am positive it is not under attack by pests.

OR. You can also disassemble the whole thing and root the leaves. Those are very small leaves though so make sure you take the leaves with the collar intact. The reason I won't do this myself is because those roots really look like they're still in business. If you can make the plant regrow, those roots will speed up the process. Again, only if I'm sure it's not infested so check carefully with a magnifying glass.

Keep us posted. All is not lost!

I agree, inspect and replant. Propagating by leaves just takes SO long compared to a larger specimen.

OK, I repotted it in straight perlite. I was working in the rain, the perlite was soaking wet so the center of the plant got wet too. No sun today so I have it under a lamp trying to dry center. I may have wet the center in a previous watering.

As for the other two haworthias, they can be repotted in perlite. Do it now or in the spring? Do you feed them in perlite? It seems so unbeneficial, lacking nutrients.

ps the bulb is one of those curly ones, generates very little heat.

Straight perlite is going to be a mess, IMO. Do you not have pumice, as was suggested above?

oops! In my mind I think of them as the same, which of course they are not. No pumice on hand but it should be available at the local nursery. I don't want to mess with the little one any more but can do the larger ones in pumice! Thanks for the correction, Breton.

Well guys, sorry, but I gotta disagree w/ the group.

The fact that Socks said the center is SOFT suggests to me it's already a goner. If mine, I wouldn't bother w/ soft-centered Haw, sounds to me like the central core is already compromised.

Socks, lots of us grow succulents w/ little or no fertilizer. It's really not as important as you think. I rarely fertilize my Haws & they do just fine in very crumbly, porous mix (not at home, can't get to pix).

Sometimes, lmontestella, one just wants to see how far "far" can go. if this plant is too far gone, then it's gone. But if not, then it would've have been saved. Either way, one would have gained first-hand experience and information from pushing it as far as it can go.

Besides, I don't think anyone can beat the lengths at which Kevin here is planning to go in order to save his South African specimen. He's getting a supersonic machine to blast aloe mites out of the galaxy!

Pagan

Imon....I suspect you are correct, but nothing ventured nothing gained. And we learn by failure as well as by success.

Well maybe we'll disagree on that too. Maybe I've dabbled in succulents (esp Haws) too long to trust anything about 'soft' in C&S.

Gotta say I learned not one thing about my failure in Aloe Walmsy ... (or whatever it's being called now) except to say I'll never buy another one.

My instincts told me it was unstable, saw folks on here posting lots of them & was smitten by its stripes & quasi-variegation (for which I am a sucker). The few times I ignore my instincts, I regret it. I had bought 2, lost one & a short time later picked up the 2nd one only to find utter collapse of soft mush (ACKKK). Was too embarrassed to post their collapse pix.

BTW, you can call me Lena (or Karen)

Ah, I hope it can still recover. It's really pretty. Do you have an ID?

It was a sweet little thing when I bought it, so small, so perfect, but it had no name on the pot, so I don't know. I'm proud to know it's a haworthia! Do you grow them, R? I remember your discouragement in another post.

Pagan - The South African plant isn't even that nice to be honest. Probably spent at least 50x the cost of the damn thing but no way am I giving up!

It's more than about just saving one plant, it's about learning to destroy your enemies. Uh... I mean become a better grower!!

First hand knowledge is hard to beat.

Heh. Thar she blows!

R, Socks plant looks like Haworthia attenuata c. Pumila showed mine in my Haworthia collection.

Socks - I think so?, and mine looks alive and uh, in no danger to die, but the leaves look thin to me. I'm going to try moving it to less light first, since that worked pretty well for my other plant.

Stush - thank you!

Just remembered my mom lost a 2 years old Haworthia Zebra and we still don't know what killed it. I'd have thought my mom had overwatered it, but instead of getting soft or spongy and rot, the plant dried up COMPLETELY in less than 24h. We came home and it seriously looked like a prank, the plump healthy plant from hours ago turned into straw.

R--YIKES. I hate mysteries like that!

If I'm not mistaken, they can lose all their roots and then regrow? Seems I read that. Maybe R and mom gave up on it too early.

Haworthia can lose all their roots and then regrow them. The tough part is that as they lose the roots, the roots rot and the plant doesn't absorb water so the pot stays damp for much longer. If you don't notice in time you can easily lose the plant.

Lost roots on a Haworthia with many leaves/decent size isn't too bad to deal with. If there are no roots on a small Haworthia (which I have received many times in the mail) then it can be quite difficult and stressful to reroot.

In those cases, it's a very delicate balance between light/less light, losing leaves to drying/dampness to encourage roots.

Huh!! Didn't know that. But it didn't lose roots, it lost leaves -- all leaves, at once, strawlike. I thought, "severe sunburn". My mom: "some relative's evil eye". Either way, mine never lost roots so far, how can I know when that's the case?