Here she is after being repotted

please help me, anyone?

I'm no expert on Hawarthia but I can try and get you started and hopefully attract some more experienced growers.

It should be able to withstand bright light but ideally it should be in partial shade, the east facing window you have it in should be fine. I wouldn't worry too much about sunbathing her, but I would maybe try and keep the blinds open for it.

Watering should be pretty straightforward, water generously until it flows from the drainage hole. For most people watering twice a week would be too much but I guess it gets pretty hot there. It should be allowed to dry between waterings, so watering frequency depends on drying time.

Your planting mix looks good, although Im not familiar with the properties of rice husks.

It is Haworthia cymbiformis var obtusa. A nice compact growing Haworthia that clumps nicely.

Your mix should be pretty good - pumice is great and I have seen many good things with akadama. Have a bag of it at home but haven't taken to growing myself with it yet. Akadama holds quite a bit of water, so be careful with over watering still.

The leaves will shrivel/wrinkle slightly when water is needed, so I would let that be your gauge. If the leaves start to dry up from the tips you have waited too long!

As for light, they prefer a sort of bright shade. If not enough light they will turn a deeper green and start to spread out. If there is enough light they grow nice, compact, and perhaps turn a little reddish in the leaves.

Best to acclimate it slowly to higher light and see how nice you can get it to look. Roots look good so re-establish should not take that long. Kudos for taking so many photos of your mix, root health, and plant overall. =)

Here is a photo of my plant today. It was purchased less than two years ago a little bit bigger than yours and I have already divided it up into three plants! Those were given away to family and a friend.

With good mix, light, and care they can grow very well. Cute plant and I would say good choice! (Since I got one too, haha.)

Hi HawObsession.

Where you are, your biggest problem will be humidity and heat in high summer. Your haworthia will likely drop into dormancy around March until late September. During these months keep it sheltered from rain but in a bright shaded location. You can water it occasionally, maybe once a month, just enough to keep it from complete desiccation. When the climate cools down a bit, you can increase watering slowly--like full drench every three weeks. Around December you can probably water every two weeks. Definitely keep it out of the monsoon rains.

Of course, if you have air conditioning in summer, it will be happier indoors then. Watch that substrate carefully---even in my cold climate, my haworthias do not get potted up with any amount of soil. I grow them in pumice.

Your pot is a little big but you can manage that with careful watering. I will also suggest removing the top-dressing unless those bits are porous (I can't tell). What you want is to allow moisture to evaporate as fast as possible so the substrate stays wet just long enough to hydrate the plant but not have it sit in moisture longer than that.

Haworthias generally thrive in temperature range of about 20C during the day and about 16C at night, with margins of about 5 degrees in both directions. You will be growing yours at the very margin of what it will tolerate so you will have to really keep an eye on it. I'm not sure if your florist grew this himself but watering it twice a week in that climate is a little nutty.

Kevin gave a good description of what to watch out for and how to read what your plant is doing. Windowed haworthias are the hardest kind to grow in the tropics but it is doable.

Pagan

Jeff - Are those all yours? :o What a collection.

Look at the size of those horse's teeth!

Hi guys,

All the feedback of you guys is very informative and precious.
@Pattrick: Right, I will keep the blinds open for her to absorb some light, and I too think that watering twice a week is pretty risky here due to humidity, so watering once every two weeks should be fine, providing that the weather is nice.

@mayo: wow the watering tips is striking, I mean I have to pay close attention to her leaves' signs from now haha. By the way, I have altered the planting media as the current mix is quite damp when being tested. The latest potting mix for her includes 1 part of akadama, 1 part of perlite, and 1 part of scoria/ lava rocks, and hopefully it is porous enough. Please give me some thoughts about this mix. P/s: Your plant looks gorgeously lovely :D.

@Pagan: dormancy is one of the most worrisome matter to me to have her survive, especially in the summer like you've mentioned, and I'll work on the watering schedule and carefully check her status.

Thank you all for your dedication ^^.

Maybe start a new thread with "growing haworthia in Tropical climate" or something like that? Your little girl is adorable and it looks like you have everything right. Do be super conservative about watering! You can use a wooden chop-stick or popsicle stick to check the lower soil, let it sit down in the soil for awhile, then check if the bottom of the stick is moist or cool. Remember this: A succulent will tell you when you are watering too little, but when you over water, it can die with no warning. Best to you.

HawObsession - I think you should just try the mix out for a month (at least) and see how that works out for you. Best way to know is watch your plant see when it looks thirsty or 'just right'. It's very dependent on your particular growing conditions.

My mix holds less water but I don't mind watering more frequently. My Haworthia mix probably holds less water than pure scoria, based on my own calculations.

Eventually if you want your mix to hold less water, reduce the akadama and increase the scoria. Scoria holds much less water than akadama. Perlite falls somewhere between the two. Akadama has the best nutrient holding capability (CEC), with scoria second, and perlite last. Overall, the former two soil mix ingredients are superior.

If you end up getting other Haworthia (and I think we all encourage it), I recommend tweaking the mix and discovering which ratio works best for your home and growing style! With many pots going on at the same time you'll come to a conclusion much more quickly. =)

1 part of perlite/pumice (really I have no experience on telling their difference)

Substrates review:

Perlite is compacted volcanic ash it provides sufficient aeration that enhances drainage and is micro porous , it's easy to crush it into fine powder ( When pinched with two fingers or via a use of blender.)It's longevity of providing it's benefits when part of a mix would be the shorter in comparison to pumice.

Pumice also from volcanoes is hard solid material that is both openly porous and micro porous providing very good aeration while providing a lower moisture holding capabilities.

Akadama Having never used it ( personally) I opt to remain non suggestive for it's use in all areas of this forum but have read ,seen and know folks who do use it in part of a soil media and as the whole soil.

Nomen - I agree. Pumice is so much more resilient than perlite, which crumbles on reuse. Water holding capacity of both is essentially equivalent.

Akadama is very commonly used in high end nursery mixes. Ones that are selling Haworthia in the thousands of dollars. Either in part or whole, as you say.

I discussed with Howard akadama several times and our opinion is that it holds too much water for our grow style in zone 6a/nearby. Those in California adore it.

There are also many different quality of akadama, particularly related to the baking temperature. 400 degrees (I think? been a while since I looked) is the best because it resists crumbling better and is more stable.

I don't think akadama is worth the expense or the trouble of getting good quality kind, especially when a cheaper and uniformly good quality alternative is available. Volcanoes can't produce substandard pumice. Heh.

Pagan

Pagan - Getting the good quality stuff was my biggest dilemma. Maybe one day I will put it in a pot and see. There must be something to it! Here's what I got:

The day I decided to never buy bark again and got pumice was a wonderful day (and ongoing happiness in growing with it). No offense meant to those who love bark, by the way. =)

Mayo - Actually I had watered my Echeveria Black Prince with the old mix (soil, perlite, and Akadama), and no water ran out through the drainage hole despite huge amount of water. Thus, I decided to change the potting mix for both of the plants as I've said earlier. ^^

Nomen - ok then it should be perlite due to its light weight (like popcorn) xD

Uhm, hello again, guys,

There is one more thing I'm really concerned with - fertilizing. I wonder whether the plant need fertilizing as I'm afraid that the media (scoria, akadama, and perlite) gives her insufficient nutrients. If so, I would like to know what to fertilize her, when to feed her, and how much I should give. Thank you in advance. ^^

Some around on this forum do fertilize, but I believe that they don't really need it; it is more a matter of making your plants look better.

I don't fertilize, and no ill effects that I have seen. But also keep in mind that I have never fertilized, so I wouldn't know the difference.

You can grow for a long time without fertilizing.

If you wish, highly recommended are Foliage Pro 9-3-6 or Miracle Gro 12-4-8 liquid. Follow the instructions on the label for houseplants. Some people use reduced strength, 1/2 or 1/4 every watering or every other watering.

Personally, I fertilize every other or every third watering at 600μS/cm.

Ok, lemme check at local fertilizer suppliers. You guys've helped me a lot. Thanks a bunch! ^^

Sorry for my late comment, it's been really busy lately.

ewwmayo - I've managed to buy two packages of water-soluble plant food Miracle Gro 24-8-16 since the 12-4-8 liquid one is unavailble here. As the ratio doubles, I wonder whether I should feed it with even more reduced strength comparing to the instruction (about 1/4 of the strength). Would it be sufficient for the plant? Thank you in advance. ^^

Ok then I think I'll start with the weakest solution, 1/4.

Haha, when watering I always soak as hard as i can and let the water flowing out xD 'cause that is how they receive water in their homeland as far as I've believed :)) But will the nutrition be flushed completely with my watering habit (which is not what I want it to)?

It will flush well if you use just water and plenty of it - as Kevin described.

In agreement to whats already been said by Kevin and Rina. It's not really a big concern as the nutrient level for them is low enough and often would be infrequent some folks I know keep em looking great with twice a year when in concern of feeding.

Ah it is really a relieve to have you guys support me. Thank you so much ^^

Hi guys,

As I take a skewer for the growing media's humidity measurement (I let the skewer stay in the soil for 15 minutes), it appears that the water is completely dried out after a week (no moist or coolness recognised), and the leaves are a little bit soft to the touch. Additionally, I have her sunbathed for around an hour every morning. Thus, I've decided to water her once every week. And she seems to notice me that she is "just right" :)).

But this has made me, again, wonder what will happen when summer arrives. Though knowing that she will be in her dormancy, should I increase the frequency of watering from once a month to three weeks or less to keep the plant from complete desiccation?

P/s: My haworthia is one month old now ^^. I really enjoy seeing her growing day by day... Thank you guys for helping me out. ^v^. Here are two photos of her, the first one on February 1, the other one on February 18.

You should be able to water all year long. How much in the summer depends on how hot it gets.

But even on my roof, which gets very hot in the summer, I have no special schedule for mine.

Uhm, Kevin,

So, if it gets hotter, the less water it needs, right?

P/s: Yesterday when I went home, I found that the pot was hit by the blinds of the window sill due to strong winds >_<. The plant fell off the pot, but she seemed fine, fortunately. Though I was so nervous, I decided to take this chance to check her roots and noticed that she had lost parts of her roots. But new root growths (little white parts) were also recognised. I hear that root loss is a normal habit of haworthias in general, but I am still nervous a little bit. Thank you in advance. Here are her root system yesterday.

It is best just to observe the plant and see what it wants. =)

If your cymbiformis wrinkles, then it needs water. It should plump back up the next morning or by the day after. If nothing is after that, give it some time and if still nothing happens then maybe it is time to start thinking if anything is going on.

These things are very growing condition specific so there is no magic temperature where things stop growing or anything like that. Especially since I find this type is a good grower throughout the year.

Looks fine to me. Don't worry - all of us have 'flying plant species'. Good that you took a photo (for your growing notes/journal if you keep them) and then just put it back as before and care as usual.

Haha ok, it seems that I'm over-worried about her =D , I really appreciate your advices. Thank you Kevin, and thank you all for helping me out! If anything happens, I'll hope you guys keep supporting me. ^^