Look like mine, I have posted a topic here http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/4658227/help-my-first-haworthia-cooperi

For mine: I just water it once for 2 days and now it looks much better, keep them in temp ~23-25 celcius and put them in cover like in picture may may help

Thank you for the feedback ewwmayo and Tan Nguyen! The soil is still moist (I last watered about two days ago). I will be sure to monitor the moisture more closely for these plants and I'll keep them where they are in bright shade. The room has a/c so the room is about 75 degrees on average, sometimes a little hotter on the sunny hot afternoons. I keep the air circulating with a fan. I am hopeful that these guys will revive if I continue to be mindful of the moisture level and not under/overwatering.

I had a little Haworthia that looked dead for what felt like months but was probably just weeks; i was worried the pot below may be too large for it. It was dark reddish-brown colour and curled in on itself, leaves thin and crispy looking... I did not water, did not water, did not water ... I wanted to, but "no roots no water" ... one day I was thrilled to notice a bit of green in the center so I gave it some water ... and now it's fat and green and happy :) It just took forrrrever to establish its roots.

I have a 'before' pic somewhere but its not available atm.

Kd

Thanks for your comment, Bunkfree. That gives me hope that my plant will look great again too! Given that mine still seems to have its roots, hopefully it won't take as long as yours did!

Follow the great advice above and have patience :) good luck!

kd

Well, I am hopelessly clumsy and knocked over one of the haworthia, so I figured I'd take advantage and check out what was going on down below. The roots of the h. turgida suberecta had largely become desiccated. So I checked out the cuspidata and the planifolia as well... also desiccated. Hollow, like shed snake skins. There seem to be still some okay roots left, but significantly less than the robust, white healthy roots they started with. I removed the floppy hollow roots and put them back in their pots. I put the turgida suberecta into an even smaller pot to help prevent any soil from staying too moist (kind of as an experiment too). I suppose I should hold back on watering for a bit to make sure the roots have time to heal. I still have hope that these can recover!

Some of these photos were mid-process of removing the bad roots.

The old roots have died off, succulents generally don't like having their roots disturbed and those die off and new ones must grow. The shrivelling is due to the plants using their stored water in the leaves. It would be better not to cut any leaves off. Don't worry about the reddish tint to the shrivelling leaves, that is a natural adaptation to dry weather

Do not repot them, this will cause rotting. Instead, leave them in a dry, cool place with not too much light and definitely no direct sunlight and you will see new roots begin to form around the basal leaves in a few weeks. When knob-sized new roots have formed, they are ready to be planted again. Then you can put them back and water lightly. Don't put them in tiny pots, if they are exposed to too much sun, this cooks the roots. Rather give them lots of soil and water infrequently

Hi Nik, thanks for your input! To clarify, you are are saying that even the non-desiccated roots that remained will also die off, which is why it needs to remain unpotted so it can grow new ones? The reason I put them back in the soil was because I thought there were still some small good roots remaining. I have not watered them since putting them back. I have them in a bright room, but not in direct sun. I have left all leaves intact, even those that seem to have dried up completely. Thanks again!

The non-dessicated roots and anywhere where you have cut remains vulnerable to die-off and fungus or stem-rot and they may or may not die off but they are best left out of the pot so that you can see what is going on with them. This needs to happen whenever succulents like haworthias have their roots disturbed. Even when roots are washed - as you did, there needs to be a 2-3 week drying off period and you shouldn't plant before you see new root branches being formed, either on the older washed roots or on the stem. Although you were worried about the moss, It would have been better to just put them with the same soil undisturbed into a bigger pot with a well draining soil and left them to dry out naturally. Don't stress, haworthias are pretty forgiving and can tolerate long periods without water but they also don't mind lots of water when it is warm.

It's a myth that succulents like these like tiny pots. They like their roots to be cool in soil. I live in the part of the world where haworthias come from and we just plant them outside in the garden in well drained soil with partial shade, water them occasionally in winter and not in summer when it rains and they flourish

Thanks again for your feedback and information. Some of your advice seems counter to other advice I have read on this forum, but perhaps I have just read so much now that I am confused and can't keep it straight. Once and if they start to grow roots I will get some much larger pots to put them in. I'll do better with my next batch.

Reading this forum, it does seem like a trend to be obsessed with keeping all succulent roots as dry as possible, keeping them in the sun all the time and never watering them at all. That may be in part due to people growing them under conditions far removed from their natural origins. In zone 9a, your conditions are somewhat more similar to the natural habitat for these plants.

As you have seen, they have a large, succulent root, similar to aloes, unlike the small thin roots found on many other plants. It needs to be treated with care and doesn't like heat-stress.

I have grown haworthias for many years inside in pots and outside in the ground but in their native country, just a little further north to their native range. Here, we have learned to grow them the way I describe. In their native habitat, the species you have grow among rocks and often with just the tips of their leaves sticking out of the soil as a way of preventing heat stress. Those roots also grow deep. This is a picture of H. turgida growing in nature. The red leaves are due to water and heat stress

I highly recommend this site for learning more about these plants http://haworthia-gasteria.blogspot.co.za/2015/02/haworthia-turgida-var-suberecta.html

Nick

You are quite right about recommendations to keep succulents in dryer substrate. Most ppl that come to the forum have problems with plants, and vast majority because they have overwatered them. Another common problem is that they keep them in fine, water retaining soil, and quite dark conditions - growing indoors where the light is often insufficient.

I also agree with you that plants should not be in tiny pots (there is a myth out there that many plants 'like/prefer' to be potbound - that is not true). But again, many ppl use large pots with water retaining soil, and that takes even longer to dry up. So using smaller pots is, hopefully, safer.

I has been said here that you could keep small plant in large container as long as it doesn't sit in wet soil for too long. It is also recommended to water thoroughly when it's time to water, not in sips that many assume is the correct way.

I would dare to say that more succulents are killed from overwatering rather than underwatering.

That is true about the dangers of overwatering but many succulents get their roots cooked in small pots, especially on windowsills (been there, done that). It's a fine balance and more soil allows plants to be happily neglected. Tiny pots make plants delicate and high maintenance.

I keep my haworthias in fine but not clayish soil, and water fairly frequently because we have low humidity and higher temperatures. The sun is also very direct and bright and they do well even though I am overwatering them by most people's standards. I agree that they don't want sips of water. I water thoroughly and then let them dry out again and water again once I see that the soil is pretty dry

How often do you water your Haworthia, Nik?

I find they grow much better when watered before the soil doesn't go totally dry. That reduces the absorption of old leaves and roots, maximizing growth. Of course, finding that day to water is much trickier.

My Haworthia are watered every half week or so outdoors, plus whatever nature is providing as extra from the side of my open shelter. Indoors are ending up being about the same right now. They are either soaked in a tub or watered liberally until water is coming out the top and bottom of the pots.

Howard and I have discussed bigger pots many times. I wish I could do it but a bigger pot means you have to take something else out of your collection! Each size up in 1 pot means a reduction of maybe 3 other small pots. Having enough space under lights in the winter is a real battle.

That's about the same as my watering schedule. Once I can see that the top layer of the soil is thoroughly dry, I water.

Instead of lots of bigger pots, what about group plantings in containers? The trick is not to overfill your pot but due to the conical shape of most plant pots, you gain the empty spaces in between pots and probably some depth, without needing more horisontal space, depending on the container. Then you can also put small rocks and large pebbles on the surface between plants, keeping roots cooler under grow lights and mimicking the natural environment of these plants

For example, a group planting of conophytum. Not mine, but a prize-winner at a local succulent show

Another idea, you can also take a look at this page https://www.facebook.com/Verecunda/

Thank you everyone for your expertise. I am learning so much from everyone's knowledge in this forum and also from my mistakes. Nic, I have checked out that website before, I'll have to give it another read through. I keep all of my succulents indoors, so I don't think any of them are getting overheated. In the summer here in South Carolina it gets pretty hot so the air conditioning is running pretty often and the room stays fairly cool. My succulents are not on a windowsill, but they are on a table in front of the window. The haworthias sit furthest away from the closed window and grow light and direct sun only comes in between about five and seven PM. So I suppose what they get could best be described as "bright shade." The plants also have a fan blowing near them about 75% of the time. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that I don't think the roots are at a very high risk of being cooked. Like you, ewwmayo, I tend to water from the bottom because going in from the top makes the perlite swirl around like crazy! I plan on getting ingredients for a gritty mix, like you Rina use, in the next few weeks, in which I will put any new succulents I get and eventually switch the others to. As these haworthias improve, I will eventually move them to larger pots to make room for their lovely roots! :)

Well, it's been about six weeks since I first got these. Last Sunday I watered the H. turgida and on Monday afternoon when I checked on it, it was suddenly plumped back up after all this time! :) This one had seemed to be doing the least poorly. The others still are about the same. The planifolia ended up losing all of its roots and has been rootless for probably the last 3 weeks or more. No new roots have appeared, though the pups seems to still be growing a little bit. The H. Turgida Suberecta has a few roots lefts and one of them is smaller, bright white, and growing. Last week I decided to pot it up in my new gritty mix that I just got. It looks pretty awful and shriveled, but that one little root gives me hope lol. The H Cuspidata also seems to have some roots still but has not grown and does not seem to be taking in water. I did recently re-order a planifolia from Mountain Crest Gardens (pictured below) and a haworthia reticulata v. haageana. Received them 2 days ago on Thursday. I repotted the reticulata right away because most of its soil had falled out of the pot because the mailman seems to have been exceedingly rough with the package. I'm kind of scared to do anything with the planifolia right now for fear of withering, especially since some of my other recently repotted succulents seem to be withering in the gritty mix. I suppose I am letting it "recover" from its trip across the country and seeing how the reticulata does in the gritty mix before repotting this one.

Here is the turgida

Here is my new planifolia. I counted about 19 pups!

Looking good. Give them time, 3 weeks is very little for Haworthia. They can go for months looking very bad but don't die. The ones that refuse
to root sometimes respond to being put on softer, finer substrate and
watered. These in the picture are, believe it or not, a similar species to yours. They are rooting and recovering after they spent more than 18
months in a soil mix they didn't like and had no roots left. They responded to the soft fine
soil and watering. They have rooted and are well on the road to recovery. Haworthias
are tough. I doubt yours look as bad as these ones did

Bookmarking this one! Thanks

Nik, I agree 3 weeks isn't very long for a haworthia and I will just have to be patient. It's kind of fun observing this process and how much they can go through and still bounce back. Kind of enhances our investment and commitment to our plants! ;) At the same time, I still did not have the patience to wait for the beauty of the planifolia to return which is why I got that second one! :) You are correct, none of mine are quite in the state of those you posted above! I'll get another picture posted soon.

Hi all..I have the same problem like this.

...I'm from India and I honestly love to take care of succulents ..can you please guide me as I'm new to this !kindly check the video from the above google drive link please... Also everyone please help me....thanks guys..awaiting response!

Nik, thank you for your feedback. Reading through this post, you’ve answered questions I’ve had for years. I’d been left a little confused over what seemed like conflicting info on Haworthia care. I have hundreds in my collection, all doing fine, but I know they can do even better.