Frithis pulchra blooming

My Frithias definitely like the new apartment more than the old one :)

Lithops experiment part 1 (7 pics)

Today I went to a hardware store in Luxembourg and did something I would not normally do - I bought three Lithops plants that are in such a bad shape I very much doubt they'll survive. The reason behind this is an idea I got from my previous post and the question if it is possible to not only save but also correct a plant that has been treated very badly for a long time. I will try this and document it here in the blog. I'm pretty sure the next entry will be "they all died" but this will at least tell you to avoid this kind of purchases ;)

So this is how they look like. All three are L. pseudotruncatella. They are bloated and cucumber-shaped.

This one has grown so long that the only solution I can see for it is that, if it survives until fall, the new leaves will break through at the root and the old ones can be cut off. No water until then.

The other two look slightly better and I'd say there is at least a chance of survival. They will not receive any water ever again until the new leaves come out. My plan is to make them shrivel to the half their present size. All three have good root system which means they are ready to fight but actually it doesn't matter much since they won't use them anyway. One of the plants was wrapped in old dried leaves and will be sensitive to the sunlight, I imagine. I will have to let them all get accustomed to it gradually. 

Now they are washed and will dry until tomorrow when I'll put them into dry pumice and the experiment can begin. The goal is to keep them alive and if successful to get them as close as possible to their normal shape (white Lithops in the square pot to the left). Also, when planting cucumber-shaped Lithops the worst thing to do is to bury them. It won't make things better. You only bury them as far as you wish them to be - if the plant should later be 1 cm high it should be planted 1 cm deep into the ground. With the cucumbers it will look ridiculous but better ridiculous now than dead later.

Wish me luck!

More thoughts on "downsizing" (4 pics)

I've been thinking further on the topic of getting our nursery-grown plants adapted to the windowsill conditions. And the more I think about it the more I am convinced that, well, size matters. I was instinctively accepting the reduction of size in my plants as a good thing in the past and was actively contributing to it with poor soil and withholding of water. But it wouldn't hurt to contemplate on this matter a bit more.

In the comments of my previous post Bob Stewart and I were elaborating on this while Bob has provided insight and explanation as well as established clear correlation with the light situation on a windowsill that has to be compensated. Please read this when you have time :)

I was thinking about my previous experience with greenhouse-nursery-lithops and could name five instances in which the plants I bought were way too big although probably normal for commercially grown ones. The L. dorotheae and L. aucampiae I got from Mr. Shimada were in fact so huge I had to use two 7cm pots - and they were all one-headed! His L. lesliei were not far behind. Similar situation with the plants from Kakteen Haage. Both growers are not some non-specialized shops - they know these plants and do grow them appropriately. Under their greenhouse conditions however they can feed and stimulate their plants and let them get big because they will get enough light. And light is luxury for us, windowsill growers. In four out of those five instances I had 2 plants of the same species and same previous growing conditions and by now only 1 of each has survived thanks to timely downsizing. Basically, one plant has choked on big old leaves during the first or second regeneration at my place while the other plant has gradually reduced its size and is now doing fine. In those four cases downsizing was essential for survival. In the fifth case both have died leaving me with their babies that are in turn quite small.