Transplanting for those who live dangerously (4 pics)

Okay, what I'm about to describe below is not the correct way of transplanting, in fact it's very risky and I would never do it with lithops and other mesembs because they rot easily. Yesterday however I was facing a challenge of transplanting over 60 Anacampseros seedlings (An. retusa fa. rubra, An44) from the 5cm container they were growing in. Basically it looked like this:

My goal was to give them more room to grow but at the same time not to use more than 4 new 5cm pots. Also, I wanted to do it quickly. Anacampseros are easy and don't rot when young (rotting sometimes happens to adult plants with thick roots) and I have way too many of them to worry.

The method is simple: fill up the new container with dry pumice, then water the top layer (really just as much as necessary, don't make the whole thing wet), poke holes into it and stick in the plants. 

This way you can fit up to 25 plants all neatly into one 5cm square pot quickly and with little effort.

Remember, if you're not afraid to lose plants and need to do the transplanting in a hurry this is the method to go for. BUT if you use it for mesembs the risk is very high - the seedlings might turn to mush the next day. I warned you! In case of Anacampseros, I have transplanted all my seedlings (hundreds of them) using this method a couple of months ago and had zero losses (you've probably seen the LQ pictures of my huge plantation over on Twitter). Young Anacampseros are low-maintenance.

Transplanting in general (7 pics)

I've been doing some transplanting. And there is more to be done because I really want to sow again very soon, all the seed rests that are probably not viable anymore, some of my own seeds (Avonia!), and some conophytum seeds I bought this year.

So this is how it goes. 

Step 1. Squeeze the container from all sides. This is why we use plastic and not clay ;)

Step 2. Pull out the plants. If they don't come out easily, stop pulling and squeeze the pot again.

Step 3. Now fill a pot with fresh dry pumice, up to the top.

Step 3.1. Examine your plants for bugs and remove all old soil from the roots. It's ok to pull off some roots as long as the main root is intact. Don't be squeamish. I usually rip off some of the main root as well if it's too long. If you are transplanting from dry soil into dry soil the plants won't mind (roots inactive).

Step 4. Use a stick to plant the seedlings into the container by dragging them down by the root (in case of adult plants you will need to wiggle the stick to let the pumice stones collapse around the plant and drag it down on their own). You can arrange them to your liking and put really a lot of plants all in one pot this way, saving precious space.

All done.

PS: I actually thought I could put a couple more trays on the windowsill but it looks like it's occupied now :D

More observations on Anacampseros (6 pics)

This is the first year I am growing several adult Anacampseros of all different kinds and can watch and compare how they grow throughout the year. For a plant nerd this is really fascinating. In my last "observations" I was talking about new growth coming from underneath and this one will continue this thought.

It looks to me that these plants tend to abandon the branches that have extensively flowered. As if producing the flower stalk is sucking all the juices out of it. Well, considering the size of those flower stalks, no wonder! What I have seen in the multi-branched plants that flowered this year is that the flowering branches drop leaves one by one until they look like bald twigs with only a couple of leaves at the top and no signs of new growth. If I think back to last winter when I got the majority of my adult plants, some of them have arrived with such "towers", meaning the towers have not grown any new leaves or branches of their own to cover the baldness during fall and winter. This year it seems the same thing is happening and my guess is that this is quite natural. Not very pretty though. 

I don't need my Anacampseros plants to be big and so trimming those twig-towers looks like an option to keep the plants round-ish and compact. This year I have trimmed two plants with good results. 

Remember this plant I was showing back in February?

Anacampseros arachnoides, An35

Well, I thought the towers quite ugly and cut them off shortly after. Since then the plant grew new leaves and branches with fresh strength and then flowered. And you have to admit the general look is much better.

Moreover, as I felt sad to throw away the towers, I tried to root them, and it worked! They looked so dead and then, when they were cut off and not dependent on the roots and resources of the big plant, they really flourished. (This sentence sounds like some kind of lesson for humans I'm not going to elaborate on.)

Here they are when they just barely rooted and started to show some green.

Here they are now.

The other plant in a similar situation is my beautiful Anacampseros vanthielii. Here is the photo from May this year, when I was pondering on whether it's going to abandon the "tops".

Well, it did. And I should have cut the yellow branches then and there. I kept them in the hope that all the growth from below will eventually consume them or some new leaves will come out from the top. I think the plant was just wasting energy on them and that's why didn't flower. Meanwhile the tops grew scruffy-looking. A month ago I took my scissors and cut off all the yellow stuff and look at that! The "undergrowth" spread its leaves and got a healthy color under the sun. And the plant is now a cute ball of leaves and hairs. I should have cut off all the yellow parts back in the spring.

This year, as the flowering nears its end, I see some plants abandoning the flowering branches and I will be cutting them off and rooting them this time without a second thought. It benefits the plants and creates "back-up copies" I can give away. 

Lithops experiment part 6 (2 pics)

Seeing that my last post about the troubled L. pseudotruncatella was back in December it's time to update you on their progress.

Yes, they are still quite ugly. My hopes of getting them into good shape within one regeneration cycle were too much but hey, no rush. Simple survival goes first. On the survival front I guess they are at 50%. The best looking plant out of three has perished - go figure! Another has lost one head. The balance is two plants, one and two heads.

It's almost May and they've been watered twice so far. They react well to water and, even though they are still way too long, they don't get any longer but bigger and more substantial instead. I intend to be very strict with them so they'll need their strength later. Long way ahead of them.

You can read up on the lithops experiment here: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.

Haworthia limifolia in a little bit of trouble (7 pics)

A couple of days ago I got an inquiry from someone who was worried about their Haworthia limifolia's wellbeing but only today I realized that I actually have a plant matching the description at hand! Every once in a while my mother, who deeply dislikes succulents because they are not flashy-showy enough, brings me back some plants she had in her custody during my last years at the university. She tends to unwittingly mistreat the plants she doesn't like, never listening to my suggestions. Her flower garden looks amazing though. Well, some of the succulents she brought were ready for the plant heaven. Among the others was a Haworthia limifolia I set aside to inspect further later, as it didn't look bad to me. In fact, it is the same plant I wrote about in this post.

I followed my own advice and pulled it out of the pot. Actually I didn't even have to pull because the roots were all dead and it was not clinging to anything. I'd say this is how overwatering looks like. The roots just rot away. 

Just to remind you, this is how Haworthia limifolia's roots can look like when grown in pumice.

This plant is a cutting from the plant above, by the way.

*scroll... scroll... scroll... scroll...*

No roots left, it seems. But wait! What is that? ;)

If you pull away the dry bottom leaves you will see fresh new roots growing. I'll pot the plant and its cutting separately. There will be more roots than plant in no time.

Lithops experiment part 5 (4 pics)

Continuing the series about three overgrown lithops and an attempt to save them and get them into proper shape, here is the most recent development.

The lithops were shrinking as expected, however I fear I noticed way too late, that the tallest one had grown the new leaves inside to a size that is definitely too long for them! Actually, I wanted to cut it open before this happens, even though I understand that the'd be immature at that time, so it might have been bad either way. Now that I noticed, I've ripped the old leaves open to get some light upon the new ones and prevent them from growing even longer. I'm pretty sure I was too late but we'll see. I was afraid to miss the "point of no return" with the other plants so I've ripped another one as well. The third one doesn't show any signs of new leaves though, which is even more worrisome. Oh well, it is an experiment so we'll just have to wait and see. I guess, if they survive, it will be another year until they look normal.

For your future reference, if you buy cucumber shaped lithops, prepare to spend 2 years correcting them - in a best case scenario! It's really not worth it. In 2 years you can grow your own perfect little lithops kids from seed ;)

Lithops experiment part 4 (2 pics)

I thought I'll update you on the lithops rescue mission.

As you might remember these plants were seriously overfed while not receiving enough light (bottom shelf inside a hardware store) and I would normally leave them there because they would die anyway, no matter your good intentions. However this time I decided to get them as an experiment on how lithops plants at this stage of maltreatment might be rescued or even returned to the normal size and look with time. The idea was to withhold water until the new leaves of a much smaller size emerge. Which means these plants are now being without any water since June 18. I'm still far from being convinced that the mission will be successful. I reckon, once I can detect new leaves growing they might have a chance.

At the moment the plants are very wrinkled and have lost at least half of their size. Which was the goal from the start (just realized this was the exact wording in the first entry in June!). Now if the new leaves are already growing inside it will be much easier for them to consume the old leaves and come out safely the normal way, not through the sides. I have no means of knowing whether the new leaves are growing in the shorter plants but the cucumber (to be fair it really has improved over the months) is quite soft and when I squeeze the sides I actually can feel where the new leaves start already. It was a massive relief! Several more months and we will know the fate of these plants. I'll keep you updated.

Please see the previous related entries under tips and tricks.

Lithops experiment part 3

Well, this is not at all what I expected XD

Lithops experiment part 2 (2 pics)

It has been five weeks since I started the experiment to see if badly etiolated (is this the term for a plant out of shape due to a lack of light and too much watering?) lithops plants can be saved and corrected. Well, this is how far the plants are now. My initial plan was to make them wrinkle and shrivel to a better size to make it easier for the new leaves to come out next year. The pot was exposed to lots and lots of sun and heat and was not watered at all. In fact, I am not going to water them until next year. I was worried since they've never seen this much sunlight they'd get burnt but there was no problem with that.

Their current state is definitely an improvement. The two less longer plants are slowly nearing the "mark of shortness" I've set for them. The mark being as close as possible to the substrate level. The substrate level shortness is what I want for the long monster as well but it is not realistic within this year. It just needs to shrivel enough for the new leaves to come out of the side and all the "top" to be safely removed. At least that's my optimistic plan for it. Anyway, so far so good. Still alive!

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!

Paper pockets for seeds (tutorial)

Since I'm currently at it here is a quick tutorial of how to make paper pockets to store your seeds. 

They are easy to do and pretty much ideal for their purpose. No sticky tape or glue and no cutting or ripping to open them. Also, you can open and close them as often as you wish, no problem at all. If you want to sow all seeds at once you just unfold and have them all on a piece of paper before you. They're safe to store and to send in the mail in a simple envelope (no squashed seeds!).