Can a leggy Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' still be grown into an old stem?

Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' has thick, fleshy leaves and pink foliage, giving it extremely high ornamental value when grown as a potted plant. But Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' rather prefers a sunny, warm and dry growing environment and has strong drought tolerance; as long as the potting soil stays loose, breathable and well-draining, and care and management are done properly, the plant can be kept in good growing condition and ornamental effect.

However, if Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' is placed in a fairly shaded growing environment for a long time, and is usually watered fairly generously, the plant will become leggy due to lack of light and excess water. After most succulents become leggy, in order not to ruin the beauty of the original plant shape, they are either beheaded or cultivated into old stems with higher ornamental value.

In fact, since Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' is an ordinary succulent, when it becomes leggy we can still behead it, but the more reliable approach is to cultivate it into an old stem to admire. In the process of leggy branches forming an old stem, Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' usually needs to go through 1-2 years, and during this period the leaves at the lower end of the leggy branches all need to be removed, which can speed up the lignification of the stems and thus reveal the characteristics of an old stem.

However, this is the method of using leggy branches to cultivate an old stem, and an old stem formed this way is not a real old stem. It is only that the outer skin of the stems has the characteristics of an old stem, while the inside of the stems has not truly and thoroughly become lignified. So the so-called old stem formed in this case is actually rather fragile, and its hardness is not sufficient either.

A real old stem, by contrast, necessarily means that the stems of Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' have thoroughly become lignified and are relatively hard, making it a genuine old stem. But this differs from the so-called old stem formed by legginess; besides the difference in substance, there is also a fairly big gap in the time needed to form an old stem. A true old stem of Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' under natural growing conditions often needs 3-5 years to fully lignify and form a real old stem. By comparison, the time needed to cultivate an old stem from leggy branches is much shorter.

It can be seen that the growth of succulents in this world still follows certain rules. If a shortcut is taken to cultivate an old stem, the real goal will inevitably not be achieved. Although it has some characteristics of an old stem, the quality of the old stem is very low, and it can be called a fake old stem. If Pachyphytum 'Peach Beauty' could be cultivated into an old stem so easily, then it would lose too much of its value.

Of course, if we can let nature take its course, with suitable growing conditions and scientific care methods, and an old stem grown inadvertently, that is often the real old stem, so its value multiplies. Do not deliberately make artificial changes to the rules of growth just to pursue an old stem; this is often where the joy of growing succulents lies, and it often brings unexpected surprises.