How to Water Lithops? A Complete Guide to Methods and Techniques

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Lithops are not easy to grow well, especially when it comes to controlling watering. Water lithops even slightly carelessly and problems easily arise. Below we cover lithops watering methods, watering techniques, watering cycles, and the points to note when watering lithops.

Lithops Watering Methods

1. It avoids problems such as water flow disturbing and damaging the appearance of the soil surface, easily causing soil compaction, water droplets remaining on the surface of the lithops and producing a lens effect in sunlight that scorches them, water touching wounds during the splitting period and causing infection, and excess water flowing out and carrying away nutrients from the soil.

2. The lower part of the soil is more humid than the upper part, which encourages the lithops to root deeper.

3. Bottom soaking allows precise control of the amount of water given. With traditional top-down watering, by the time water seeps from the bottom of the pot, you have usually already watered too much.

Lithops Watering Techniques

1. Bottom soaking does not mean putting the whole pot into water, as that would be no different from ordinary watering. You should only let the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot touch the surface of the water in the cup, using the soil's own absorption to draw water upward from below.

2. With a functional flower pot, the cup and the pot have the same diameter, so when the potting soil absorbs a small amount of water from the cup, the water level in the cup drops and the soaking stops automatically.

3. You can soak several times in a short period. When you find that the water level in the cup has not been separated from the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot for a period of time, it proves that the water in the potting soil is saturated. You should immediately empty the water from the cup to ensure the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot can breathe.

Lithops Watering Timing and Cycle

1. Because of the material, the pot is transparent. Place the functional flower pot in the sun for a period of time, and the black soil absorbs more heat than the transparent pot, creating an obvious temperature difference between the two. This causes moisture in the soil to evaporate and condense into mist on the inner wall of the pot. You can directly observe how much water vapor there is on the pot wall. If there is water vapor, it proves that the inside of the soil is moist, and no matter how dry the soil surface looks, you do not need to give water.

2. One characteristic of lithops is that the hardness of the top window changes with the water content in the body. When water is sufficient, the top window is hard. When water is lacking, the top window becomes soft, with the standard being that a light touch with a fingernail can produce a dent. When severely lacking water, the top window will develop wrinkles.

3. The internet spreads ideas about watering every so many days in a given season, but this is only a very rough watering cycle. You should let the watering amount and cycle match the needs of the lithops, rather than making the lithops adapt to an unchanging watering cycle. Tests prove that the watering cycle of lithops is adjusted to circumstances: when the sun is blazing, two days after watering there is not a trace of water vapor on the pot wall; when it is rainy and overcast, ten days after watering there is still water vapor on the pot wall.

Do Not Water Lithops During the Splitting Period

Under normal circumstances, lithops must not be watered during the splitting period. The reason they cannot be watered is that, first, watering easily leads to a double split (the old skin has not finished splitting before the new cotyledons split again), and watering will also prolong the splitting period. During the splitting period, water must not get on the plant, because watering the old skin during the splitting period can easily cause bacterial infection and then rot.

Alright, after reading this article, have you learned how to water lithops?

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