What to Do When Succulents Turn to Water? Cause Analysis and Leaf Cutting Rescue Methods

As living conditions have improved, people want to pay more attention to their health, so more and more friends like to place a few pots of succulents on their desks at home or at the office, which not only looks nice but also lets the pace of life slow down a bit, and more importantly, lets us breathe fresher air. However, when summer comes, the long periods of high temperature make many succulents show signs of turning to water, and the site admin has also received quite a few messages mentioning this problem. Since everyone is troubled by it, today we will talk about how to improve the situation of succulents turning to water.

Turning to water is the problem of excessive moisture causing the leaves to rot. After summer arrives, it rains frequently, and if you do not take good care of your succulents, the so-called turning-to-water problem will appear. So first we need to understand the growth habits and characteristics of succulents, as well as the common causes of turning to water, so that this kind of problem can be avoided.

Unlike the normal decline of succulents, the common kind of decline makes the leaves flatter and flatter, sometimes the color even becomes more vivid, and then the leaves gradually dry up starting from the very bottom.

But when a succulent turns to water, the shape of the leaves does not change, there is no curling at the edges, no wilting or other symptoms; it is just that the color of the leaves looks like a kind of transparent feeling of no longer growing, and the leaves also fall off especially easily. In the later stage of turning to water, the leaves will turn black. When a succulent turns to water, in mild cases only some leaves rot and fall off, but severe turning to water will cause the succulent to die.

The cause of succulents turning to water is mostly actually a lack of oxygen; only a small part is due to frost damage or sunburn. When a succulent lacks oxygen, no oxygen can get in through its roots, so it cannot breathe, and then turning to water occurs. Everyone must always pay attention to this problem.

In addition, some succulent lovers, after buying succulents, are interested in propagating them themselves by leaf cutting, taking part in the whole process of a small succulent going from a single leaf to a small seedling. During this process, improper leaf cutting techniques can also cause succulents to turn to water.

When we run into this situation, what should we do?

For leaves that have already turned to water, you should remove those leaves as soon as possible, take the plant out of the soil and dry the roots; letting the roots absorb oxygen is the key! If the area of the leaves that turned to water is very small, only a few leaves, you can also choose to put the succulent in a well-ventilated environment and let the plant absorb the water-turned leaves on its own and recover its health. If self-rescue is ineffective, you should still remove the water-turned leaves as soon as possible to avoid affecting the whole pot of succulents. In high-temperature weather, avoid moving the succulent into direct sunlight right after watering, to prevent the succulent from being sunburned or steamed.

For friends who like leaf cutting, when doing leaf cutting, note that you must not press the soil too firmly; soil that is too firm will affect the new shoots emerging from the soil and will also damage the plant's roots. When doing leaf cutting, you also must not insert the base of the plant's leaf directly into the soil without any treatment, because doing so very easily damages the plant's roots. You can use a small wooden stick or something similar to poke a very shallow hole at an angle, and then you can put the leaf in, so the plant's roots will not be damaged.

Now you finally know why your succulent turned to water, right? Once this turning-to-water problem is solved, with careful care, enough light, and good ventilation, if your succulent grows in a place with high humidity, you can add a layer of volcanic rock on top of the soil; then the soil will become dry, and turning to water will not happen.

Wishing every succulent a thriving growth.