How should you water succulents when they are about to enter or have already entered dormancy?

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Images: Curator

The weather is so changeable - suddenly a heavy downpour, then it turns on a dime, and just as suddenly there's blazing sun~ and now we're into early summer, unbearably hot, easily 35 or 36 degrees. How exactly to water - everyone must be fed up with the worry... Watering in this season is truly unpredictable. Water too much and you fear severe etiolation and root rot from the stuffy heat... water too little and you fear the plant doesn't get enough to drink, will wither and die, and will drop many dry leaves...

Honestly, if you haven't cut back on watering this season, you really need to be especially careful~ At this time of year, watering should already be controlled to half the amount used during the growing season... or even less. And once June and July arrive, for succulents that are dormant or semi-dormant, the water should be even less, and the timing and frequency of watering should be stretched out even longer~

However, for succulents that grow in summer, you can water a small amount at a time, more frequently. Just imagine: in this kind of weather, if you put on clothes and soaked yourself in water for ten minutes, then stood somewhere with no water and stuffy hot air, how uncomfortable your body would feel~

Next, I'd like to share my own little watering steps for your reference. Although I also have etiolation at home, it's not many, or only mild etiolation, and some have hardly any etiolation at all... (This isn't showing off or trying to prove how skilled I am, I just want to share these good little steps with everyone, hoping everyone can grow plants with ease.)

Suppose the picture below is a three-inch pot, then first divide it into three zones. When watering, only water the blue zone, and at most do not go beyond the orange zone. Watering this way lets the surrounding medium absorb water first, then slowly pass it to the roots, so that too much water doesn't build up at the roots all at once.

Remember~ the amount of water should be at least half of what it was before~ Suppose you previously watered about 50CC, now you can only use 25CC or even less~!

The CC numbers are just an analogy; very few people are so fussy about exactly how much water they use when watering. The point is just to let everyone know that the amount of water must be reduced...

If you water by the soak-the-pot method, you can refer to the picture below. The water level should preferably not exceed one third of the pot's height; ideally, the soaking level should be half of that one-third mark. The soaking time should be half of what it was before.

Watering in this season can't be as generous as during the growing season - pouring it on freely, or soaking a large amount of water from the bottom - otherwise it's very easy to cause root rot or invite mold or other bacteria in~!

Finally, a reminder to everyone: it's best to raise the pots up so they don't touch the building directly, because buildings absorb heat during the day and release it at night, which can easily scald the tips of the roots, and then root rot begins...

The above is for your reference, but don't forget~ there's still the truly scorching heat to come, so remember to help your succulents gradually lengthen the interval between waterings and reduce the amount of water~!

Things we often overlook

Q: Aren't the living conditions of succulents in their original environment very harsh? So why do they need extra care once they get into a grower's hands?

A: Because in the wild where they originally live, their roots can extend downward without limit, and succulents from their original habitat have had such harsh conditions since they were young. Also, because they've spent a long time in a harsh environment, they can adapt very well. But by the time they reach a grower's hands, they've already been propagated for N generations, so it's impossible to grow them the wild way right from the start.

Q: Aren't succulents known as lazy-person plants? So can you just not water them?

A: Of course not, because in their original environment their roots extend downward without limit and can seek out water, but when we grow them, the vast majority are grown in pots, so root development is limited. When there's no water in the pot, that means there's no water for the succulent to absorb, so watering is necessary - it's only the frequency of watering and the amount of water that differ.

Q: Why do succulents in the wild not get sunburned easily, while the succulents we grow do?

A: Because succulents in the wild don't have the burden of a pot, so they dissipate heat faster. Growers usually have no small number of plants, so ventilation becomes even more important, yet one thing is often overlooked: the closer the pots are placed to one another, the worse the ventilation, but people mistakenly think that as long as a breeze is blowing over them, that means ventilation is good. When the plants can't dissipate heat fast enough, sunburn easily occurs.

Q: When a succulent is sunburned, is it enough to just move it somewhere with no sun?

A: No. When a succulent is sunburned, it means the temperature in that area is higher. Don't forget, residential buildings absorb heat during the day and release it at night, so you need to move it somewhere more ventilated, and the temperature must be lower than before.

Q: Some nurseries claim to grow outdoors and say you can follow the wild growing method, but is that feasible?

A: No. When we go into a nursery and see that it has created an outdoor-growing feel, we often mistakenly think we can grow the succulents we bought back the same way. But in fact, when a nursery puts succulents out in the rain or sun, it's usually because some succulents already need watering, or some had previously been placed in shade and had grown a little leggy, so the nursery staff move them to the rainy or sunny spots we see. But afterward, when the nursery staff move the plants, there's absolutely no way they'll call to tell you it's time to change position. So the succulents bought and taken home, because of this, are grown by copying exactly what was seen, and in the end they die.

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