This is how you fertilize succulents so they plump up and fill the pot

There are so many people who love growing succulents, and during the care process they run into all sorts of problems. For example, succulents grow slowly and show no growth. Should we fertilize them? What kind of fertilizer should we use? Today let's talk about it

Succulents are foliage plants, but you can't let them grow too fast. If they grow too fast and too tall, they lose their ornamental value. So usually, should we? It is best to use an organic fertilizer with relatively balanced nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. If too much nitrogen fertilizer is applied, the succulent leaves will turn into plain green leaves. If too much phosphorus and potassium fertilizer is applied, succulents tend to flower, and the leaves will wilt and turn yellow in large numbers.

You can use cake fertilizer you have fermented yourself, or bought compound fertilizer. During the growing season, the amount must be small. Just let the roots feel a slight hint of fertilizer. If you fertilize too much, not only will the plant easily become leggy and lose its shape, it will also easily burn the seedlings

Succulents kept in ordinary homes mostly use loose, breathable soil. If the soil contains a relatively large amount of nutrients, there is no need to fertilize, because succulents grow relatively slowly and the plants are not very large, so the nutrients in the soil are already enough for their growth.

Because we don't need succulents to grow too big and lose their ornamental value, a tall and sturdy succulent simply ruins your worldview. If we feel a succulent is growing too slowly, then we can apply some fertilizer

How do you judge whether a succulent needs fertilizing?

1. For succulents with relatively large plants and relatively fast growth, you can fertilize appropriately during the growing season. For example, green bear (Cotyledon tomentosa) and Guanyin lotus (Sempervivum tectorum), which grow very fast once given some fertilizer in spring. But succulents like living stones (Lithops) and Haworthia cooperi, which barely grow at all in half a year, will only be killed by fertilizing.

2. For succulents that grow slowly in the growing season and have not been repotted for a long time, or succulents in soil with too much granular material, you can fertilize appropriately during the growing season. If your succulent has no problems with watering, light or temperature and simply does not grow, and it has been more than two years without repotting, you can fertilize it. After fertilizing, the succulent will grow very fast, plump and bursting out of the pot

3. When succulents flower, you can fertilize appropriately. If a succulent has grown a flower stalk and you don't want to cut it off, you need to pay attention to fertilizing. Because flowering consumes a lot of nutrients, and when nutrients are insufficient, the plant will consume the nutrients stored in the leaves in order to flower, which easily causes the leaves to dry up and fall off from the bottom upward. Sometimes all the leaves will drop off, and then the succulent dies. So applying more fertilizer when it flowers can alleviate the yellowing and withering of succulent leaves.

When fertilizing succulents, apply light fertilizer frequently, using a multi-element fertilizer or a special fertilizer for succulents. When fertilizing, generally choose spring, which is more suitable for succulent growth. If you fertilize in summer when growth is slow, the succulents are dormant, and fertilizing will instead have a bad effect and burn the seedlings

Directly applying chemical fertilizer to succulents is the least recommended. On one hand, the amount is hard to control, and succulent roots are all very fragile and easily burned. On the other hand, the fertilizer effect is released too quickly. Chemical fertilizers are all a passing gust; for fast-growing plants, they are absorbed quickly and work well. But for succulents that grow at a snail's pace, a fertilizer effect that is too fast is often a burden.

To sum up: whether to fertilize succulents depends on the specific situation. What fertilizer to use: mainly organic fertilizer liquid and special fertilizer for succulents. When to fertilize: the growing season!