Succulent not growing for years after potting? Beginners need to check this cause

Some beginner friends may have this problem: my succulent has clearly passed the settling-in period, but why is it just not growing? A succulent that has clearly grown for many years, why has it stopped growing during the growing season? And so on. Who is "clearly"? Ahem... These signs mean it's time to repot your succulent and trim its roots.

If a newly potted succulent still shows no movement after passing the settling-in period, you need to repot it and trim the roots again, clearing away the fine dead roots and rotten roots that were missed before; for a succulent that has been in the same pot for years, the breakdown of the granular potting soil will cause it to stop growing, and at this time you also need to repot it and clean up the normally dried-out and rotted parts of the roots. Moreover, proper root trimming itself easily stimulates the succulent to grow new roots and thus regain its growing vitality.

After taking this pot of Nana's Little Hook out of the pot, I found the root system really wasn't ideal. Look at these fine hair roots, most of them have already dried up.

Clean off all these dried-up roots. If you have patience, you can slowly trim them bit by bit with a knife; if you don't have patience, you can directly cut off 2/3 of the root system, or just pull a few handfuls off with your hands, which is also not impossible. Dead leaves should also be cleaned off, to avoid hiding insect eggs.

Next is the root-washing step. After trimming the roots, soak the roots in clean water or a carbendazim solution, which can greatly reduce the chance of succulents suffering from pest damage. Of course, for friends with many succulents this process may be too time-consuming; if it's not a succulent just bought online and you've confirmed there are no pests at home, you can also skip this step.

But whether you washed the roots or not, the next step of drying the roots is very important. Place the succulent with trimmed or washed roots in a ventilated, cool environment and let it sit for 24 hours, until the roots are dry and the wounds left by root trimming have shrunk and healed, then you can pot it. After trimming roots, remember absolutely not to pot it directly. Remember! Remember!

The above is the root-trimming method for most succulents, but there is one rather special variety - Echeveria derenbergii (Jingye) - which very likely has very long lignified old roots; hmm, it looks like an old stump, and if you trim the roots again by the above method, it will basically not escape dying. So how should Jingye's roots be trimmed?

First remove a few layers of leaves from the very bottom of the Jingye, don't be reluctant to; the removed leaves can be used for leaf propagation. Keep going until fresh stem is exposed.

Then directly cut off that already lignified section of root stem, no need to feel bad, because this section is already useless.

After that is drying the roots, in a ventilated, cool environment, until the wound is dry, healed and shrunk.

For a rootless seedling like this, it's best to use the root-inducing method to grow roots first, and then potting it afterwards will make the settling-in process much easier. For an introduction to the root-inducing method, please see:

If you don't use the root-inducing method and pot it directly, you also need to dig a small hole in the middle of the potting soil, then seat the Jingye seedling on the surface of the potting soil above the hole, with the roots close to but not touching the potting soil in the small hole, and after quietly waiting for roots to grow, they will directly reach into the potting soil and it will grow normally.

The above content is compiled and published by Little Exquisite Life, and I hope it is helpful to you.