This is how succulents grow in Guiyang, the Rainy Capital
A couple of days ago I saw a fellow succulent grower from Guiyang showing off their succulents in the community. They said that in Guiyang, where they live, the number of rainy days last year reached 257. Yep, you heard that right. I specifically looked it up and it's true. No wonder everyone calls Guiyang the "Rainy Capital" (the city with the most rainfall is Guiyang, followed in order by Taipei, Shenzhen, Changsha, Hangzhou and Shanghai).
In such an environment, what state will succulents grow into? Let's take a look together, and while we're at it, hear some care tips from a fellow succulent lover~~~!
Fellow succulent lover: When many people are saying how hot the weather is and that they need to give their succulents air conditioning and fans, I just want to say that here, even by early June, summer still hasn't truly arrived. The temperature has been staying around 15 to 18 degrees, and it even feels a bit cold when it rains, so I still haven't used a fan myself.
(The effect under a grow light)
This kind of weather really lives up to that old saying describing Guiyang's climate: no severe cold in winter, no extreme heat in summer (and not three days of sunshine in a row)!
Although succulents can grow faster and tougher when exposed to wind, sun and a bit of rain (many fellow growers have experienced this - their succulents really did grow a bit after getting rained on), the problem is that with continuous overcast and rainy days lasting ten days to half a month, even the toughest succulents can't hold up.
When your succulents rot and die from high heat and blazing sun, my succulents also rot and die after getting rained on. Most of them have already flattened out into big pancakes.
Speaking of lots of overcast and rainy weather, I have to mention soil mix. The experience of those who came before is that granules should make up 80% of the mix, with the rest being peat moss or coconut coir. But as a beginner who hasn't been in the hobby long, it's really hard to get such a perfect ratio right.
If you were to weigh everything out bit by bit, honestly, that's pretty troublesome. So my soil mix isn't that standard. I just go by feel - expanded clay pebbles as a base layer, plus a pre-mixed granular soil (mainly volcanic rock and maifan stone, a bit more of those), a moderate amount of peat moss, and finally a top dressing directly on the surface. That's it - probably the simplest approach there is.
In a climate like Guiyang's, it's really hard for succulents to become "buns" (compact rosettes). Since they can't become "buns," they can only become "big pancakes."