Succulent health is only the basics. What is the most important thing for growing beautiful succulents?

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ForewordQian Yan

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Everyone loves beautiful succulents, but actually growing them well and seeing that beauty is not an easy thing.

Many people rack their brains and not only fail to grow them beautifully, but the succulents also end up with problems. How do beautiful succulents actually come about?

Many succulent friends will say water control, others say just leave them outside and ignore them, and some say put them in the fridge. Have you ever thought about what the prerequisite for these is? The prerequisite is that you have to have succulents, haha~ just kidding.

Having succulents is key, and even more key is that the succulents must be healthy. Below I will share my little experience with everyone~~~

To have a beautiful succulent, the first condition is that your succulent must be healthy, the leaves must be neat, the layers must be many, and the condition must be good. The condition here is not the colored state but the growing state! Ones like those that get short light exposure and have leaves growing flat and sprawled out are all unhealthy succulents.

Succulents with leaves that are not plump, an overall poor shape, or pest problems are all not very healthy. The succulent in the picture below does not count as healthy! This kind will get better if it gets more sun.

Many people will ask me, how do you grow your succulents so well, and they are even resistant to sun exposure. Personally, I feel that succulents are desert plants, so being resistant to sun goes without saying, right? The main thing lies in the right method for the right season.

I remember I wrote before that the peak growing season for succulents is spring and autumn. Summer is too hot and they go dormant, and winter is too cold and they almost go dormant too. To put it plainly, in summer when it is hot and you are afraid of black rot, do not water; in winter when the temperature is low and you are afraid of stretching, do not water.

Personally, I like to start taking them outside in early spring when the temperature is not below 5°C. At night I cover them with a little plastic film, because in rural areas there can sometimes be frost, so I need to protect them at night. Then begins the short yet long outdoor growing period: watering, sun exposure, letting them slowly get through the hard days of a whole winter, and then in summer I start gradually controlling water.

Basically it depends on the weather. For smaller succulents, I water about 2 times a week, because the soil I mix has large particles and good drainage. Seedlings grown purely outdoors sometimes die from lack of water.

(In summer there is no shade cloth, except for a few varieties that are afraid of sun; the so-called fear of sun in others is just being delicate. Also, sun exposure starts in early spring, do not take them outside in summer, and succulents that have been inside all winter will get sunburn if suddenly taken out. It does not matter, the new leaves will be fine.) In summer, Sedum japonicum 'Tokyo Sun' is just as beautiful.

I have said in previous topics that seedlings need to retain water a bit better, while larger plants need better drainage. The degree of drainage is determined by the amount and size of the particles, so the difference between seedling soil and mature plant soil is the particle issue.

The particles for seedlings should be smaller, because their roots are also very fine. Small particles are good for airflow and also protect the plant's roots, so even if you push them hard they are not afraid. Tylecodon paniculatus is actually also very beautiful.

WateringIt should be based on the different seasons and determined by the growth pace of the succulents, deciding how much and how many times to water. Spring and autumn are the peak growing seasons. Seedlings can be watered a bit more frequently; larger succulents should still be watered less, because their own condition is already good. For succulents that have been beheaded or transplanted, you need to decide when to water and how much to water according to the degree of root damage.

Generally, for succulents that have just been repotted and had their roots dried, it is not recommended to water on the same day. Start watering a small amount the next day or several days later. For succulents that were directly moved into pots without root damage, you can water on the same day or the next day.

For watering, many succulent friends generally use bamboo skewers or cotton swabs, deciding how much to water by looking at the degree of dryness and moisture. Everyone knows that although flowers are beautiful, caring for them is hard, and watering takes ten years of skill. Actually, this method is not suitable for everyone, because varieties differ, their water needs differ, and the degree of dryness and moisture in the pot also varies.

Personally, I suggest slowly learning to estimate for yourself. Based on your own environment, as well as temperature and humidity, decide the number of waterings and the amount of water. Then use your hand to test the weight of the pot, try a few when you have time, and that way you will roughly have a sense of it.

There is also deciding based on the growth of the succulents. For watering, it is best to use the immersion method. Immersion saves effort, can also control the amount of water, and the plants absorb it relatively well. The picture below is one I found online, but I do it this way too. Everyone can give it a try.

My method is generally to sprinkle directly with a shower head, but I always sprinkle water in the evening, so after a night outdoors the water on the leaves is mostly gone, and there will not be the problem of sunburn from direct sunlight the next morning. Actually, even with water droplets there is no sunburn, at least mine are fine.

In summer there is almost no black rot, and I prevent pests in advance. (Everyone must prepare for pests in peak growing seasons like early spring and early autumn, preventing in advance so as to avoid being caught off guard.)

The watering issue is actually very simple. Control your hands, and the succulents will be very healthy. Beautiful succulents first require healthy succulents, and only then can you control water in early autumn and the hot summer to make them beautiful and bring out their state. Otherwise, before you even see them become beautiful, they will all die on you at once.

Below I will introduce a littlewatering gadgetthat I made myself. Many people will buy that kind of professional watering dropper pot, but actually there is no need. The picture below is the little watering tool I made myself: a simple bottle cap and a needle cap (general clinics have them, you can go ask for one, and you can also ask for an IV tube).

Cut open the top of the needle cap at an angle, make a round hole in the bottle cap with an electric soldering iron or scissors, do not make it too big. Insert the needle cap from the inside, so that the groove on the other end will exactly connect with the bottle cap, and water will not leak out when watering. The prerequisite is that the round hole cannot be bigger than the needle cap. If you want to make it into a drip pot, just connect a piece of IV tube inside and it is ok.

Watering gadget