Succulent Care in Autumn: How to Bring Out Beautiful Colors

The heat of summer has faded, and we welcome the intoxicating autumn, where bright, soft sunlight meets blue skies and white clouds, and succulents slowly reveal their brilliant colors. Now is the time to worry about how to color up your succulents.

There are many reasons why succulents change color. Some do it to mimic their native environment (Lithops), reducing the chance of being eaten by animals; some change because climate shifts cause changes in the ratio of pigments inside the plant; and some change because of their own genes, changing color from birth; factors such as spraying chemicals and fertilizing can also cause color changes.

However, the main factors behind color change are light, temperature and temperature difference.

Succulent Coloring Condition One

Low temperature

On the premise of not freezing your succulents, keep the temperature as low as possible. A relatively safe temperature is above 2 degrees, and more delicate varieties need to be treated more cautiously. For example, Graptopetalum macdougallii, Sedeveria 'Spring Miracle', Graptopetalum mendozae, and so on. If you have quite a lot of succulents and it is inconvenient to move them back and forth, when you cannot guarantee the temperature stays above zero, you can cover them with multiple layers of plastic film for protection.

In places where winter temperatures often drop below minus five degrees, you can only keep them indoors or provide heating yourself, but if it is too warm they grow fast and are not easy to color up. Another effect of low temperature is that it makes succulents curl up, just as people huddle up when cold; succulents also use this way to resist severe cold.

Succulent Coloring Condition Two

Plenty of sunlight

Another indispensable condition for achieving coloring together with low temperature is that there must be plenty of sunshine. Full sun during the day and freezing at night, and they will color up quickly and reliably. But so-called plenty of sunlight may be different from what many people understand. People often think, I put mine on the balcony, and the sun shines on them well, so why is it not obvious? In fact, the difference between inside a balcony and an open terrace is very big. My idea of plenty of sunlight basically means full sun, and 360-degree full sun with no obstruction, from the moment the sun comes out until no daylight remains; that is truly abundant sunlight, so this is one of the reasons greenhouses have an advantage.

Succulent Coloring Condition Three

Large temperature difference

This point is actually a reflection of points one and two. Only with sun is it possible to achieve a temperature difference in cold weather. If you have a greenhouse, the temperature difference can be pushed even greater.

In autumn, because visibility in the air increases, sunlight intensity strengthens, and at the same time ultraviolet intensity also rises to its annual peak. This is the best season for succulents to change color. While caring for our succulents to make them beautiful, we should also pay attention to watering and ventilating them appropriately, to ensure healthy growth.

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