What happens if succulents go 4 months without water? This is what happened to a Shanghai succulent grower's plants after being left to fend for themselves

A Shanghai succulent grower didn't water the plants for "4 months," and this is what the succulents looked like after being left to fend for themselves!

The summer of 2018 has passed and autumn has arrived. These past few days the highest temperature in Shanghai has been 31 degrees, there's wind, and it feels much cooler. Today, while little Cola was asleep, I quickly took down the shade net and rain shelter to see how the succulents were doing after nearly 4 months without watering or care. After looking, I found three situations: black rot, turning to mush, and dried up.

I sorted through the dead succulents. To be honest, fewer died than last year. But many that didn't die last year died this year instead, such as my favorites: Phenylbarb, Koudi, Yuanji, and Mountain Rose. A whole pot of C364 was wiped out, all 27 heads of Koudi turned to mush, 8 heads of General died, the Violet Queen dried up, the Flame Cup lost heads, 2 single heads of Apple Leaf died. I'm never buying Apple Leaf again, it dies every year, inexplicably dropping leaves and getting black rot.

When I looked in early July, the Stick-Leaf Fairy Cup was still fine. Looking again today, it's already in this miserable state, and 5 heads of the old stem have gone black.

A double-headed Ice Jade, one head went black, and the remaining one has become leggy.

At first glance the Sun Ice cluster still looks alive, but actually every stem has dried up, each head has aerial roots, and some roots have grown into the soil. It looks like it needs repotting and tidying up. Letting it get rained on directly or watering it might kill it. Even if they all survive, it won't be a cluster anymore, all single heads.

One pot with four plants, one turned to mush.

8 Rainbow Cactus, grown outdoors for over three months, and surprisingly a few turned to mush too. After consulting a cactus expert, I was told it was because the roots weren't stable before being put outdoors and they got too much rain

Now let's look at the miserable ones. My longest-kept pot of Red Ruby, I can't bear to look at it

The Xiuyan that already went miserable last summer, put out quite a few new buds in spring, then got no water all summer and has already dried up.

How many people can recognize this as a Pink Blue Bird, facepalm....

This leggy one has grown so much I don't even recognize who it is anymore.

6 single-head Ice Plum, the one in the middle looks like it's about to shoot to the sky.

This flower rack had no shade all summer. None got sun-scorched, only sun-dried.

After checking the casualties, it's time to clean up the dead leaves and get ready to grow them outdoors. Clean the dead leaves thoroughly to avoid dead leaves breeding bacteria and causing more deaths

Autumn has now arrived. I believe the succulents that made it through summer safely will gradually become beautiful~