Haworthia is not hard to grow: a gardening master shares succulent plant care experience

1. Geographic location and environment

First, this junior's location is a certain city in Heilongjiang, where the climate has short summers and long winters. Climate-wise, it is more suitable for caring for haworthia than southern cities, but even so, this cannot be treated as a "cost" for growing plants well, because even in an indoor environment that is warm in winter and cool in summer, this junior has basically encountered all the common problems that easily arise when growing haworthia, such as sunburn and root reversal, and even when caring for cactus-type plants, there have also been cases of root rot, plant sunburn, and even death. Because the forum also has many master-written good articles summarizing haworthia care, this junior also reads them from time to time and asks for advice, but just like in life and work, everyone understands problems differently, yet the final goal is the same: just do things well. (Thanks to 87381560)

All right, now let's formally get into the topic. This junior's understanding of caring well for haworthia is that environment and water control play the leading role, neither can be missing, and regulating them well is not easy either.

First, let's talk about environment. Because this junior is also a balcony grower, you need to understand the characteristics of the plants you have, and place them in a position suitable for them. Here this mainly refers to light intensity and light uniformity, which must be well controlled.

Next, let's talk about ventilation and shading (here mainly referring to the dormancy period and summer). If conditions allow, use air conditioning and fans, because this junior's care environment has pretty good ventilation (this has a lot to do with the local environment), so there is only simple shading, and no fans or air conditioning are used. If conditions are limited, then enter dormancy mode, and by no means let the plant bear huge risks just for the sake of greedily seeking a little growth. Next, when talking about water control, I will explain dormancy-mode care in more detail.

Environment summary: even indoors that is warm in winter and cool in summer, moderate shading is still very necessary. Build an environment with ventilation, shading, and light suitable for plant growth, and getting through summer will be much easier. If these are not done well, the later period of explosive growth for haworthia will be greatly hindered.

Next is water control. Personally, I think that if water is controlled well, even a so-so environment can grow beautiful plants. Take the Silver Turtle from the previous post as an example. When it first arrived it was about two centimeters, and the plant was also a seedling that the previous owner had sunburned very red. So when I cared for it, choosing the pot became the main means of water control (note that the pot I use for growing seedlings has a diameter of about four to five cm and a height of only about six to seven cm, which counts as a very small pot). In this way, water control becomes easy; even if you pour a lot of water, the water drains out quickly and does not easily accumulate, and it greatly "increases the benefit to the plant or plant growth with every watering." One more thing here: actually, seedlings do not need such small pots, and planting several seedlings in similar condition together in a "squeeze them in" growing method also makes water control very easy and the growth relatively better. Seedlings fear pots that are too deep and too large the most; water control then takes more effort, growth is very poor, and recovery is slow. Of course, small pots also need to be changed in time, otherwise the root system will be constrained by the pot, which of course also greatly affects growth (the Silver Turtle from the previous post is now in its third pot). Now let's talk about the dormancy period (or when the plant is not growing much). My understanding is to increase the alternation of dry and wet, constantly stimulate the roots, do not use heavy watering or frequent watering; when the bottom of the pot looks dry, spray some water, or if the weather is too severe, extending it a few days is also fine, and the humidity in the middle of the pot will still be maintained (if the environment is very good, then also "moderately" increase the alternation of dry and wet; this mainly depends on the environment). In this way, during the period when the plant is most prone to accidents, it both safely "grows" (do not force it if growth is slow, so as to avoid accidents not being worth it) and also lays the groundwork for the next explosive growth.

In the growing season, my water control is simply to water when the bottom of the pot is dry. At this time, do not water thoroughly only after the soil is completely dry. The most suitable growing period for haworthia in a year is limited. If you do unsuitable things at the suitable time, and care for the plant too conservatively, the plant will be less plump and its growth will not be as desired, making it easy for the plant to enter dormancy too early, causing it to miss the best growing period and waste a whole year, which to a certain extent frustrates enthusiasts' confidence. In fact, many enthusiasts who care for haworthia have this situation: sometimes when the plant is ignored and only watered occasionally, it grows better than other plants that are cared for attentively, and even when other plants have root reversal, it does not. This is exactly where the key to water control lies.

Finally, to summarize overall, personally I think that when caring for haworthia, soil mixing (as long as it suits you, no need to be the same as others), fertilizing, and using chemicals are not the key points in caring well for haworthia. The key lies in methods and approaches. If the main key places are handled well, growing plants is both labor-saving and worry-free (master water control and environment well). Otherwise, if you blindly fail to grasp the key points, you can only tear down the east wall and still not patch the west wall.