Saturday, July 25, 2015

Lithops experiment part 2 (2 pics)

It has been five weeks since I started the experiment to see if badly etiolated (is this the term for a plant out of shape due to a lack of light and too much watering?) lithops plants can be saved and corrected. Well, this is how far the plants are now. My initial plan was to make them wrinkle and shrivel to a better size to make it easier for the new leaves to come out next year. The pot was exposed to lots and lots of sun and heat and was not watered at all. In fact, I am not going to water them until next year. I was worried since they've never seen this much sunlight they'd get burnt but there was no problem with that.
Their current state is definitely an improvement. The two less longer plants are slowly nearing the "mark of shortness" I've set for them. The mark being as close as possible to the substrate level. The substrate level shortness is what I want for the long monster as well but it is not realistic within this year. It just needs to shrivel enough for the new leaves to come out of the side and all the "top" to be safely removed. At least that's my optimistic plan for it. Anyway, so far so good. Still alive!

10 comments:

  1. This is great. I can't wait to see where they are in a year!

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    1. Thank you :)
      I'm very curious too to see how it'll all turn out!

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  2. Thank you for posting an update! I recently bought a similarly elongated lithops and was wondering what the status of yours was. Do keep us informed!

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    1. Thank you for commenting!

      Then we're doing this experiment together, huh? :) The trick is at the moment - no water and no expectations. So far they are doing well and if they make it to regeneration - then we can hope :)

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  3. I am glad you tried this. I also did this, experimentally- the outdoors Lithops died when the monsoon-type rains came. Indoors,with no water and a lot of sun, they survived and multiplied, though they are fairly small. Rain and Lithops just do not mix.

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    1. No, they don't :) This year I still have not put any table on my balcony (in fact not even my living room is yet furnished) but I'd love to try and grow some mesembs in the open air next year. I'll need to think of how to keep away the rain though.

      Small lithops is a good lithops.

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  4. Thank you for posting the update. It's very instructive !
    Claudio

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    1. Or it will be, if the plants survive :)
      Thank you for visiting Claudio!

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  5. Hello Rika,

    It's quite interesting to see the subtle, but noticeable, changes (wrinkles) in the experiment plants after 5 weeks without water. It's also amazing to realize these small plants have been without water for so long and barely show any major stress. They really are amazing plants and nature as well suited them for life in an arid environment. I think growers new to lithops have difficulty realizing these plants can really survive weeks and weeks, or, months and months, without any water. When you don't have much experience with lithops the temptation to water must be irresistible. Even after growing them for many years I often feel the temptation to water them after day after day of hot, dry weather. I think this is where the practice of misting came from. It really doesn't deliver much water to the plants but it makes the grower feel better. :)

    Once again, looking forward to the trials and tribulations of the regeneration period for these plants. If anyone can bring them back to being respectable lithops it's you.

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    1. Yes, this really is amazing. I have some small yearlings standing here in full sun and there's not even a wrinkle. I'm still watering every couple of weeks but mainly because I'm worried (haha, as you described! Good thing pumice dries quickly). I don't think they need it. Unfortunately all new growers have to go through the overwatering phase before they start noticing the plants are absolutely fine without it. We should suggest misting to new growers to dam back those urges, like a nicotine patch.

      The overgrown plants above are getting wrinklier every day now (even though at first there was no change for at least 3 weeks). But they are quite firm to the touch, not soft. I hope it means they are indeed dialing down and saving energy, without much inner stress. It is difficult to watch a wrinkled plant however, it's "stress" for the grower ;)

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