In general, Adromischus are not difficult to grow on the windowsill. Good light is beneficial but some types enjoy a shadier spot. I have a big and beautiful Adromischus cristatus growing on my kitchen window without any direct sunlight at all (I'm watering it very rarely as a compensation). Mealy bugs like them but not more than any other succulents. And the propagation by leaf cuttings is very easy.
The one serious problem they have is spontaneous rotting. Sometimes you see it coming but usually you don't. One day the plant looks fine and the next day it's mush with nothing to save.
This one's dead.
I have not yet figured out why this happens and so the only preventive measure I know of is taking leaf cuttings for backup copies in advance, like so.
This year I've encountered a new problem - they're having troubles during summer heatwaves. Normally Adros are flowering during summer months, which weakens them a bit, then comes the heat (and maybe some additional plague like mealy bugs) and they get so stressed they drop leaves. I thought I'd lose several this summer! This drying and dropping off leaves is actually not as bad as it looks. As long as nothing's rotting, it'll be fine. I panicked and removed all remaining healthy leaves for propagation on 4 plants. This may or may not have been a right move but I figured, if the plant is going to dry them off anyway, I'll take them and grow new plants out of them first. This way nothing is lost.
But, I did keep the leafless stems! While the leaves were rooting I put the stems away and forgot about them. Come September, all the bald stems started to push new leaves! They may not grow into well-shaped plants but, with Adromischus, each new fully grown leaf potentially means a new perfectly shaped plant grown from it. Don't throw away those stems!
September
The same plant today
Backed by this experience, I recently tried to "refresh" a couple of older plants. The bushy types of Adromischus that naturally have larger spaces between leaves tend to grow too long with age and then tip over. We don't want that. In the past, on one or two occasions, I removed the lower leaves and buried the plant deeper. This year I simply cut them in two. The top with younger leaves can be rooted again while the bottom regrows.
Three weeks later
Got some leaf cuttings from it as well. Propagating like a champion.
Here are some other rooted tips, happily growing. But these were removed because I noticed the base of the root had started rotting. If you notice these things early this is how you save the plant.
My advice to you? As soon as a new Adromischus comes into your home, make a backup copy. It not only prevents you from fear of losing a plant, growing Adros from leaf cuttings is lots of fun, too. Just look at these cuties!
Thank you for this blog Rika, and good growing in 2020.
ReplyDeleteReading your accounts and observations over the last few months inspired me to try some Adromischus leaf cuttings (mainly marianiae forms) and seed of various Lithops.
Greetings from Ireland, Ashley
Hi Ashley. You're very welcome and thank you for visiting! :)
DeleteI am still surprised at how well Adros are doing with less than ideal light conditions on a windowsill. And marianiae forms are just the cutest. In fact, they are best suited for a windowsill. Other, big leaf forms like cooperi, seem to need more light. So marianiae is a good choice all together :)
Hi Rika. Lots of photos, that nice. I always enjoy looking at your plants. Adromischus cristatus leaves always remind me of pie crust. ^__^ You getting some expert at propagation, what are you doing with all the plants you propagate? You would be one of the stars at the plant sales at our monthly meetings. Of course now we aren't having any monthly meetings and everyone is wondering what to do with all the plants they propagated. Sometimes the life of a succulent grower is tough. Hope you and Mila are well and enjoying the summer. Bob
ReplyDeleteHi! Do you know how long in weeks it would take for an adromischus marianae herrei to root?
ReplyDeleteI had a cute reddish tiny plant but I had to go on holiday and it burned under the sun :/ One leaf was still okayish with a little bit of red but mostly green. So I planted it in a pot, but it's been like 2 months and it hasn't changed at all... Not dying or anything but nothing is happening, so I'm confused. Probably doing it wrong T_T
HI Almasy, I know I'm late with replying and you probably figured it out by now. Groing Adros from leaves can take many months. Sometimes the leaf would grow roots and just stay like this, never turning into a plant. There's nothing you can do wrong. Just put it in the substrate and wait. Once the roots are there, you can start watering a little to support them.
DeleteI've been re-reading your commments on Adros. Yes....they do things that I don't like; they drop leaves everytime I pick up or move one, and the 'herrei' types just decide to die, and they do. It's been a bit better when I decided to keep them on the very dry side, but their sudden death habit is very disappointing. I am going to try some outside in large containers next year to see if a bigger root area is to their liking. I have a few I put outside in their regular pots this past summer and they colored up very nicely; lots of red and orange, but now that they are back inside the leaf dropping has started again. I am going to unpot a few and see if the one's dropping leaves have a smaller root system, that is my current hypothesis. Hope your autumn season goes well for you and Mila.
ReplyDeleteHi Bob and thank you for reading my blog! Even though I largely abandoned it at the moment.
DeleteIt's true that Adros, especially Herrei, tend to just spontaneously rot and die. But dropping leaves is not a death sentence. I had a big mealy bug issue past 2 years and neglected to wash and repot my plants for too long. When I did, many Adros lost ALL leaves so that only the roots and branches were left. I put all of them into one pot and placed them on the balcony outside in the spring. They spent all summer there and are still there! Many have recovered and pushed new leaves. It is now around +3°C at night and they still live aoutside. I will take them inside when we have minus temperatures.
While you will not get a beautiful plant after regrowing it from roots, iit will push new leaves in time and you can harvest those new leaves to grow a new perfect plant from them, if you wanted to.
As to the reason, I mostly blame bugs and the fact that they grow in pure pumice and I have not fertilized in years :D
Hope you have a nice autumn too!