Bear paw plant?

12 years ago

Several weeks ago I picked up a Bear paw(Cotyledon tomentosa) from a garden center, this evening after some researching and finding its name ect(Im slowly trying to find the names of all my succulents) I noted that my own little plant didnt look exactly like the ones pictured.
While the one pictured were coated in leaves and standing up by themselves, my little plant(or plants, seeing as its split into two) have about 4 leaves each and very long stems (when I bought it it did have several rotting and dead leaves, which simply fell off when i repotted it), not to mention the two little plants were just lying on each other, unable to stand up, to which this evening i put in a small skewer next to each so they do stand up.
Im concerned if this is a fault of the garden centers - or of my own? Is there something Im doing wrong? or is it just a bit of a waiting game to see if it starts to fill out?

This post was edited by iamthewindwaker on Thu, Aug 7, 14 at 18:29

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Comments (8)

plantomaniac08
12 years ago
Did you mean to attach a picture?

Planto
DavidL.ca
12 years ago
Definitely need a picture to know what exactly is going on... But from the description it sounds like your plant might be etiolated (stretched and droopy leaves due to lack of light)
Attach a picture and we shall see!
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iamthewindwaker
Original Author
12 years ago
There you go, sorry i didnt have a decent one last night s: it could just be me being paranoid
plantomaniac08
12 years ago
Okay, while I do not grow these, I can tell you at least three issues.

#1 The soil looks too water retentive (you'll need something much faster draining)

#2 It is indeed etiolated (not getting enough light; the two sets of leaves should be much closer together).

#3 The pot looks too big. Does it have a drainage hole? If not, that's my #4

Hopefully others will chime in as to its specific care, but remedying those "issues" will at least point you in the right direction!

Planto
iamthewindwaker
Original Author
12 years ago
Ah thank you ^u^ There are several plants in one big bowl, with plenty of stones in the bottom for drainage. I did wonder if the soil might be causing a issue, Ill need too look into that, all i know is it's cactus soil and it was doing ok before but I think its causing a issue with all of them actually s: i will defiantly look into that, thank you. Light i think was the problem for where I got it, as it was on a middle shelf behind several other plants, but has been moved slowly into the light of a window(south facing).
I am defiantly going to look into the soil though, and perhaps checks the stone sin the bottom in case they've clumped up in some places s: Thank you ever so much
savant
12 years ago
Cactus soil on its own isn't very good. You need to add some grit or something similar to the soil to help with the drainage.
iamthewindwaker
Original Author
12 years ago
Ahh, ok, thank you so much, im going to look into this asap and see if I can remedy the soil a bit s:
brodyjames_gw
12 years ago
Remove the stones from the bottom too. It's an all to common misconception that stones at the bottom aid in drainage. Simply put either a coffee filter, a piece of screen, or some newspaper over the drainage hole. By the time the paper disintegrates, the soil will have compacted enough that it won't fall out the hole.

Nancy