I'm afraid this guy is taking a turn for the worse.. The molding seems to be spreading..

Bernard I would pop this question on the cactiguide forum, there is a mesemb mastere there "Ian" who has been growing lithops since forever he will definitely know whats going on and if its salvageable! Good luck!

Wish I knew enough to help more! All I know is that mould can spread/grow very quickly on fleshy mesembs because of their water content (and it has happened to me before).

I'd watch it carefully and try to keep it dry. Minty has a good suggestion - Ian over there seems to be a real master and has a bounty of posts (which may be helpful).

Thanks minty. I yanked them out, and the mix is too wet.. Probably a bad potting medium for lithops.. I suspect it's molds.. I think it's imminent for it to go under the knife. Else it's as good as dead anyway.. And it seems to be spreading to the others..

Awwww :( ...How large is that cup? What the composition of your lithops mix and are you watering now?

When potting my Lithops, I'm usually picking a pot that just fits the current root depth. Then try to pick a pot with the narrowest width possible.

Otherwise, how do you contend with watering a pot with very high volume?

Maybe I just hope that the roots stay shorter and get fatter rather than longer and deeper.

I just joined the cactiguide forum, have to be approved for registration before I can start posting..

Anyhow, I found this excerpt that is particularly interesting.. But I can never quite figure out what does it mean by cutting above the stem and not the meristem?

"Most mesembs can be easily re-rooted, usually its best to cut all the stem off, right up to the last active leave pair. Trying to re-root a clump is risky, its better to cut the clump up and re-root all the individual heads. Be careful not to cut the meristem, just above stem on Lithops and Conos. Dead meristem means dead plant."

Guide on Growing Lithops found on CactiGuide

So here's the anatomy of a Lithop plant..

I used an exa-tor knife to cut out the rotting part to prevent spreading. Sad to say, there wasn't any flesh left to cut.. the mold/fungi had already devoured a good portion of the leaf's body. It was hollow the minute I cut into it..

Here's the cross section view.. After reading the guide, I'm trying to figure which part of the plant is ok to cut, so it can be salvageable. Cut 1 or Cut 2...

If it's cut 1, it might be workable, since a new leaf will grow from the bottom of them body.

If it's cut 2, the plant is as good as it should be left alone and see if it can recover..

Kevin, Here's another excerpt I found written by Mark. It might help answer your question.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1772388/is-my-lithops-confused#5825606

"The bumps and bruises disappear with the next set of leaves. This time of year is normal for new bodies to start appearing between the cracks. Slowly the new bodies expand, taking moisture from the old leaves which will shrivel and dry out.

Keep watering minimal during this process. Once the old leaves are pretty much gone, you can resume watering more regularly until flowering in summer for some species or fall for most. Good luck.

Minimal means some spraying to wet the surface a little.

When I first started growing Lithops 10+ yrs ago, I was always confused by what I read about when and how much to water. So I made things easy for myself.

I watered them every week. But the amount varied. When it was hot or cold and the plants are dormant, watering = spraying. From late summer through flowering, watering was enough to moisten the soil a little more. In the spring I kept it to heavy spraying unless I knew for sure we would have a few warm sunny days in a row in which case I watered more heavily. And you know what, it worked! And it forces you to observe your plants on a weekly basis and learn from subtle clues when they could use some water.

Of course the soil mix, pots, sun, wind etc. are super important factors that would take too long to discuss in detail."

Apparently he sprays the plants.. and I remembered reading steven hammer's article too that these plants enjoy morning dews collected from condensation and the cool moisture of the evening mist.

I water my first pot in sips.. and the occasional flushing to clear out access salts..

I believe these plants naturally have their roots digging deeper once they experience a drought. So during periods of prolonger dryness, the roots will eventually fill up the unused space of the pots anyway. They tend to grow deeper and less more so sideways unless forced to.

Perhaps, I might also be thinking too much.. I don't know, maybe the plants are ready to shred their leaves, hence the scarring.. Either way, I hope I didn't kill the plant by cutting into it.. I still have a second one that I left it unrooted. It has the same type of bumps but smaller..

I think the most important part to not damage is the meristem, the very bottom tip of the leaves.

Cutting the roots is not advisable if they are still healthy, since that would aid in recovery.

I don't think damage leaves will be a problem as long as no rot spreads. As you stated above, eventually the leaves will be replaced.

Definitely doesn't appear like a normal leaf absorption to me (with the spots and voids).

Thanks Kevin! The roots all look great. Very white and healthy. I damaged some fine feeder roots while yanking them out. They were quite firmly held and needed some force.

Do you by any chance have an account at cactiguide forums? Do you mind helping me post and ask if Ian can shred some light on this bane?

I'm concerned as to what are my next steps.. The last thing I want to do is pot them back up only to yank them back out to inspect them again..

Yes, I have the same problem. I am a beginner for Lithop. So, I need help with this white spot scar like on my Lithop.

If it's the same, quite probably fungal.