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carmendehn

Succulent IDs

8 years ago

I recently moved from WI to SD, and I have a few young succulents that I inherited from my parents. My mother bought these at our local Farmer's Market from a woman who grows and sells tons and tons of these cute babies. Unfortunately, I don't know what any of them are or how to better care for them. I think one or two of them might be sick, but I don't know why or how to help them. :'(

I did re-pot all of them in a better soil about two weeks ago (they were all in plain indoor potting soil, and I think they had gotten too much water before I inherited them), but I think I might have taken too long. I didn't know the soil was bad until a few weeks after I got here and I think I might have blundered by trying to let the soil dry a bit before I decided to scrap it and re-pot. None of them had any visibly dark or rotting roots at the time but I've been afraid to lift them to check. I have only watered them once since re-potting, aside from one light misting.

I also drove here and the poor darlings had to sit in my car overnight when the temp went down to about 38 degrees F because the hotel wouldn't let me take them in to my room. I had them in a cardboard box lined and insulated with warm clothes and covered with my insulated winter coat (I had it propped up slightly in the middle so it didn't crush any of them), but it might not have been enough to keep them safe.

Here's plant #1:

I'm worried about all of those brown spots. It didn't have them when I got it and I don't know what they are. The only other thing I can say is that the new growth coming from the side sprouted up at the same time, but it also has those sad brown spots on it. :(

For what it's worth, whatever it does have doesn't seem to be contagious. None of the other plants have gotten them.

Here's #2:

I'm really confused about this one too. The inner "leaves" keep falling off, almost crumbling off, but it's growing new roots like crazy. I'm not sure if the inner growth is yellow because it's dry or because it's not getting enough light, or... well, whatever else it could be? It does seem happier since being re-potted, but I'm worried about it all the same.

Plant #3:

This one seems okay? It does have a few patches that are lighter/not as green, as the photos show.

#4:



This one perked up a LOT after re-potting. It was nearly flat and it looked almost grayish in tone. It's gotten much greener, but the bottom leaves still look brownish-grayish, and one of them is a little shriveled at the tip. I feel like it used to have quite a bit of red color and now is only green... but I can't be sure, since I've only had it for a few weeks, and it barely had any color when I got it.

And finally, plant #5:

This one, I think is aeonium arboreum (or "Irish rose") but I'd like a confirmation. This baby has gotten sooo green, but I think it's still reaching pretty desperately for light. When I first got it, it looked like a tree out of a Dr. Seuss book! It's grown quite a bit in the short time I've had it.

We have very limited sunlight here, as we're in the mountains. It's only light out for a few hours a day, and our apartment windows (which face South) are probably far too cold to keep the plants by. I currently have them under a 100w-equivalent CFL (5000k) in a fairly open room. I think the air flow is pretty decent.

Any IDs or advice would be enormously appreciated! Especially anything that might be doable on a limited income...

Comments (2)

  • 8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    #1 & #5 are both aeoniums.

    #2 looks like very etiolated Sedum morganianum that may have been in better light recently - end of branches (rosettes) are quite tight.

    #3 is Portulacaria afra

    #4 is Cryptanthus spp; type of bromeliad

    Cold on windowsills is likely not a problem, unless very cold outside+very drafty windows+plants touching freezing glass - I would think that is very unlikely. Plants being in your car overnight as you described was most likely very well protected.

    Aeoniums often develop spots as you are seeing in #1 pic; A. Kiwi seems to me more susseptible to them than some other aeoniums. I believe it is caused by high humidity.

    Your lights should be of help. Al those plants need lots of light. I do not know what is your potting mix made of - looks chunky, but could you describe?

    S. morganianum will drop it's leaves readily, often just by anything brushing it. Yellowing leaves often signal overwatering. Could you possibly post close-up photo of a branch - just to make sure it isn't something else...

  • 8 years ago

    First, thank you so much for the IDs!

    I've been looking on tons and tons of web pages but couldn't find anything that looked like these! I only found the aeonium arboreum (#5) by coincidence and the only one I could find that looked similar to #2 was sedum diffusum 'potosinum' which I'm amazed was even close! :)

    We actually don't have windowsills in our apartment. They were previously on a table near (to the side of) the patio door, but one of my roommates frequently goes outside to smoke and I thought that the cold drafts from the door opening and closing might be bad for them since they seemed like they were wilting. It has been getting to about 18 degrees F here at night, and staying at about 25-30 or so most days, lately. We have already had snow here quite a few times. (Today it was 40, which was nice!)

    I think that where I have them now (in the middle of our living room, several feet in front of the patio door) they actually get more of the light from the patio window.

    About the soil I have them in now: it's a mix of cacti/succulent soil, perlite, and a potting gravel. I tried to mix them pretty evenly, according to the recommendations I saw online. It appears to be fast-draining and when I've tested it, it doesn't seem to retain too much moisture but I'm very new at this so maybe my idea of "too much" or "enough" is very far off!

    And yes! I just took some closer pictures of plant #2 for you:





    The pictures are a little fuzzier than I'd like, but any time I tried to get closer the branches went out of focus. :(

    From what I can see when I look at it up close, it doesn't have any signs of mold. And some of the inner leaves shriveled up before falling off. They are/were dry to the touch, if that's helpful.

    I tried to include several angles so you could see everything! I hope that's useful.