Echeveria care / tips

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

I recently got interested in Echeverias, after reading lots of older posts on this site and seeing all the strange, beautiful varieties there are. I had a couple of questions on how to grow these best indoors. I've only tried a couple of them over the years and they do well inside but eventually died after rotting on me.

I'd like to try to grow them under my T5/LED combo lights to help keep them compact and colorful. My house is 65-75 degrees F usually, sometimes cooler in the summer with the AC on.

Few questions:

1. Do they do well in a pure grit type of mix? Most of my other succulent (euphorbias, stapelias, dorstenia) seem to like pure perlite but I don't know if echeverias would.

2. How often would you water them? Do they show obvious signs of needing water? I've read they can handle no water for a long period of time, and I've learned over this past year that even on my heat mats, my succulents do better when I water less than I think I need to.

3. Do they like heat? I have most of my succulents that I mentioned above on heat mats under my lights and they seem to like it. So far in this experiment I've had to water a little bit more frequently because it's so dry in my house, but I'm having better growth results compared to growing them indoors without heat mats.

4. How do some of you water them with indoor setups without excess heat like heat mats? Especially during the winter when it's very dry indoors with the house's heat going. During the summer I have AC in the house and don't really turn it off often. I'm wondering when I would water if they're under lights and at a pretty constant room temperature of 65-75 F, without worrying about it being too cold to water?

Thanks for any tips or ideas! Here are my first two I've recently found, two Ariel Cristata's. These are what got me to look into echeverias more. They have very few roots underneath their stem, most are pink and then a couple of white roots. I'm hoping they'll grow some fresh ones in this perlite on my heat pad since there aren't many roots there-

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Comments (3)

rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
7 years ago
I think Howard (bikerdoc) grows many echeverias - I am sure others do too, just not sure who - and hope they will chime in. I have a question: I see plastic tubs/containers; are there drainage holes? (I am assuming 'yes'...)

I have only few echeverias, and they are all in gritty mix (grit, perlie, turface). In temps you mention, I think they need to be watered about weekly or so. I consider 'cool' for them about 50*F and below - but that is JMO. My succulents are in cooler room, (approx. 55-60F); no heat mats, and I water about every 7-10 days. Your light set-up souds good. I put all of my succuents outside, as soon as it is warm enough (temps. no less than 50*F overnight).
Bc _zone10b thanked rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
Bc _zone10b
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks Rina! The containers don’t have drainage holes. I’ve been working on a semi hydro experiment with all my succulents and while my stapelias are growing like weeds in it, I don’t like the way it looks and also just read that heat+humid conditions can kill echeverias.

I think tomorrow I’ll go buy some new pots for these and the first haworthia I got, along with some new grit mix ingredients to put them in. I’ll keep them off the heat mat and under the lights, hopefully that’ll be good for them.

Do you use clay or plastic pots for your echeverias? I read that they need really good air flow so I’m wondering if clay would be best, or if that’ll let the gritty mix dry out too fast.
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rina_Ontario,Canada 5a
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Most of my succulents are in plastic pots - just because they are lighter, and I am a recycler :) And because terracotta breaks much easier too. I have few terracotta pots, but do not feel there is difference - many do. I never tried semi-hydro, so can't speak of that. I have potted some plants in grit+perlite only, few in just grit and couple in perlite only. Not echeverias IIRC. It has been more than a year and they are still alive. I do not see any difference in growth (comparing same type of plants).

You are right about humidity - it gets humid outside around here in Summer. I have them all outside, and try to keep them on shallower shelves, only 1 pot deep, for air circulation.

For some reason, I do not have much luck with stapeliads...maybe I should try semi-hydro!