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Why are my ice plants dying this time?

I started some ice plant seedlings last fall and found out the hard way what damping off was. With my new knowledge I started some more this spring in coconut coir to eliminate the fungus issue, and all seemed to be well until a week or so ago.

As you can see, they seem to be struggling again at around the same stage. I don’t see any evidence of damping off.

I thought I was maybe watering them too much now that they are more established, but even cutting back the watering doesn’t seem to be helping.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Comments (5)

  • 6 years ago

    These look like livingstone daisies. I've grown livingstone daisies from seed. They can be a bit tricky. Though, I'm not sure what you are seeing that you are concerned about. Is the problem that some stems are beginning to lie down? I'm not seeing damping off. They probably aren't getting enough sunlight which is causing them to etiolate and sprawl out. You can increase the sunlight a bit by removing the screen from the window. However, really, I've found these are plants that generally grow best outside in full sunlight.

  • 6 years ago

    Thank you for the reply!!

    You’re correct that I was concerned about some stems lying down, as well as the color turning purple on some and pale green on others. I’m going to move them outside and see if I see improvement.

    Any suggestions on watering frequency at this stage?

  • 6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    I’ve never grown these, but I’ve grown other succulents by seed, and be careful of too much light. The red coloring is likely from the light, and if put in less light they should turn back to green. I’m not saying put them in a dark closet, but somewhere where the light is bright, but filtered. They’re babies and are just emerging from their cotyledons, they really don’t need a ton a sun like a mature plant would. In the wild at this stage they would be under the mother plant or in a crack somewhere. Once they start really putting on growth slowly acclimate to more and more light.

    Outside would be good for air flow. Keep in mind that more air circulation means the soil will dry out faster. They’re little so they don’t have much when it comes to reserves.

  • 6 years ago

    Thanks Kara! I have many other succulents myself and know that they tend to turn more purple when receiving a lot of sunlight, but I don’t know why it never occurred to me to reduce the sunlight. I guess I’ve never really had seedlings before and it does almost look like a bit of sunburn on some of the leaves..

  • 6 years ago

    Yes, be careful about putting them outside. Sudden full sunlight all day will likely burn them. You have to gradually increase the sunlight and harden them off for being outdoors all day. It might be difficult to keep them watered enough with them planted in cocopeat. I recommended putting them outdoors because they can etiolate very easily.

    Some of them stay nearly all green no matter how much sun you give them and some of them can turn very purple. IIRC, the underside of the leaves can be quite purple. There is some variability of purplish plants in the seed packet. This is normal. The photos of their foliage online don't show how the leaves sparkle in the sunlight.

    I grew these one year from seed, kept them in 10 x 20 flats in 2 x 6 cells and sold them at a local farmer's market. I had to give them a lot of attention to keep them looking nice (planted them in tiny homemade plugs, repotted them in to cells, give a lot of sun, prevent them from drying out too much, watch out for hail storms) but they sold well.

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