The Ultimate Guide to Caring for Succulents
You may have bought succulents because they caught your attention or may have received them as gifts. No matter what the case, caring for succulents properly will ensure longevity.
This means that you need to provide conditions that are similar to their native habitat so they can thrive and grow beautifully. If you love your indoor plants and want to show them proper love and care, you need to follow a suitable care procedure.
How To Care For Indoor Succulent Plants (Find Out Here!)
Proper succulent care calls for the correct amount of fertilizer, water, sun exposure, soil drainage, and temperature according to the plant's needs.
What Is The Most Common Succulent?
The Mexican Snowball (Echeveria elegans) is the most common succulent. It is a light-green rosette that thrives perfectly indoors. It is also commonly known as hens and chicks but is not to be mixed with Sempervivum.
Mexican Snowball - Brittony Swalm
Requirements And Specifications
Partial shade to full sunlight.
Water once a week in the summers, twice a week during autumn/spring, and once a month during winter.
The plant can grow 8 inches tall and 12 inches wide.
Requires a minimum temperature of 20° F or -6.7° C
Nontoxic and not cold hardy.
Goes dormant in winter.
It can be propagated through leaves and offsets.
What Are The Different Types Of Succulents?
Aloe
Aloe vera plants have bright red and cylindrical flowers. Most plants have spines and margined rosettes. Moreover, they are native to southern California and the Mediterranean regions.
Haworthia
These plants have pointed and long leaves with white raised dots. They have white flowers with 6 perianth segments.
String Of Pearls
They bloom in the summer and have white daisy-like flowers. These have yellow anthers and red stamens, and the plant gives off a cinnamon scent.
Jade Plant
Also known as Crassula ovata, it is the most popular variety that has oval-shaped leaves. These are dark green and thick and grow upwards while spanning out. These plants also grow pink-white flowers during the winter.
Snake Plant
The snake plant has dark and tall green leaves with light gray stripes. These narrow leaves can grow to around 3 feet in length.
House Leeks
These succulents have fleshy foliage with symmetrical and thick rosettes. The blooms are strap-shaped and tall, with 8 to 16 petals. The flowers are usually red, yellow, pink/purple, or white.
Starfish Plant
These plants do not have spines and are soft-stemmed. This plant resembles carrion flesh and has thick skin. They often produce 5 petal flowers that give off an unpleasant smell.
Jade Plant - Brittony Swalm
How To Care For Succulents Indoors?
Follow the care tips below to keep a succulent plant alive indoors:
Use A Container With Drainage
Succulents need to be watered thoroughly once every week during summer and twice a month during autumn and spring. You can water them once a month during winter. Ensure you keep the succulents in a dry region and that the potting medium allows excellent drainage.
Succulents use up their stored moisture when they are not watered well. Dry soil leads to desiccated roots and poor growth. Even though some plants can regenerate roots when it rains or when they are watered, it is still a good idea to keep the soil moist like a squeezed sponge.
You can water more or less based on the following:
Season.
Humidity levels.
Sun exposure, duration, and intensity.
Surrounding temperature.
Plant type.
Depth of soil.
Balanced liquid fertilizer should be diluted to half strength and applied once or twice during autumn (senecios/aeoniums) and spring. Get more plant info here.
Correct Soil Type
A good soil mixture for succulents is coarse and has excellent drainage. You can buy premade mixes or make your own for cheaper:
⅓ compost.
⅓ garden soil.
⅓ pumice.
Add sharp sand with large grains, builder's sand, or decomposed granite if you have desert succulents. Plant your succulents on top of the soil with clay by making raised beds/mounding to avoid root rot due to poor drainage.
You can mix half a bag of premade soil with pumice in equal parts for potted plants. Use more pumice for rotund euphorbias and cacti and less for sedums and fine-leaved plants.
Proper Sunlight
Half a day of sun exposure is great for succulents; full sun during the morning and shade during noon and evening. The duration and intensity of sunlight vary based on elevation, latitude, location, orientation, and seasons. So make sure you are aware of this.
Cacti, yuccas, and aloe are some plants that bloom well in full sun exposure. Succulents also need sunlight for balanced growth, and those that have been cultivated in greenhouses should slowly be introduced to intense sunlight.
Sansevierias and haworthias do not require as much sun and make great indoor plants.
Sunburn patches are brown/beige, and added exposure can kill the plant.
Striped/variegated plants have less pigment and require less sunlight than solid-colored succulents.
Succulents can survive heavy rain, but roots can start to rot if the soil stays too moist. Few plants will survive outdoors below 32 degrees Fahrenheit for a long time.
Perennial stonecrops, hens, and chicks are fine-leaved and cold-hardy plants that do not fare well above 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
Keep Bugs Away
Proper air circulation is a great way to prevent infestations. Thrips and aphids infest flower buds, while mealybugs and scale attack stems. Mealybugs also look like lint and burrow themselves into leaf axils.
If you suspect an infestation, make a solution with 50% water and 70% rubbing alcohol and use it as a spray. You can scrape the scale and can also treat it with horticultural oil/soap.
Keep infected plants separate from others and thoroughly clean the area. Mold may also occur if you live in a humid region and fail to keep your succulents sufficiently dry.
If a plant seems to be infected beyond measure, then discard the plant immediately. Use cuttings to grow new ones by placing them in fresh soil. Make sure to clean pots thoroughly before reusing them.
Cactus - Brittony Swalm
Share Your Succulents with me on Social Media
Always grow sensitive succulents in pots and microclimates. Succulents have shallow roots so that they can be easily moved indoors and outdoors based on their requirements and the weather.
Feel free to share your succulents and tag us on social media if we helped or inspired you in any way!
