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naturenewbie

Some beginner questions!

NatureNewbie
9 years ago

Hello! I've found this forum and decided I'll post to make sure I'm treating my succies how they should be :)

We had them in the garden and I think they were getting too much sun. Their leaves weren't bleaching in spots or any of the other indicators, but they were looking really drained colorwise and lots of their leaves were falling off. We've since moved them to the courtyard and they seem much healthier. Even growing! Eee! However, eventually I'd like to move them back to the garden. Should I wait for them to get bigger (they're as wide as a mug right now) before doing so? Do you think it was the sun that was the problem?

We also repotted them around then and I'm not sure if that could have been the problem? It took around a month for their roots to really set back into the soil.

I'm a bit of a water control freak and am constantly snapping at my mum "don't water my babies!" because she's a traditional gardener and has to restrain herself. We water them around every four days, give them a full day of sun, and pull them into the shade around 5 because the sun doesn't set until 9.

I'm using just the cactus soil from the shelf by miraclegro. I know I need to grab some pumice/sand/crushed volcano rock but I couldn't find any horticultural grade stuff, just craft project stuff. My mum wants us to use up the prepacked soil before we buy some of the materials to make custom soil so as not to waste. Should I mix in some of the well-draining materials to the soil we have? Or should it be fine? With our intense heat (almost always 80+ from March to August), our soil doesn't seem to have a problem being too wet. My mum still swears its too dry, but I think its more the heat than the dryness that would be a problem, right?

I'm not home till saturday, but when I get there I'll take photos and post them. We bought more at the weekend (our established ones are around two months old) so I don't know their names. The established ones we repotted and worried about are called Echeveria lilacina, Sepervivum "Jungle Shadows," Pachyphytum "Blue Haze," Taciveria "Victor Reiter," and Echeveria "Dondo."

Our Blue Haze was doing the worst in the garden with her bottom leaves shriveling up and many just falling off. And our Dondo is the one doing the best right now in terms of growth and color.

Thanks for reading and hope you reply! :)

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