With G. 'Fred Ives,' I would wonder if it's a fungal issue from heavy, not well-draining, soil and/or from the plant not receiving the sun it craves. I'd guess a combination of the two. Neither of these plants are indoor plants, and that's likely at the root of the issue. When a succulent that is kept indoors is having issues, its being indoors is usually at the root of the problem; they aren't houseplants. Mr. Beans is getting straggly, also, due to inadequate light. When a plant becomes lanky, with greater distance between the leaves, that's called etiolation, and it happens in much too low of light. The distance between the leaves, on the existing growth, will not shrink with greater light, but any new growth will be improved if the plant has been moved to proper outdoor conditions.

I had a couple fungal issues with 'Fred Ives' early on in my growing, back when I was naive. My soil was too dense, but part-shade wasn't helping the plant to flourish, either. It will tolerate poor, heavy soil quite a bit, but only if it's getting quite a bit of sun (so the soil would be drying out relatively quickly). It thrives in full sun and will reward you greatly for it, getting wonderful shades of purple among the blue, and its leaves will root like weeds, should you want new plants.

When you put plants outside, just be sure to always slowly acclimate them from shade into sun. Putting them from shade abruptly into full sun will cause leaf burn.

This post was edited by teatree on Wed, Aug 21, 13 at 16:06

I'll fix your images. We use HTML here at the forum.

I know a few of us here have trouble seeing images uploaded with tinypic. I'm not one of them, but some other people may not be able to view the pictures. Most of us don't have trouble viewing images loaded through Photobucket.

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Thank you! And thanks for reposting the pictures so they are visible.

The Fred is in equal parts cactus soil and perlite, but it was in quite heavy soil when I bought it (around a month ago), also what is a good way to gradually move it towards full sun?

I'd start with an outside area that stays shaded, or no direct sun, all day. Do that for a few days before thinking about moving it to a place where it would get filtered bright light or part shade. Have it in part-shade for several days before considering finding a place where it would receive just morning direct sunlight, not afternoon. Just gradually moving it so it gets a little bit more sun in stages. Consider how the sun moves throughout the day -- don't have it somewhere where the sun will move and it will suddenly start getting late afternoon hot sun, which would burn the plant. Unfortunately, the sun moves, and I do some frantic babysitting when I'm acclimating my plants, so that shade doesn't abruptly turn to sun on something I need shaded.

It also depends a little on weather. Nothing really adores 100+ degree sun, and if the sun is severely hot, in the 90s or above, even if the plant were acclimated to the sun, I might consider the ultimate goal to be part-sun rather than full sun.

This post was edited by teatree on Wed, Aug 21, 13 at 18:07

Thanks again for your help teatree. I started the process today so we'll see how it goes!

Ashton, I guess I'm missing something, here. Your Graptoveria 'Fred ives' looks very healthy. The lower leaves naturally turn brown and die off. This is a hybrid: "It is reportedly a hybrid of Graptopetalum paraguayense crossed with a plant in the Echeveria gibbiflora complex that was created by Albert Baynes, a founding member of the National Cactus & Succulent Society in England in 1946. The plant was named for one of the societies co-founders Fred Ives of Shipley, Yorkshire and the name was first published in 1979 by J.C. van Keppel in Succulenta 58 (10) : 251 ��" 253." from San Marcos Growers.

Bikerdoc,

Thank you for your help! I wasn't sure of that was normal or not, as I still have a lot to learn. The added info about the history of my plant was also very interesting. I often wondered how the name "Fred Ives" came about!