what is happening to my echeveria?

9 years ago

I purchased this plant at Walmart about a month ago. It had 4 bloom stalks on it and I was wanting more blooming succulents. Within a week of purchase I moved it into Al's gritty mix & have watered about once a week since then. I did make sure to get all the old peat based soil off the roots before repotting. For some reason the bottom leaves keep withering away. It almost looks like they are rotting from the tips inward. I am removing the leaves as they appear unhealthy. Otherwise the plant appears healthy and if I look closely at the center stalk it appears to have new growth. Very tiny new growth but we will see what it turns into. Any ideas of what is going on? After I repotted it I learned that I'm supposed to wait a week or two for the roots to callus before watering. I watered it when I got it in the new mix but then waited 2 weeks before watering again. Did I mess up the roots?

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Comments (4)

Misselle
9 years ago
Is that a topsy tervy? I've had one about 9 months and it is just like you explained. It's in full sun, and I only water when it needs it, but yet it really hasn't done anything, well it might actually be smaller then when I first got it... strange :(
greenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
9 years ago
Have you fertilized yet?
As for the lower leaves dropping, that's fairly common after a bare-root re-potting.

Josh
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LilBit7765
9 years ago
I have four of these plants that I repotted in Al's gritty mix. The ones that did what yours is doing I really took a lot of time to get the soil off and didn't wet the roots as well as I should've. So I believe what I did was loose a bunch of fine roots that I could've saved if I would've kept them misted while doing the repot. It took them some time but they are starting to look better and plumping back up. The last one I did, did AWESOME!! Never skipped a beat! (Though, By then I had gotten a lot faster at washing the soil off the roots) hope this helps you!
deva33 Z8 Atlanta
Original Author
9 years ago
I don't know if it's a topsy turvy as you say. I Just know it's an echeveria. It is smaller than when I purchased it. It has lost at least 4 rows of leaves.

Josh, I am glad to hear it's normal. I've had it happen with other plants too. Just not to this extent. And yes. I have watered it. I use foliage pro

LilBit - I actually get the soil off by setting it in a bowl of water and just shaking it around a bit until it's all off. I've found that to be the most gentle way of getting it all off & it's pretty effective. I just have to change the water several times.

It looks like there is some new growth coming so hopefully it'll stop dropping leaves here soon. Thanks for your input everyone!