Sickly Lithops

[iann]

Lithops do love the sun. Come September and October they'll be all too ready to stretch without adding more shading. Easy to say if you're not the one that has to put it up and take it down

[Aiko]

My partner has suggested leaving the shading up all year as the greenhouse is South facing (think it's easier for him not having to take it all down!) At first I said no it had to come down. Now thinking maybe leave it up.

I always have my shading cloth up between early March and early October. Especially on warm days in the autumn, you would be surprised how intense the sun still can be, scorching your plants on an occasional warm September day.

Should be safe to take it down from early October, assuming you keep the plants in your greenhouse all winter. Don't know if you have any winter active succulents. That is for me the main reason to take down the shading cloth in the colder months of the year, so these plants get as much sun light as they can during the dark months of the year. Otherwise I would probably not bother taking the shading cloth down. Well, maybe I do after some thought, as many succulents are still active late in autumn up until (our local) early winter and might also benefit form an occasional watering even in November (depending on the weather).

[Cactusgirl]

What types are winter active succulents please? I have Aloes, Gasterias, Haworthia, Echeveria, Titanopsis, Euphorbia and of course Lithops. Are any winter growers?

[rodsmith]

What types are winter active succulents please? I have Aloes, Gasterias, Haworthia, Echeveria, Titanopsis, Euphorbia and of course Lithops. Are any winter growers?

None of these are winter growers but titanopsis seem to grow best in the in-between times of late spring and early autumn. Mine gets just the occasional watering in the summer but none at all in the winter.

Regarding your lithops problem, my rule of thumb is to delay watering until you begin to see shrinkage wrinkles on the sides of the plants. After watering the wrinkles should disappear overnight or within a couple of days. Most of my lithops, with the exception of seedlings, are watered about once a month in the growing season but this can vary depending on the species, weather conditions and the size of the plant compared with pot size.

I keep my plants in our conservatory which has only three opening windows, but I have a fan on constantly blowing air at ambient temperature. This year, for the first time, one of my seed-grown lithops (localis (terricolor)) appears to have succumbed to the intense heat as it has turned pale and appears to be shrinking. I'll be relieved if this is the only loss.

[Terry S.]

To get a clue as to whether a plant is winter-growing, check the literature to see where it lives in the wild. Most winter-growing succulents come from the Canaries or from the western part of South Africa (Western and Northern Cape Provinces). Most haworthias and gasterias are winter-growing in the wild (some common exceptions are H. limifolia and koelmaniorum, Gasteria batesiana) but in this country with its cold winters, they tend to do most of their growth in autumn and spring. They will have packed up growing during this warm weather and you need to be very careful about watering at this time. You can do more damage with overwatering now than you can in the middle of winter.

My Lithops seedlings from an end of March sowing, are on the floor of the greenhouse where they get a couple hours of sun and they get daily mist sprays rather than being watered as such.

[rodsmith]

Thanks for the tip about gasterias, Terry. I hadn't realised that they were winter growers in the wild. I'll adjust my watering accordingly, hoping that I haven't killed any during the summer.