Some Lithops

[iann]

I usually take a few shots of the main Lithops bench in the autumn when there are lots of flowers. Just for a change, here it is in June.

[juster]

They look great, so much variation.

[Eric Williams]

Outstanding Iann, beautiful plants, is there a cure for a Lithops addiction lol. Cheers

[MikeDom]

Are you watering them in this heat Ian or are they now on their summer rest?

[iann]

Are you watering them in this heat Ian or are they now on their summer rest?

We've only had a few days of real humidity here, and one really hot day on Saturday. The first half of June was really quite chilly. The Lithops were mostly watered about 10 days ago, I think, maybe 2 weeks. Supposed to be quite fresh this week so they might get watered again, some of them at least. I don't have any sort of strict dormancy period, just tend to avoid watering them when it is particularly warm and humid, which might be for weeks on end like last year or might be hardly at all. Either way, it doesn't harm the adults to go a long time without water through summer, just the seedlings I have yo keep an eye on. I do have a couple of big clumps on old root systems that it is best to keep topped up because the roots struggle to support all the leaves at the best of times.

[Astro]

I spy two gaggles of dinteri (i think) on the second row. Are those single plants or clusters of seedlings? And do I notice a 'Limelight' there or am I seeing things?

Apparently I'm not the only one with more broken than whole labels. I've moved away from the thin plastic ones (which seem to grow brittle within 6 months) and am using thicker ones now ('pylon' brand). They seem to hold up much better, and other than some discoloration they're still good after 6 years of California sun.

[el48tel]

Lovely plants Iann.
I have not been growing Lithops for very long. Yesterday I went to the greenhouse to find my few, like dried peas. But I watered, expecting to see dried peas later on in the day. ........ After lunch beautiful smooth plump bodies as though the drying out had never happened. I never fail to be amazed at these tiny resilient plants. Ok the rest of the cactus and succulent collection enjoyed their drink too!

[Terry S.]

There seems to be some confusion among Forum members as to the best time to water Lithops. They can be kept dry from about October onwards and during the winter/spring period, new leaf pairs are produced and the old leaves shrivel away. When this process is complete or almost complete is the time to start watering again; this is usually sometime during May or June depending on the species and your local conditions. They are then watered through the summer and into autumn as you would do your cacti, but I recommend less feeding than for cacti.

[iann]

After my fan mishap at the weekend, several pots of seedlings just emerging from dried-up seed leaves look collapsed like hollow shells. I watered them to see if any were still alive, and the next day the shells were filled with healthy fat Lithops. Hopefully they survive, but still colourful and taking up water is a good sign.

There are two clumps of an unusual L. dinteri clone. It is supposed to be var multipunctata but it is hard to tell. It divides madly, often with triple or more deformed heads. They are both cuttings from a plant that had 55 heads when it was broken up. Very occasionally, it throws a flower or two.

No 'Limelight', but several other green cultivars. I have both 'Malachite' and 'Fullergreen', possibly hybrids. These are more grey-green than 'Limelight' and some other green cultivars like 'Peppermint Creme'. Just eyballing the photo, I can see 'Ventergreen', 'Dintergreen', 'Vertigo', and (not a cultivar, but very green) L. helmutii.

My general watering is fairly generous when the old leaves dry up, several deep waterings over a month or two. Then less often until the end of summer, then several more deep waterings. I stop when the flowers are done, although very early species like L. pseudotruncatella will get watered once or twice after they finish flowering. I prefer them to go into winter already a bit thirsty, even if they look pretty horrible over winter. They will stretch less in the very poor autumn light in this part of the world, and the old leaves are gone quicker in spring so I can hopefully start water in April rather than June.