Succulent Plants UK: hen-and-chicks

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Tuesday, 9 January 2018

How to Grow Succulents in Containers

Growing succulents in containers allow you to bring your own little piece of the desert into your home or garden. Succulents look natural in western decors and landscapes. This diverse group of plants includes stiff, upright cacti as well as sprawling and trailing plants that are well-suited to hanging baskets and window boxes. Most enjoy a similar environment but check the plant tag to see if your succulent has any special needs.

Containers and Soil

Succulents grow well in almost any container that is at least 4 inches deep and has holes in the bottom for drainage. Choose a pot about 1/2 inch larger than the base of the plant for upright succulents. Plant succulents with spreading or trailing growth habits, such as holiday cacti, in a pot 1 inch larger than their original pot. Succulents need a loose soil that drains freely. Use a commercial cactus and succulent potting soil, or mix your own from four parts regular potting soil, five parts perlite and one part coarse builder's sand. Spread a layer of small river rocks or aquarium gravel over the top of the soil to keep moisture away from the crown and prevent rot.

Placement

Most succulents like bright sunlight and are content to spend their days outdoors in the baking sun or indoors in a sunny, preferably south-facing window. They thrive in warm or even hot summer temperatures. When first taking a plant outdoors, expose it to bright sunlight gradually to prevent sun scorch. Provide shelter from drenching rains or bring the plants indoors during rainy weather.

Water and Fertilizer

You can water succulents planted in a soil that drains freely just as you would any other container plant. Saturate the soil completely and allow it to drain from the holes in the bottom of the pot. After the excess water drains, empty the saucer so that the plant isn't standing in water. Allow the pot to dry out completely between watering. Succulents don't need a lot of nitrogen because they grow very slowly. Feed them monthly with a cactus and succulent fertilizer. If you don't want to purchase a special fertilizer for your succulents, you can use a high-phosphorous, low-nitrogen houseplant fertilizer mixed at half strength.

Winter Rest Period

Most succulents need a rest period of at least two months in winter. Place the plant in a room with cooler temperatures. Many succulents need winter temperatures below 60 degrees Fahrenheit in order to set blooms but don't allow them to freeze. Reduce watering to just a drizzle around the sides of the pot or wet the top of the potting soil with a mister when the pot is dry. Withhold fertilizer during the resting phase.

Source: sfgate.com

How to Water Indoor Succulents

Unknown January 09, 2018 hen-and-chicks , Succulent Care 0 Comments

Rather than giving your succulents sips of water here and there, give them a good soaking — to the point the water runs out the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot. Be sure to empty the water that runs into the saucer beneath the plant pot. Then let the soil dry out completely before watering again.

Sedums, Hens and Chicks, Jade Plants, Kalanchoe, Aloe vera, and Sansevieria are popular choices for indoor plants. Succulents also include cacti, which, generally, may need less water than other succulents.

Succulents like well-drained soil. A good quality potting soil mixed with either a material such as a perlite will help ensure good drainage. In addition to quality potting media, make sure your containers have drainage holes because too much moisture can result in rotten roots.

Source: worldofsucculents

5 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Succulents.

Unknown January 09, 2018 hen-and-chicks , Succulent Care 0 Comments

The natural light of a plant’s native habitat is perhaps the most difficult environmental variable to emulate indoors. For common houseplants, we have an easier time—many are native to tropical jungles and accustomed to the shifting periods of shade and sun that happen in your home (after all, that's what naturally happens as the sun moves over a forest canopy). But if you put a plant that’s used to experiencing a full 12 hours out in the broiling hot sun on an east-facing sill, you’re begging for failure. Your best bet: Choose the sunniest south-facing window available.

The Chihuahuan Desert gets a little over 9 inches of rain annually—a drop in the bucket compared to what the verdant landscapes most of us call home to receive. In the desert, however, when it rains, it pours. To make your own desert-dweller happy, try to emulate the rainfall patterns native to its home habitat. Don’t treat your cacti with a trickle, turn on the taps and let loose a deluge. All succulents (and all plants for that matter) benefit from a complete soaking until water comes out of the bottom of the pot. For succulents, wait until the soil is bone dry (and then some) to water again.

Most potted plants come in a standard soil mix that works for almost every kind of plant, from ferns to fiddle-leaf figs. The problem: Succulents are designed to withstand one of the most extreme environments on planet earth, so standard potting soil just won’t cut it. Once you get your succulent baby home, change its soil to a desert-dweller mix, combining half potting soil with something inorganic like perlite or chicken grit. This super well draining, the low-nutrient soil will work for most succulents, whether they’re used to thriving in the high and the dry Andes or the broiling bottomlands of Death Valley.

Succulents tend to come packed into adorable little dishes, all crammed together cheek by jowl. There aren’t many plants that like this arrangement, including succulents. Overcrowding is one of the best ways to encourage mould and insect infestations. The second issue is that, although succulents do very well getting by on slim pickings, they still need food and water, and too much competition means they’ll probably miss out. If your succulents arrive in a crowded arrangement, pluck them out carefully and give them each their own spacious mini desert dune.

I know it’s really hard to resist growing saguaros indoors, but please DON’T. Some wild things just aren’t meant to be tamed, no matter how pretty their flowers or beguiling their form. Stick instead to the tough little cookies that will happily accept the windowsill as their home sweet home. Crassula is a good genus to explore if you’re working with indoor conditions, as is Sansevieria. The Mammillaria cacti (so-called for their woolly hair, see above) are good picks if you’re looking for a prickly plant companion.