Wow Chelle, most awesome etoliated sempervivum photos. Good work.
You are correct, they are not liking indoor growing conditions. To warm, not enough light and to much water.
But they will recover nicely once they get outdoors.

The healthy rosettes at the ends of the long stems can be decapitated and placed on dry potting soil, with just a mist of water, don't deep water. Keep an eye on them until they form roots. Some of them don't look like they would work with this process. I would just make sure they can lay on soil and hopefully start growing roots, they don't seem to have formed a real rosette yet.

Right now all of them look to wet.

Keep us updated on their progress. It is such a great learning experience for all of us. Especially me, since I don't grow them indoors.

Chelle, one thing that hasn't been mentioned much, and your plants don't have (that I see) is that when they get etiolated this badly they seem to be weaker to bugs, especially mealy bugs, I was surprised to see that yours didn't have them, so you're lucky there! Totally agree with Lynn, once you put these outside, they'll bounce back and be fine. Its also funny to see they have no coloration I planted even little seedlings like the ones in the top photo - outdoors and within 2 months they've tripled in size, so now they're about the size of a dime but still growing!
It is a good learning lesson! My first year with semps I lost almost all of them! People kept saying "they'd prefer to be outside" but that doesn't mean "hey, put them outside because they won't be happy inside!" so it took me having them look like yours to realize "Oh yes, outdoors is better for these guys!"
Good luck!

These do get little white specks on them sometimes, in flushes. I have no idea what it is, but when I notice it I spray the plants with a mix of Eucalyptus soap, olive oil and water. It takes care of it for several months, at least.

Would it be okay to rehab these now, indoors, or should I wait until I can get them outside?

Boy, I will have to leave that question to some one else. When does your weather become more spring like? What is your rain like this time of year?
If things are that bad weather wise, I would put them outdoors now. But I think you still have snow, don't you?

Folks, if anything she should at least lop off the heads and let heads callous on top of dry succulent potting soil and spray mist them after at least 24 hours after lopping. She can do all this indoors regardless of weather, right?

We are not above freezing yet, and these plants have been accustomed to indoor conditions for a very long time now. Wash-away type rains will start soon, then we'll likely freeze again. I have an unheated GH without automated venting, so temperature control can be difficult. On the other hand, I have wide eaves that I could employ to hold some of the hardest rains at bay.

That's what I was thinking/wondering about, Bev. Starting the process indoors before I can move them out.

Most of my new semps stayed in their pots, same location on the deck landing, for the winter. They looked good (or at least unchanged from fall, other than in coloring) until a couple weeks ago... whether it's too much change between warm & cold spells, too wet, pesky squirrels, or something else, there are a few not looking too good now except for the little offsets, which some critter has disconnected from the mama hen.

I made sure the little guys had their stolons tucked into the soil etc., but I am wondering now (reading this thread) if I should put some in little pots and bring them inside until temperatures stabilize? Not only do they have no roots right now (other than their stolon/stub), but some are also really small.

Would they have a better chance inside? I could hedge my bet and bring in a couple of each, at least.

Chelle, I would not do the surgery until the plants had been outside for a couple of weeks. You want them to grow after the surgery, yet indoors, if you try to get them to grow, they will etoliate again. I'd wait until outside is available, its only a few weeks at this point.

Jill, I'd leave them outside. What do you mean by "really small"? This is the beginning of their growing season in Zone 6. They will be happier where they are.

Chelle with twit. Beheading them now, while indoors, would only add more stress to them.

I also agree with keeping Jill's plants outdoors. Can you show us photos Jill? And something for size comparison, like a coin?
I've had the birds pull the offsets away from the mother rosette. They don't seem to try eating them, not sure why they do it. Could also be voles.
I am having a problem right now with some of my plants that aren't well established yet. I have netting over them, so it's not the birds. I suspect voles.

Thanks!

I'll start getting them accustomed to outdoors as soon as it's feasible.

'really small" = dime size offsets from plants that are/were 3-4 inches across at the end of summer.

I wonder if birds peck at the stolons when they're looking for nesting material? They're such fragile little stems, they're sure not suitable, but they might look quite promising at first glance.

I'll try to get photos of what they look like now... they were all still so pretty in January! Some still are, at least... maybe i'd better put something over those to protect them.

Some kind of wire cage, or bird netting?

I had some very tiny semps, (literally just 3 or 4 sets of true leaves) fall off when I was doing some repotting a couple of weeks ago, they were so small that I didn't even notice them when I was pulling the main bunch of plant apart, I found them when sweeping up afterwards. I just placed them on top of the gravel in one pot, not expecting them to live, but now, 3 weeks on, wind rain and even snow and they are lookng as happy as can be and have even grown a tiny bit.

Tough little things aren't they. I think the reason they did well is because of the cold and wet weather.

Thanks for the reassurance! I do think I need a new layer of builders sand or chicken grit on those containers... the top layer of sand has migrated down and/or been scattered, looks like, which may be part of the problem.

I have an arachnoidium that, all advice to the contrary, continues to do wonderfully well in a container of constantly moist regular potting mix, placed to catch drips from the faucet. I put it there when I didn't know better, and I guess it doesn't know any better either. LOL

critterologist said:I have an arachnoidium that, all advice to the contrary, continues to do wonderfully well in a container of constantly moist regular potting mix, placed to catch drips from the faucet. I put it there when I didn't know better, and I guess it doesn't know any better either. LOL

You have a pic of that pot of arach. I would love to see it!
I don't have the easiest time with arachs but love them because of their distinctive look. I pullled them all out of my semp bed and into flat of their own but have been slowly replanting them back in into spaces closer to rock where there is a little shade and am wanting to see if that makes a difference.

I decided to bite the bullet and evict my semps. For the next week it will be mid 20s at night and mid 30s-40s during the day. I put them in my new cheapie greenhouse. I'll zip at night and unzip in mornings. Hopefully it will work. Too bad it wouldn't be protection enough for my tender succulents



DOES ANYONE KNOW WHY IPHONES ALWAYS ROTATE THE PIC?? So frustrating!

I'm sure there's a photo in last summer's pics... will look. It started out as a 2 inch pot (from a local nursery, just a "noid" arachnoidia) that didn't look well rooted, so I tucked it half-way down into the always-moist container as I've done with other new pots that needed babying. It took off, so I put offsets in a couple other places but kept some of them where they were since they were so clearly happy there.

Wahoo Jennifer, those look wonderful. I'm sure they will be just fine.

Dave can help you with your IPhone photo issue. The thread "IPhone Photo Issues" in Site Talk forum
He helped Clint.

Jill, I agree it is odd, but sometimes an individual plant does fine being more soggy than usual! My arachs look like hell during the winter, to the point I thought I lost several, but after reading on these threads something about leaving them in place and seeing what happens, I left them and sure enough, once the major rains have stopped and sunshine every other day, they're looking great again!! Mine for sure do not like how moist it is here, I've added chicken grit to the soil and top dressed them with it, and this did help!!