have a pot of Sedum 'rubrotinctum' pork & beans that have grown tall,lanky,leaves are far apart. They don't look nearly as nice as they did before i brought them in for the winter.
last summer

now



Bev, this last picture is for you or anyone else who has an opinion or advice on my question!!! If i can cut back the long pieces how far back do i cut them.I also had the idea of putting them in a larger pot that's a lot shallower.Can't i go ahead & lay the pieces i cut in the new pot now ,then transplant what's in the other pot this spring.Also why are the stems growing along the soil line drying up & coming loose from some rosettes.


I have questions about another plant but no time right now,can't leave my little mischievous grandson alone long.Especially since he's in my room watching mickey mouse & that holds his attention about 15 minutes before he will start helping me with my plants.He watered last time & now i'm trying to save my Sedum lineara

Soil sticky, to much moisture. Two leaves loose on the soil, watch them and you will get some answer by spring which should be around the corner somewhere.
Regards,
Arif.

JoJoe,
I agree with Arif. The soil looks a little moist and kind of packed. The stems are also long and are bending over and touching the soil again. If you look at your summer picture, all the stems are straight up with tight clusters and not bending over where the leaves touch the soil and can rot or get knocked off. Not sure why the stems are breaking near soil line; could be the moisture issue.

If you are bringing in a new pot, make sure you carry on with the adding of rocks into the new soil to improve drainage.

If you are willing to cut, then cut where you want new clusters to form. I would think you wouldn't want clusters starting at the top. Think about cutting rooted stems halfway down. I would then just strip the leaves off the loose cut stems and start the leaf propagation in another pot. I usually don't deal with the cut off stems unless you have had better luck with rooting stems.. Also try not to have too many plants (stems) in one pot because it tends to have the clusters bump into one another and knock off leaves. Hope this helps, JoJoe... (Valentine Day)

The elongation of stems I think is probably a light issue but i am not familiar with keeping enough lite using grow lamps. I am more of a find-the-sunny spot and put plant there even if it is on the floor. This approach requires you to note the sunny spots thruout the day in your house.

Ok bev,you gave me a lot of info there.

Ok first,the reason the soil looks wet is because it is.I had just watered it not 20 minutes before.I barely water all my succulents and the leaves were starting to shrivel & fall off easy & then i seen the dried up stems.I thought goodness i'm not watering it enough.So i gave it a little drink.But the soil is also really dark,i got a badly mixed bag of succulent soil because it also has compacted more than it should or rather it shouldn't. I now add some orchid mix to it & all my soil if i need it fast draining it works so well.When i re-pot, the pork & beans will be put in better soil.

As for light we haven't lived here long,this summer will be the 3rd.We were living under a canopy of trees.We had about 18-20 very large tree's that were very close to the house cut down.Grass wouldn't even grow in the yard.My yard is also a hill & we are in the middle of it with lots of very old,tall tree's around us.I have 2 windows that the sun comes through and they have lots of plants on the sills & in front of them.My HB are in the bay window that gets sun at an angle.I tried putting my succulents in front of the window & that's when it took off & grew so tall & lanky.

I bought a stronger grow light and the pork & beans are turning colors as are other succulents & the tops of them seem to be growing in thicker,the leaves aren't as far apart.

I took a good look at them and they root were ever they touch soil,they have roots growing into the soil at the bottoms,so i will cut them a little above that.I have many long pieces to experiment with,so because some have aerial roots i am going to remove a few leaves around the roots so i can lay the roots flat on the soil.

I am going to take pictures of the soil i use now or what it looks like and a picture of what i use to mix with my succulent mix to see what anyone thinks.I am still going to try putting the small rocks in the soil as well.

I got a temp/humidity thingy and the humidity in my house stays at about 40-45 maybe 50 on a good day forgot the % signs but yall know what i mean HUH ?

Before we cut down the tree's everything had to be constantly washed and treated for mold,now i have no humidity in the house.
I think i covered it all.I don't feel well today and my daughter has me babysitting so i have 2 fighting babies between my legs

Have a lovely day

Take care Jojoe, we can post another day. Hope you feel better!

I have been told not to use any soil with lots of bark in it,the bark holds water and can cause root rot.I have my desert rose plants,sans,leaf cactus in a orchid mix that's nothing but big bark,charcoal,some type of rock (not able to get up & look at name on bag & can't remember)

I want to show what i mix together & the end result to see what opinions i get on it!!




In the last photo i added perlite to the mix, but i simply hate that stuff! Every time you water it floats to the top which is ugly after a few waterings is there any left in the soil so what's the purpose of adding it if i'm going to end up scooping it out?

opinions and advice wanted

Jo, not sure what the orchid mix would add to the succulent mix but orchid bag says "improved...moisture retention" on it which I am not sure you need for succulents that don't like their feet kept wet.
I find that a lot of succulent mixes contain a lot of perlite which you can't avoid if buying at box stores. I try to find soil mixes that have less of that and more of the heavier kind of lava rock granules. Not all cactus mix are created equal and so I go to the nurseries and check out their samples of cactus mix before I decide to buy. I buy E B Stone Cactus Mix. You can't tell whether there is lots of perlite unless you look at the mix.
Another thing you can do, which we discussed is adding your own rock. I have gone to aquarium stores to buy supplementary rock to add to that special pot but it can be too costly to buy extra rock for lots of propagation and planters.
What little I see of your plants looks fine so far...
Lastly, I am not real picky about the soil I lay my succulent leaves on to root. It is the final pot I put them in to grow that I get more concerned of the soil make-up...

I have one similar set-up using orchid bark, but I use ones that are bigger and chunkier sizes and have mixed it with some regular cactus soil and kanuma to keep the media really fast draining. And since my plants are outdoors, it will dry up faster even if it rains. This is just one experiment I did last year around early fall, and currently the succulents I have put there are doing as good as it can go, considering that it is still cold being winter season.

As for your set-up Jojoe, I think that looks okay, however, since the mix is of the finer sized orchid mix, it might hold more moisture, so just make sure you do not water frequently, to avoid rotting of the roots. I have seen some commercial growers during plant shows using bark media in some succulents they sell. They do use shallower containers, so I guess that is how they manage the moisture aspect.

This is a photo of my succulent in chunky orchid bark/cactus soil/kanuma mix: photo taken today 18Feb2013..it has not rained for quite awhile now, but we are having mid to high 30's overnight and lately daytime highs of 70.

I have tried or rather used the chunkier bark.My desert rose,sans,asparagus fern thats what i can think of oh and my leaf cactus are planted in the chunky mix.It works great i love it for them plants,some one told me that i should NEVER use bark that big it held to much moisture, the bark stayed wet a long time and would cause root rot.I haven't had that problem at all.Sometimes it seems i get a bag with more perlite than others but the but the orchid mix does have hardly any if any at all can't exactly remember.It early & i'm suppose to be getting ready to go to the dr.

I had the same worries when i mixed the to soils together in the pictures but honestly,i water very little in winter & have lost nothing i don't think.In the summer they stay moist the day i water & slowly dry out and are dry within 2 days & i water again on 3rd or 4th day depending on how hot it is here.We have such hot summers this mix works great for me here.I have been using it since last summer.

I even use it in (my kids call it the neonatal unit) for the leaves i just can't throw away here i think i have a picture of my nicu.

I have some a few that have grown up nicely and are ready for new homes this spring.The 2 on the left that look just alike ones bigger than the other,if anyone has any idea what type of plant this may be please voice your opinion.I don't remember were they came from & they have been in there growing for some time now.