It's looking better ofm.
I agree with Bev, add more of the rock material, working it into the soil. Go to a Farm Store and they will have the chicken grit it 50# bags that are relatively inexpensive to buy. https://www.google.com/search?...
It seems to work better than pea gravel because of the sharp contours, instead of smooth. Dig it into the soil and top dress the area once planted. By doing this you will not have to worry about our hot summer sun.
Water deeply once or twice a week, depending on the need. You can poke your finger down into the soil to see if there is still moisture. It is truly important to put lots of this grit under the leaves.

If you can't find the grit you can also go to the pet store and buy aquarium rocks. They come in all colors but I think you would want a brown or gray. Another term would be developer grit that the farm store might use.

Here is a list of store in the Portland, Oregon area that should carry the crushed granite chicken grit. http://growing-gardens.org/por...

I am glad something as simple as chicken grit works for the semps. I'll get some from Mother Anna and put it around all my pots. I'm assuming the sharp edges probably help fend off bugs? I've been using up a bag of perlite, and while it helps make a very light mix, I can't imagine it is really health for soil in the long run...

It also prevents rain/watering from splashing soil onto the leaves. It also releases minerals over time that the sempervivum love.
Perlite ends up floating to the top of the soil over time.

...and if white wasn't part of your planned color scheme in a container planting, the perlite floating to the top of the soil ruins the look. You wouldn't believe the time I've spent tweezing out the perlite pieces out of my container arrangements...

I found some of the chicken grit at the Linton Feed & Seed - not too far out of the way. They just happened to be all out of the big bags, but had about 10 lbs left in the by the pound bin, which I think was just about enough? I raked it into the area where I haven't yet planted, and around the semps themselves, then put another layer around them, better?



I tried to press it up under the leaves as much as I could without disrupting the plants. I'm guessing now that maybe they should be planted a little above the soil, then backfilled with this stuff in the future?

Sweet-thanks for all your help Lynn & Bev! Now I just need some more interesting semps!

webesemps said: Your strip of bed looks ideal for dropping a shade cloth right over bed on really sunny days (...are there sunny days in Portland?)
In my experience, the few arachnoids I have didn't do well in my afternoon sun semp bed. I had to pull them out and put them in a less sunny spot.

We do get sunny days in the summer. This seems like one of the hotter summers I can remember (but it could be that the 8-9 months of rain just washes away those memories of heat....)- only maybe 3 overcast days so far, with the rest up to low 90s (up until next week, I think- correction - NOPE - weather reports updated and they are predicting even more heat. Wow.). Quite unpleasant in our old house without central air conditioning... but, I'm not complaining (much!) It's good to have a break from all the rain. I would not have expected the heat to be an issue for plants up here.

I was hoping for the temps to drop back down next week, now it looks like I might wind up moving that arachnoid.

Sun protection for the those precious semps sooner than later?

webesemps said:Sun protection for the those precious semps sooner than later?

Yeah, going to have to try something this weekend. We've got a bit of a break until Sunday I think.

ofm, I also use this brand of cloth called N-sulate. It is a white tightly woven fabric used for protecting rowed out seedlings. It is a little lighter in weight than the shade cloth and I use it also for shading my succulents (especially the taller specimens that the shade cloth can be too heavy on). And when it gets (sort of ) cold (we did get 28 temp last winter) I used both the shade and the N-sulate to keep the frost off my plants. In the past, I have used a double layer of N-sulate to cover my semp bed while I was out of town for a week and didn't want to think about too much sun exposure on them.

I am having much less luck with semps than with sedum.
Pretty sure I did the shade cloth wrong the first time so I redid it and now I have a double layer of the thin white shade cloth you can buy by the foot running from about 3 ft up on the wall diagonally down across the bed to the ground.

I brought home two new semps with the cloth but it looks like I'm already losing the ones I planted Sunday. Hopefully they recover! Holding off on getting more until I figure something out. I'm afraid I'll need to move them into pots or something - no more space in the yard yet. :sad:

How deep is a "deep" watering? Sorry if this is the dumbest question ever. Like - how long should the soil still be wet for afterwards? One day? Two? This block of the yard dries out very fast.

I'll edit in some pics when I get inside.

edit: Pics:

First attempt:


Revised:



Burnt (?) semps (I think the first two are a Fire Dragon and a Topaz):

Still lots of healthy looking leaves on the plants. From the photos your soil looks pretty dry, as in bone dry? That would be why they have all the crispy leaves. I would cover all the soil with a layer of the chicken grit/ pea gravel, so that no dirt can be seen. Lift each side of each plant as you are putting down the gravel/grit, making sure to get plenty under the leaves. After you have that done you can water deeply in the evening. Then let the soil rest. The gravel will keep moisture in the soil longer so you shouldn't have to water for a week maybe. Clay can hold a lot of water. With that much clay soil the gravel is important.

Ofm, just checking to ask you if you did mix the rock/gravel/whatever INTO the soil such that the rock is evenly distributed into the soil and the rock becomes part of your soil mixture. I ask only because you mentioned earlier about raking rocks into the soil which is not the same. The placing of the dressing of rock/grit on top of the soil serves to prevent the leaves from possible rot as it helps to delay the loss of moisture. The mixing thoroughly of rock in the soil helps with drainage of water that may sit in the soil causing root rot.

Great point Bev.

webesemps said:Ofm, just checking to ask you if you did mix the rock/gravel/whatever INTO the soil such that the rock is evenly distributed into the soil and the rock becomes part of your soil mixture. I ask only because you mentioned earlier about raking rocks into the soil which is not the same. The placing of the dressing of rock/grit on top of the soil serves to prevent the leaves from possible rot as it helps to delay the loss of moisture. The mixing thoroughly of rock in the soil helps with drainage of water that may sit in the soil causing root rot.

I tried to do both. I got another 12lbs or so of grit today (so probably about 25lbs mixed into that 2x7ish area now) after Lynn's last comment and spread that much thicker on the top and tried to cover the majority of the dirt. Afterwards I gave it a good soak...I think I might have been underwatering them too! Fingers crossed.

OFM it does look like you are underwatering, based on your soils composition!! The top dressing of "grit" really works! The plants once they are happy bounce back pretty quickly, the color changes and they'll look brighter!
Thanks for showing what you have and what you are changing...it helps for anyone new to these plants! The first couple of years I moved my plants at least 4 times, I kept needing to amend the soil more...until I realized that for my area, I needed about a 60/40 mix (60 regular soil and 40 chicken grit) plus the top dressing of grit! I probably have 1-2 inches of grit as the top dressing! I have bought 100 lbs of chicken grit in the past 2 years haha!! But these plants really do seem to respond to it!!! That's my 2 cents - hope this helps! (I can be long winded for sure!)

oh and in terms of how long to water, I only water for a couple of minutes but I water every day when its this dry and hot!!!

Ofm, Ok you've got two people's worth of two cents from similar zone conditions. Their advice should be hitting home for you. I am in zone 9b, do more container gardening and have been fussing more over my tender succulents. I believe in Tuff Love and that's the approach I take with my semps in their raised bed. Suffice to say that a lot of my semps fell by the wayside over the years...

gg5 said:OFM it does look like you are underwatering, based on your soils composition!! The top dressing of "grit" really works! The plants once they are happy bounce back pretty quickly, the color changes and they'll look brighter!
Thanks for showing what you have and what you are changing...it helps for anyone new to these plants! The first couple of years I moved my plants at least 4 times, I kept needing to amend the soil more...until I realized that for my area, I needed about a 60/40 mix (60 regular soil and 40 chicken grit) plus the top dressing of grit! I probably have 1-2 inches of grit as the top dressing! I have bought 100 lbs of chicken grit in the past 2 years haha!! But these plants really do seem to respond to it!!! That's my 2 cents - hope this helps! (I can be long winded for sure!)

oh and in terms of how long to water, I only water for a couple of minutes but I water every day when its this dry and hot!!!

I think I'll keep working in more grit over time, I hope I don't have to move them, but then again, I really wasn't expecting the amount of heat this spot would get, so I'll try what I need to try! It definitely helps to hear from people who know what they are doing (especially in/near my zone), thanks again everyone! And hopefully others can learn from my mistakes. :)

webesemps said:Ofm, Ok you've got two people's worth of two cents from similar zone conditions. Their advice should be hitting home for you. I am in zone 9b, do more container gardening and have been fussing more over my tender succulents. I believe in Tuff Love and that's the approach I take with my semps in their raised bed. Suffice to say that a lot of my semps fell by the wayside over the years...

Yes! I feel like on the right track now. I haven't started containers yet, but it's on my list... maybe after I finish cleaning up the yard...