Tomatoe19
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Lithop Wrinkling

I recently purchased a lithop plant at a local gardening center. After I purchased it I immediately watered it. The morning after it was wrinkly.The larger leaves are fine but the smaller leaves have wrinkles only on the top as shown by the image. The rest of the plant also looks fine. I am wondering why this could have happened so soon/ whats wrong?
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rainbowgardener
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Remember lithops is a desert plant. It does NOT like being watered. They live in areas with compacted, sandy soil with little water and blistering hot temperatures. I think the soil it is in is all wrong for it. It should be in cactus mix with extra sand or vermiculite added. And in the growing season, it should be watered twice a month or so. Then it goes dormant and should not be watered at all for several months. If the potting mix it is in was damp at all when you got it, then it is overwatered. Put it in sandy soil and don't water for awhile.

Tomatoe19
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Thanks, I am planning on repotting it today with better soil, I was thinking the same thing. Although, the soil when I got the plant was super dry.

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rainbowgardener
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even if they had let it dry out (a good thing for the lithops), the potting mix is moisture holding, not free draining, so when you watered it, it probably stayed more wet than the lithops liked.

Here's a lithops thread with pictures of the kind of substrate they like: https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/ ... ps#p421649

Here's one about watering them: https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/ ... ps#p369206

Looking over that thread now, I think someone should have told the original poster that their lithops probably wasn't getting nearly enough sun....

Tomatoe19
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Thank you for all the help, unfortunately when I was re potting the lithops, the smaller one wasn't even attached to the ground I planted them both in the same pot with a course sand mix with cacti soil. Hopefully the smaller one can grow some roots however that seems pretty unlikely.

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applestar
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...and it’s the smaller one that’s wrinkling right? But if it’s anything like other succulents, I think there’s a chance it will root as long as the base of it had callus.

I kind of think you might be better off potting them separately now that you know they might need different kind of care, and treat the little one the way you would if you are trying to propagate them. You may need to supply more humidity by misting with water or covering with vented humidity dome or something. (I only grow succulents “casually” so I haven’t studied enough to tell you the best way....)

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Gary350
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Soil in Phoenix area is powdered rock. Before they built dams on the river the valley use to flood every spring from snow melt in the mountains, floor again in mid summer the rainy season and flood again about Nov & Dec another rainy season. The soil is about like powdered sugar extremely fine powdered rock with no organic material and no food value for plants. If you water the soil water will only soak in about 1/8" deep. In summer with 110 degree blistering hot weather top 3" of the yard soil is dust but down below that it is very moist. Desert plants are getting a very good continuous supply of moisture. Dust on top acts like mulch and holds the moisture below.

If you drive 30 miles from the river area desert soil is different, large sand, much larger than child play sand. The top 12" of soil is dry but below that it is moist so desert plants have a good continuous supply of moisture.

I bought 1 of those plants you have plus a dozen others they were in potting soil that was completely dry outside in about 2 hours in full sun. I moved my plants to full shade that helped but still potting soil dried out fast. I re potted all my plants in larger 6" pots with AZ soil and they did better, large pots dry out slower, AZ soil dries out slower than potting soil. I kept my plants outside in full shade where they got 15 hrs of indirect sunlight all day and they did good. I watered my plants every evening 1 hr before dark.

The myth that desert plants need to dry out is not true, they can tolerate dry soil but don't like it. Desert plants also do not like wet organic soil that holds lots of water plants get root rot and die. Large pots have a more stable moisture much closer to the natural moisture in desert soil.

Lowe's & Home Depot have these plants for $2 each in AZ. See photo.

When we moved to AZ 1958 I was 8 yrs old desert was full of cactus river flooding watered the plants, now 100 years after dams were built desert cactus are all dead in low areas that were dependent on flood water for plants to live.
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