How to Keep your Succulents Happy!

You have agonized over the perfect plant, maybe second guessing your decision a few times and then finally you did it…made the jump to plant owner. Congratulations! You have bought your first succulent. Succulents are among the easiest set of plants to take care of however, you still need to know how much love and care to shower your plants with. Here are 5 tips to ensure that your new plant babies don’t go to plant heaven too soon. 

Let there be Light.

A key factor to providing a happy place for your succulents is ensuring they are exposed to the right amount of light. This takes into consideration not just the amount of light but the intensity and duration. 

You will know you hit the “light” sweet spot when your succulent is not only surviving but thriving as a nice compact plant with beautiful tight rosettes. 

Is your succulent a faded green color? Not to worry, this normally happens when they are grown in the shade or they are indoors and don’t get enough bright light. This doesn’t mean that they are not healthy. They will grow and reproduce happily. But they will only show their true colors in very bright light. Yes, all succulents change color. They do this when they are stressed! Kind of sounds bad, doesn’t it? Not in this case. This stress is normal; in fact, it is even encouraged to get the succulents colors to POP! 

To encourage even light exposure for your indoor succulents, remember to rotate the plant periodically.  If you believe it needs more light move it outdoors, but move cautiously to avoid sunburn. Gradually expose the plant to slightly more intense light for a few hours each day. Before long your succulent’s true colourful beauty will shine through.

When in doubt do not water….

Don’t give your succulent little splashes of water and definitely don’t use a spray bottle. All you will get in the end are brittle roots and moldy leaves. So what is the best way to water succulents? Well first of all only water when the soil is completely dry. When you do water SOAK IT. Wet the soil directly using a long spout watering can or squeeze bottle to completely soak the soil until water runs out of the drainage holes. If you have a saucer under your pot, make sure you empty the extra moisture because too much retained wetness will cause root rot. The most important thing? Only water when the soil is dry, not on a “schedule”.  Remember let the soil dry out between waterings. But what if your cute stone top dressing is hiding the soil so you can’t see how dry it is? There are a few methods you can use such as the finger test or the chopstick test. When in doubt, do not water, give your plant a few more days to dry out completely – more succulents die an unnatural death due to overwatering than almost any other issue.

The pot: Does size really matter? 

If you are like me, you will do most of your succulent gardening in pots. The right pot is another consideration in your quest for a happy, healthy succulent. A pot that is too big or too small can affect your plant’s health because succulents’ roots are generally fragile. These roots can easily get damaged in the wrong sized pot. Too small? Not enough soil, which means that your plant will not get enough nutrients to thrive. The roots are also affected in a too small pot – constricted roots affects your plant’s growth. On the flip side a pot that is too large has a lot of soil that will retain a lot of moisture, not good.

So what is the “just right“ size? 10% is the answer. Ten percent wider and deeper than your plant. 

But what about the material that the pots are made of? There is plenty to choose from terracotta, plastic, ceramic, plastic, metal, wood, stone, or sometimes even biodegradable material. Whatever you choose drainage holes are a must. 

Dishing the dirt on the best soil

The type of soil in which your succulents are growing is right up there in importance with proper watering. So what is the formula for success? The best soil for succulents should hold enough water to allow the roots to absorb it. But it should also dry out quickly so roots don’t rot. In other words, a well-draining soil. Every gardener will have their perfect mix.  Pretty soon you will too. But as a start, to get a really good succulent potting mix that won’t stay too wet,  you can start with store- bought cactus mix  and add extra pumice, sharp sand, grit, or perlite  to help drainage. All of these can be found at our local garden centers

Pests: Who’s munching[K1]  [PM2] on your succulent’s juicy leaves?

Strong healthy plants are less likely to attract pests and diseases. But unfortunately, in our plant parent journey we are all bound to experience pests. The most common succulent pests are mealy bugs, root mealy bugs and scale. Also a challenge, but to a lesser extent, are spider mites and fungus gnats.

To add to this there are a few animals that happily include succulents in their diet. Even when they are not their natural food; The water filled, succulent leaves are just too hard to resist.

The smallest animals that eat succulent leaves are aphids and mealy bugs. Although they don’t take chunks off, they suck on the leaves juices leaving them deformed or scarred.  Be warned! Aphids and Mealy Bugs can multiply quickly and take over plants within days. One Mealy Bug won’t do much damage but a few can completely deform a healthy succulent.

Snails and slugs find soft, succulent, fleshy foliage and stems absolutely delicious. So you can just imagine how irresistible  a nice juicy succulent plant is to them. These guys will go to any extreme to munch on their plump leaves.  The evidence of their snacking are holes in the leaves of our precious succulent babies.

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