You Grow Girl™

If there's one thing I can finally say about my plant addiction is that at least I've somewhat narrowed it down to two favorite plant groups: succulents and carnivorous plants.

Lucky for me, one of my labs that I'm taking at Cabrillo College is all about succulents. Every Monday, I spend about three hours repotting or propagating various aloes, agaves, senecios, echeverias, aeoniums and so on. And of course, I'm in heaven.

I'm learning so much about succulents that I wish I had taken this class sooner. My split rocks and lithops may have had more of a fighting chance if I had only known what I was doing wrong.

For example, it's always good to really research the plants you buy before you attempt to keep them alive in a corner of your house. For a long time I thought succulents and cacti were pretty much the same thing. And so I never watered most of my succulents and they eventually gave up on me and died. Or I thought they came from a rain forest type area and I overwatered them til they got all mushy. (Nothing is more depressing than watching your lithops commit suicide rather than be "nurished" by your crappy tap water.)

Then I found out from class that it's not the drought tolerance factor that distinguishes a succulent from a fern or a lily. It's a common biochemistry that defines this plant group. The story goes that a graduate student accidently discovered succulents have something called Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM). The student tasted the leaf of a succulent (apparently grad students will eat anything) and noticed that the leaf was bitter in the night time and somewhat sweeter during the day. This lead to the discovery that succulents store complex organic acids in their leaves or stems at night and close their stomata and metabolize organic acid into CO2 during the day. Pretty interesting stuff if you ask me.

Ever wonder how to tell the difference between agaves and aloes? Agaves are in the Agavaceae family have tougher skin, die after they flower, are thick at the base and tend to have tall yellow or green flowers. Aloes are in the Liliaceae family, are not tough nor as thick at the leaf base, and they tend to produce orange, red or pink flowers.

The photo above is a close-up shot of Senecio rowleyanus otherwise known as String of Pearls. Believe it or not, this plant is in the Asteraceae family, which of course is the Sunflower family. We spent an entire lab session taking cuttings from this rather fragile plant and sticking them in baskets with a semi-dry succulent mix.

When you propagate this plant be sure you put the "cut end" or proximal end into the soil. It's important to do this or else it just won't grow. Then you mulch lightly with aquarium gravel and put the leaf buds that fell off onto the gravel so they will eventually sprout as well. Don't water for a couple of weeks so that the "cut ends" have a chance to callus. If you don't allow the plant to callus, you basically end up with root rot. Stick the plant in warm shade and then water after the two weeks. You can also do stem cutting propagation like this for other succulents like
Sedum morganianum (Donkey's tail).

Here's some more tips on how to make your various succulents happy:

1. A good mix for container succulents has these ingredients: pumice(good for succulents because of its high alkalinity), sand (for drainage), some cedar mix (about 10 percent of your mix to keep away mealy bugs) and some compost. STAY AWAY from perlite if you're potting up aloes or anything in the Liliaceae family. It releases flurine which is bad for this plant family. Also keep in mind that succulents don't fancy acidic soil, so it might be best not to use much peat moss or fir bark. You want a VERY well-drained mix that's best on the alkaline side.

2. Clay pots are ideal for pretty much all succulents. You don't even need a big container. Since succulents tend to have shallow roots, you can easily keep them in wide, short pots, dishes and hanging baskets. Just make sure the pots have drainage holes and that they are wide enough for plants to produce offsets.

3. If you get a handful of prickles thanks to an uncooperative cactus, use duct tape instead of tweezers to get them off your hands.

4. If a succulent has smooth skin (i.e. aloe) give it afternoon shade and water from the bottom.

5. Most succulents like a minimum tep of 35-40 degrees F.

6. If your succulents are inside, be sure to give it warm, filtered light.

7. Epiphyllum hybrids (Orchid Cacti) have different requirements than most succulents. They prefer to be potted in an orchid mix with pumice and peat. Put in plastic pots instead of clay.

8. Want an easy to grow and propagate succulent? Try
Kalanchoe tubiflora (Mother of Millions). Its foliar embryos drop from the plant and quickly root to form more plants. After this plant flowers, it dies. But because it propagates on its own so rapidly, you'll have plenty of new plants. Give it little shade and little water.

9. Does your aloe plant have brown tips? That means it's getting too many excess salts from the water. Try watering with distilled water next time.