So I had an opportunity to get some of these fun looking house plants from a person at work! They had been given seeds, which were sown and promptly forgotten in their sun room while the room was full of stuff from renovation. She cleared it out to find loads of little stone plants! I got 5 of them, after Googling and assuring myself I probably wouldn’t kill them.
These have small delicate tap roots, but looking online, this is what they are supposed to look like. I read all about it, and then watched some YouTube, fretted over the potting medium but then just went for it.
Potting it up…
I decided to use an orchid pot as these guys like it hot and dry. I used a bit of orchid potting medium in the bottom of the pot then filled up with cactus soil. I thought that this might increase drainage and aeration.
I’m aware a lot of people use ceramic pots as they keep dry but I didn’t have any of those to hand.
I used a pencil to make a hole for the root then I put the Lithops in carefully and used the pencil to push the soil around it gently to fill in the hole around the root.
I left the base of the actual plant right on top of the soil, to ensure that it wouldn’t get water logged.
I then top-dressed it with aquarium gravel – this is something I’ve seen done online so I just assume that it would help stabilise the plantlet and keep it from getting wet when watering? We shall see, haha!
How hard can it be?..
Supposedly these are super-tricky to be successful with, but I am hoping it’s a case of plant and forget and they will do well… I found Sucs for you on YouTube’s video very helpful in understanding how they grow through the year, which is essential it seems to get them to survive! Let’s see if these are still alive in a few months time – I will do regular updates!
Have you tried growing Lithops?! If so, do you have any tips and tricks to share?
Lina-Elvira 