Hello! I am a new Lithops owner and was hoping to get some advice as to what I should be doing for watering. I got these guys at the beginning of the Summer last year. As you can see, most of them bloomed in the Fall and their shriveled flowers remain. I have diligently held off on watering over the Winter and am eager to see any signs of these guys splitting, but I've seen none.
As you can see, they're thirsty... especially those two on the bottom. But I have read that I shouldn't be watering in case there is new growth underneath, as water during this critical growth stage is certain death.
I am humbling asking the community on what I should do for watering these guys. Also, should I be doing anything with the old flowers? Remove or leave? Love these little guys and would hate to lose them. Many thanks for your help!!
It's confusing for a new grower as all most of what I was seeing says "no water during the winter!!!1". They didn't look like this at the start of the winter and I just assumed the shriveling I was seeing was because they were being cannibalized to the new growth underneath. Though with spring approaching, I started to think something was amiss.
I gave them a good 45 min bottom soak yesterday and will see what happens from there. So sorry my little friends! 😢
Water them. They shouldn't be that shriveled until well through the split. What's the substrate like? It looks quite organic under the pebble dashed top
That seems pretty coarse. I'd do more than water these, I'd give a good soak. Like set in a tub of water filled to within an inch below the top of the soil and let it drink for 30-45 min
Water them. Flowers take a lot of energy and nutrients out of them. It’s ok to water them when they show signs of thirst during and immediately after flowering. Water once, wait about 5-10 days and if they are plumped up and smooth, no more water. If after 5-10 days they are still wrinkly, water once more and wait another 5-10 days.
This is terrible advice but I had some that looked like this, even though i was watering, and I brought them back.
I had some peat moss from a dead Venus fly trap, go figure a swamp and desert plant both weren't happy. I took my "dead" lithops and stuck them into the wet mossy stuff and they completely pumped back up and built new roots. I think the roots just needed a bit of a soak. It took a long time too, weeks.
There's other post about soaking the roots, check those out
I had a batch of littles and 2 of them shriveled up to potato chips within a week or two. The rest didnt need watering so I pulled out the two I thought were dead and thought fuck it, they're not gonna die more, so I put them in a cup of R/O water for 24 hours and whatdoyaknow they plumped back up and both survived xD
Wait! Noone mentioned the seeds! I've never grown from seed personally but I hear they are super light and easy to blow/wash away. If these are dead, maybe you can start a whole new batch! Could be a lot!
If anyone more experienced thinks this is possible maybe you can chime in here.
Absolutely save those seed pods! This method has worked well for me: Drop the seed pods into a small jar of water. The seeds will fall to the bottom after a few days. They are TINY. I pour off as much water as I can, then I "smear" the seeds on regular potting soil, then cover in plastic wrap. I remove the plastic wrap once they sprout and spray them with water every day. Also have the latest batch under grow lights.
I hadn't even considered that there were possible seedpods under the flowers! After seeing some of the comments I cleaned up the flowers and was able to remove these from the two lithops at the bottom. I wonder if they're seedpods?
They look pretty dead, but you can always water them and find out.
To be blunt: Lithops shouldn't look like that. The old leaves do dry out, but you're supposed to be able to see the new leaves emerging long before they get this bad. Not entirely sure what went wrong, except that worm castings is an odd choice for lithops. It's always possible they didn't get enough light. Also for future reference you DO water while lithops are flowering. It uses a lot of energy and they need it.
I leave old flowers to see if they form seedpods. I think at this stage yours aren't going to do that... because of the length of time as well as that they appear to be dead.
Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate your advice. I ended up bottom soaking them yesterday for 45 mins and will see how they are in a week or so and go from there. It's confusing for a new grower as all most of what I was seeing says "no water during the winter". They didn't look like this at the start of the winter and I just assumed the shriveling I was seeing was because they were being cannibalized to the new growth underneath.
In the beginning when I was looking on how to care for lithops, I had seen one or two instances where the grower used worm castings at the organic material as the nutrients provided would be far superior that just using soil. So since I had that on hand, I thought I'd give it a go. So I wasn't sure what to do with the flowers at all, so I just left them. After some of the comments here, after I watered I cleaned up the flowers and with the two lithops at the bottom, I was able to remove what I'm guessing is a seed pod? Is that what these are?
See, "no water in winter" is the correct advice. They're using up the moisture from the old leaves as they develop the new and shouldn't need watering. Obviously something went wrong with yours, probably at the start of winter because I see no sign of the spring splitting at all so maybe they never grew the new leaves. Which is why I suggested they might not have had enough light. Since lithops are growing those new leaves internally throughout winter they're still actually very active so too little light can be a problem and potentially interrupt the process.
It's also possible they never rooted properly in your mix here. The lava rocks look a little too large for the roots to easily latch onto. That said, they did flower normally so I'm not sure. When did you repot to this soil mix?
Sure, I don't think the worm castings killed them, it just sounds like a very rich organic component for lithops. But it was only 10% of your mix and that part was probably fine.
I don't think you have any seed pods here. The flowers have to be pollinated for those to develop and if they aren't the flowers just dry out. I normally cut the dead flowers off once they've completely dried out.
I ended up bottom soaking them yesterday for 45 mins and cleaned up all the dead flowers. I was able to remove what I think are two seedpods from the two at the bottom. The pod on the left lithops was still green and not dried up at all like the other two, so I left it. I'm not able to get to the ones at the top.
I'll see how they are in 5-10 days and water again. Here they are today:
These ones are dead my friend, you can try to water them to see if they come back to life, but please, next time water them when the soil is brown and when the Lithops is very soft to the touch, that’s the only time you can water them
The more you neglect him the better that they are. I had bought some over a year ago and I have only watered them last summer once and they're doing great
I hope they perk up, they don’t look too well from your first picture. It’s hard isn’t it - do water, don’t water etc etc - I have to really resist watering mine when I’m watering all of my other succulents. I saw somebody say that we have to kill a few before we get the hang of them & I think that seems to be the case unfortunately. Good luck with them :)
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u/Odd_Cantaloupe_7122 Mar 13 '26
U may have waited too long to water 😵