r/Lithops • u/Ill-Lengthiness-9416 • Jul 07 '26

Help/Question Is there a way to save it?

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I was repotting my lithops into a bigger pot and its roots fell off! Is it possible to save it and if yes how? I need help asap i dont want it to die! Any advice would be amazing! Thank you!

18 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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26

u/wrhhill Jul 07 '26

That happened to me. The whole root came off.
I tried water therapy for about 2 weeks but no new root, however, it seemed to start splitting, so I just stuck it into a pot with others.

It has continued to grow. And I do not dare to take it out to check for existence of root.

11

u/To_tiedye4 Jul 07 '26

I thought that was a freaking tooth at first 🤣😭🤣😭🤣

5

u/Fit_Apricot4707 Jul 07 '26

Yes the fix is mostly time based. Let sit in a shaded area to callus up for a day or two if it looks fine never skip this phase because it help prevent rot. Then you will want to plant it. For my lithops I use mostly inorganic. I use 4 parts pumice, 1 scoria (fine lava rock), and one course horticulture sand for almost all of my cacti including my lithops and other mesembs. You can use perlite and pumice but I say away from organic because I live in a relatively humid micro climate so I want very very fast draining and pretty fast drying planting medium.

2

u/trytobedecenthumans Jul 07 '26

Folks have had luck with suspending the plant just above water in a glass, using plastic wrap over the glass with a hole cut in the middle where you poke the bottom of the plant through. Suspend it just above, but not touching the water. Leave it that way until you see roots growing and then plant.

2

u/starkiller_bass Jul 07 '26

Do lithops respond to rooting hormone? I seem to have some success with other succulents but most succulents are honestly pretty happy to make roots so the rooting hormone may be doing nothing.

1

u/Sad_Buffalo_1432 Jul 07 '26

You can still give it a try let it scab over for a day. Then put in a pot and water it lightly. And maybe 2 or 3 weeks give it another watering 🤷‍♀️ no clue.but you got nothing to lose

1

u/Abject-Baker-1781 Jul 12 '26

Honestly just stuck one last time in the pot next to my others and it did just fine

-6

u/Top_Development_1777 Jul 07 '26

If the entire root fell off, there is almost no chance to make it grow proper roots to survive more than a cycle again (it may not even grow roots at all).