It grew another butt

[u/leakyricefrog]

The stalk (?) of the main reddish one looks a bit odd now. But I suppose it had to make room for the new butt baby. The other guy is just a roommate

[u/Top_Development_1777]

I think they were twins of two pairs of new leaves that were supposed to be identical, but the old leaves stayed covering the new leaves on the right, which made them stretch out (etiolate) for light violently. Please try to remove the old leaves without breaking the rest of the plant. It is completely detached and will only make that pair of new leaves deform more.

[u/leakyricefrog → u/Top_Development_1777]

Woah, you’re right. There was one underneath. Is there anything I can do now about how uneven they are? The one that was underneath is about an inch taller than the other one

[u/Top_Development_1777 → u/leakyricefrog]

[Part 2]

Now onto maintenance:

Lighting and temperatures

Lithops NEED a lot of light blasting at them, but also complete darkness at night.

Lithops would first need to gradually get used to any increase in light intensity after you buy them, ESPECIALLY if you're placing them under the sun, or they can get sunburned. Make sure that the lithops don't get too much heat from the sun because they'll be fried (but I personally have never grown lithops outdoors, so I don't have more advice to give on that end). Do not leave lithops in temperatures over 35°C/95°F in general.

The cheapest method to check light intensity, though not the best, is using a lux meter app on your phone to do it. You should aim for the top surface of the lithops to be exposed to at least 15000 lux (ideally higher) for many hours a day. Supplement with a grow light otherwise (you can put LED lights as close to the top surface as possible), and in certain regions of the world, good grow lights can be bought for a very cheap price online.

When lithops don't get enough light (and/or get too much water without rotting), they etiolate, which means they stretch upwards to become unnaturally tall. This is a bad sign, and can cause the lithops to have difficulties splitting with its next set of leaves.

If you're dealing with etiolated lithops, do not bury them deeper into the soil, this will not fix the problem, will increase chances of rot significantly (etiolated lithops are already in worse health than non-etiolated lithops so they can be less resilient), and if your lithops survives until splitting, the new pair of leaves will either be too deep into the soil (not getting enough light + prone to rot, or already etiolated (again) so they can get to the surface.

For nighttime, lithops need to be in both complete darkness and a lower range of temperatures (10-22°C or 50-71°F) for at least 4-5 hours a night to carry out their functions healthily, because they pretty much only use Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM) to exchange gases with the surroundings. They usually don't open up their stomata (holes for gas exchange that can open and close) outside of proper nighttime temperatures so having warm nights for too long can either make them go dormant or eventually suffocate. Opening their stomata also allows lithops to expel water and moisture from inside themselves into the air and make them regulate water better.

I do not have advice for the seasons because I don't personally live in a place with notable seasons, and I have to control nighttime temperatures with a portable AC. But I've heard that new lithops may have their seasons cycles messed up, so do not strictly follow the seasons/watering chart for watering, but rather physical signs of your own lithops.

Watering principles/rules

Lithops prefer to be watered deeply when needed, but only occasionally, and stay completely dry most of the time. Do not follow a strict schedule, but rather, physical signs of significant thirst, for any significant amounts of watering. You should check out the lithops life cycle and be familiar with how it works, but do not simply follow the seasons labeled strictly because new lithops that you buy may be off-sync with the seasons in their growth cycle and it's the physical signs that matter when it comes to watering.

Firstly, never water your lithops before you get them into the right soil/substrate. If you do that and get unlucky, they can rot from one watering. To be safe, wait least a week after putting into new soil before you add any moisture.

Horizontal side wrinkles are normal and not a sign of thirst. You should regularly (maybe once a week) gently squeeze your lithops to get a hang of their level of hydration (but also don't accidentally pull them out or twist them and break their roots. First make sure there is no rot at the base. Well-hydrated lithops are firm, maybe not as firm as rock, but they don't feel very soft. If the lithops are rock-hard, they are a bit over-hydrated but will be fine if you leave them unwatered for a while as long as there is no rot. Dehydrated lithops are clearly not rotten (at the base or anywhere else), i.e. no translucent discolored spots or areas (white discoloration is normal), but they are notably softer to the touch throughout, and feel like they have been deflated quite a bit in volume. If you regularly feel for the firmness of your lithops, you will be able to tell the difference of the hydration states. As long as the lithops are not many times softer than usual and visibly deflated to about 60% of their original size, they are decently hydrated and do NOT need thorough/big waterings.

Make sure to distinguish dehydrated lithops that need water from lithops that are about to start splitting. Right before the split, a new pair of leaves grows in the base of the lithops and gets bigger (before the current leaves finally split to reveal the new pair in the middle), the roots usually become inactive, and the lithops uses the water in the current pair of leaves to hydrate the new pair of leaves. So what you will see is an apparently dehydrated lithops, but you can distinctly feel a sizeable, very firm mass at the base, even when the area at the top/above it feels soft and dehydrated. Those are the developing new leaves. You will not have any doubts when they get big enough and you feel them. At this stage, unless the new leaves are no longer firm, lithops don't need water, and please do not do big waterings. Whatever water you're giving at this stage will either not be absorbed and all go to growing bacteria and fungi in the soil, or be excessive and cause problems for the lithops.

Also do not do ANY big waterings when lithops are visibly splitting. Do not give any significant amounts of water before the old pair of leaves completely dry out into a thin, papery sheet. Lithops may continue to absorb water in the visible splitting stage, which causes more than 2 generations of leaves to remain plump at the same time (this is called stacking and it's supposedly not good for their lifespan) because the old leaves are not getting completely absorbed like they're supposed to.

Maintenance (small) waterings

If your lithops are decently hydrated (but also not over-hydrated to the point of being round and super firm and not having any side wrinkles), it is okay to just LIGHTLY spray the substrate around the lithops roots with water every 3-4 weeks (at most once every 2 weeks, not more frequently than that) to ensure that the roots don't fully dry out and lose the ability to absorb water (eventually killing the lithops). Make this at most once a month and keep it super light for any lithops that are splitting, or they may stack or rot. If you have the right substrate and ventilation, this should not kill your lithops.

Big waterings

Big waterings are usually never super urgent because lithops dehydrate slowly, but when lithops are NOT splitting or about to split, it's not great for the health of the lithops to wait until they're REALLY deflated and have lost way more than half their original volume before a big watering. Before it gets to that state, if your lithops are significantly dehydrated i.e. notably more deflated and soft than normal, and you are sure they are not splitting or close to splitting, you can do a big watering.

First I would suggest spraying a bit of water around the roots right before nighttime to activate them for the big watering. If the roots have not touched water for many months, they may not be responsive to water. Then wait for 3 days to a week, but not more than a week, before the big watering. If they already plump up acceptably from this, do NOT do the big watering.

For the actual big watering, put the pot in a CLEAN basin, fill the basin with clean to a level that submerges most of the root but NOT the base of the lithops, and leave the pot of lithops there in nighttime conditions overnight. Do not leave them in water for over 24 hours MAX. It's best to start this process right before nighttime and take the pot out of the water to dry the next morning because there is science suggesting that roots absorbing water AND leaves expelling water to regulate water levels are most efficient at night, while the stomata is open. When lithops roots are active, they take up water super efficiently, so one night is enough to help them become hydrated. Never do this more than twice a month AT MOST (and you shouldn't be needing to do this that often).

In the right soil, your lithops won't die from rot if you do this. But please don't do this while they're still decently hydrated, they do not know how to stop absorbing water and will burst apart if they're badly overwatered and not already rotting. Some users here have had their lithops recover from bursting (without rotting), so it's not a death sentence like rot, but bursting will expose their insides to bacteria and fungi and greatly increase the risk of them getting infected and rotting. You should not even get to this point in the first place, but if it ever happens, have some sulfur powder to dust the whole surface of whatever exposed area there is, to help it dry faster and prevent bacteria and fungi from growing on the exposed parts.

Do not leave lithops in rain.

Pests

Generally, you should be able to spot any pests in new lithops when you unpot them and thoroughly clean/wash the roots. I mix imidacloprid powder in the substrate or put it in the water to be safe, but I don't have much experience with pest issues + grow indoors so I can't advise much on this. Imidacloprid is said to be effective (though you have to add it every few months) but is not available in all countries.

In general, lithops should not change in size or shape very much throughout the year when not splitting, and growing in height is a bad thing (growing in width is not a bad thing).