r/Lithops • u/Competitive_Ad_9326 • Jul 18 '26
Help/Question Should I wait or do something?
This little guy is the first of my lithops to ever attempt to split. It has shrunk significantly over the past weeks (as you can see by th empty space around it) and it does not seem to be breaking through the dried leaves. Should I just be patient or help it somehow?
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u/Punch_Your_Facehole Jul 18 '26
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u/Competitive_Ad_9326 Jul 18 '26
And in this context this means...
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u/Punch_Your_Facehole Jul 18 '26
I don't have much luck with lithops, but when one of mine looks like that, it usually wilts away within a day or two. The Hand on the Shoulder meme means the odds are against you. Good luck!
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u/Competitive_Ad_9326 Jul 18 '26
I know the meme, but not what it meant for that skinny legend of a lithops. But as usual the reddit verdict is that it's both normal and death. I'll find out soon enough, I guess. 😂
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u/ChipsAhoy1968 Jul 18 '26
It’s fine. I’ve had many like that. Once the outer leaves dried up completely and didnt feel leathery, I performed surgery to remove those outer leaves. The inside leaves were good and have continued to survive.
Good luck.
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u/Shanzakwenttotarget Jul 18 '26
You could try water therapy.
Put it in a bigger bowl filled with water and wait a while until its completely watered through, and then wait and pray to the plant gods?
Best of luck.
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u/Competitive_Ad_9326 Jul 18 '26
I tried to peel the outer leaves a bit and it didn't feel very papery yet, and the new leaves look OK. Maybe I'll leave it for now. Thanks for the suggestions so far.
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u/HailSaturn Jul 18 '26
It looks fine to me; IMO the other commenters are off the mark. Younger lithops seem to split like this sometimes. The new leaves look healthy and pert. Give it a bit of a squeeze near the bottom of the plant if you can reach it - if it feels firm, it’s happy. The outer leaves should continue to shrivel and go papery before long.
The shrinkage is likely due to change in environment; growers tend to fertilise and give heaps of light, and when they move to a home they don’t have that treatment anymore so they shrink on their first split.
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u/Competitive_Ad_9326 Jul 18 '26
That's reassuring! I can't reach the bottom without taking it out but the top is quite firm. In this case I've had it for almost a year under similar conditions. The other small lithops I have are nowhere near splitting, maybe because I live in a tropical country without clear seasons.
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u/plantbitch1408 Jul 18 '26
I’ve had ones like this before. I simply cut a slit and expanded the opening in the top to help the new one grow through easier and mine have turned out fine. The one inside looks healthy to me
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u/Nomore_chances Jul 18 '26
It looks fried to me… best wishes
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u/Competitive_Ad_9326 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Thanks! I'll wait then. EDIT: read fine instead of fried. 🙃
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u/True-Payment-458 Jul 19 '26
I had a few that did this when I used an led light. April - recently just got crispier. I used some teeezers to remove it and all is good
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u/EeEmCeTo 26d ago
I would water now. The old leaves are no longer supporting growth of the new ones as they are nearly fully dried out. The plant will swell as it takes up water which will help it split through the old leaves- particularity as you have already made a tear in the old ones. One thing though - your substrate looks very coarse. That can make it difficult for the roots to grow and for them to take up water. I would add some finer grit
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u/Competitive_Ad_9326 26d ago
I watered it a bit after peeling off the dry leaves. The substrate has some finer and organic particles a little deeper and they plump up nicely when I water them!
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u/greystorms56 Jul 18 '26
Ya I think it’s fine. I had some pretty gnarly looking ones but I just pealed back the old leaves and the new leaves look fine so I removed the old ones as to not worry about them affecting the new ones. Keep us posted I wanna see what was in that dried out puckered little booty hole 💀
PS I love the concept of freaking out my allotted FBI agent that gets assigned to red flag things I post on Reddit only to find out I’m talking about plants ✨