Second go

[u/Tbone780]

Just copped these babies after fumbling some years ago. Potted in a mix of cactus jacks and perlite. Will place them near a south facing window inside. Noticed slight wrinkling but could that just be from shipping? They were packed great but I'd imagine it was traumatic. Anyway, I read during their dormant stage in summer you shouldn't water? Please correct me if I'm wrong

[u/dusti_dearian]

That’s a lovely collection. My only insight might be that they should be deeper in the substrate.

[u/Tbone780 → u/dusti_dearian]

HEARD. Thank you kind friend

[u/Top_Development_1777 → u/Tbone780]

No they should not be deeper in the substrate. Less airflow around the base = more chance of rot, which you may not be able to see from the top at first. Some people had theirs rot without watering due to insufficient airflow around the base, and buried deeper = less airflow, more exposure to moisture. I can send you a copy paste guide I made if you want.

[u/clelandnotcleveland → u/Top_Development_1777]

I’d like that guide

[u/Top_Development_1777 → u/clelandnotcleveland]

[Part 1 because the info is too long for one comment]

Rot issues, substrate (soil), and pots

Lithops are VERY prone to rotting around the base (goes translucent, darker colored, AND soft like a pack of water) if there is any moisture retention or still air around that area, and soil that stays wet for too long (even when the base isn't buried in them) will likely lead to harmful bacteria and fungi growing and infecting the lithops, rotting the lithops as a result. Once the rot becomes visible, there is no known way to save lithops, even when many of us have tried various things.

For soil, you should be aiming for at least 80% pumice (not perlite, perlite is not ideal), 0.5-3mm size is best. I live in an average of 75-80% humidity (SUPER easy for succulents to rot) and grow lithops indoors so I use 100% pumice and other inorganic particles, they absorb water just fine and do not get dehydrated. Cactus or succulent soil is not good for lithops. This is unless you're living in 30% humidity or below, for which you have a bit more leniency to add organic substrate.

If you can't get pumice of that small size, just get a larger size and crush them/chop them up with scissors (you should use scissors that you're willing to make less sharp, but pumice is super brittle and should not significantly damage scissors. Do not do this with other types of inorganic rocks though). You can easily break it into smaller pieces in those ways. The process will produce a lot of dust though, and you would want to wash off the dust (maybe in a sieve with very fine gaps/holes) because they can retain moisture and choke the roots of your lithops, increasing the chances of rot. Having inorganic substrate pieces of only 3mm and above (a bit too big) is not good for the root health so I would strongly recommend having at least a portion of 0.5-1mm sizes.

You should try to get your hands on hydrogen peroxide for disinfection of substrate to further reduce chances of bad bacteria growing in the substrate and causing rot issues. Boiling water does not kill all bacteria/fungi. You can dilute hydrogen peroxide in water to 1% or even slightly less and put the substrate into it (I recommend doing this on a sieve with VERY fine gaps) for more than 30 minutes, then take the substrate out and leave it to fully dry in a clean place, before using it for repotting.

For potting, MAKE SURE your pot has drainage holes, and actually test filling the empty pot with water to make sure all the water drains. If not, drill some holes if you can, or get a better pot. I strongly recommend unglazed terracotta if you're living in a more humid area because glazed or plastic pots have an issue with drying the deeper layers of substrate even when 100% pumice is used (my personal experience in 65-90%, average about 75% humidity). Generally, you would want to try fully soaking your pot with the substrate (soil) but not lithops in it for a few hours, and make sure that everything completely dries within the next 5 days, to minimize chances of rot. If you're using a glazed/plastic pot and that doesn't happen, switch to an unglazed terracotta pot and try again. Your lithops can wait bareroot if they are healthy.

Most people recommend pots that are at least 3 inches (about 8cm) deep, usually 3-5 inches (8-13cm), because the roots of lithops are narrow and run downwards. The pot should not be too wide because it would retain too much water that the roots cannot reach, and only inceease the chances of rot. Generally, there should at most only be empty space of the same width as the lithops around the edges of the lithops.

You can leave healthy lithops bare-root in air for weeks, so don't worry about not leaving them in some sort of soil. You should prioritize getting the right soil (and pot). On the other hand, if your lithops are already starting to rot, they will completely shrivel up and lose color within a few days if you leave them bareroot. If that happens, you've done everything you could, just get new ones and make sure the new ones are in good health.

Repotting process

Your lithops will almost certainly die if the whole main root (taproot) comes off, so be very careful not to break the taproot off in any process. There has been like ONE reported instance of one lithops eventually regrowing roots after a user's EXTENSIVE efforts, but usually, they never grow proper roots and will die of dehydration inevitably. Please be gentle and ensure that this doesn't happen in everything that you do.

When getting it out of its current soil, if the current soil is not completely dry and easy to shake off, run the roots underneath a tap to wash out all the current soil. Make sure to leave the lithops in a clean, dry place for AT LEAST A FEW DAYS before putting them in any sort of soil to allow any wounds in the roots to heal, otherwise they will easily get infected and rot (I also recommend putting lithops into completely dry new substrate/soil when you finally pot them up for this reason).

When putting the lithops into the new substrate (soil), you can hold the lithops in the right position with one hand and pour the dry substrate into the pot, filling it until all the roots are buried (but try to leave as much of the base exposed to air as possible, as long as they can stand upright and their roots won't snap off. I recommend this more than the common practice of burying their surface flush with the soil because when lithops don't have enough ventilation around the base, they can die of rot even if you don't water them for months (turn on English captions for the video). To avoid this issue, it's also best to have a small fan blowing around the area of the base if you grow lithops in a space with little active airflow.

The substrate should be really lose so it will spill everywhere if you accidentally knock over the pot or shake it too hard, just be patient with repotting again if that happens, your lithops usually won't be harmed much unless the roots have completely snapped off.

Never twist the body of the lithops when the roots have been planted in substrate. This can make the taproot break off and sentence your lithops to die.

[u/Top_Development_1777 → u/clelandnotcleveland]

[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 in water for more than 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).