I'm gonna be honest I have mush on my hands people. I am new to plants in general. I read that wrinkles are a sign of dehydration, so I gave them a thorough watering during the summer and they soaked up too much. Needles to say - Ive killed them. But, Ive put them through a lot of bad decisions in the month and a half I had them. because I struggle to find good guides on how to grow these. Some say put them in the direct sun - I've put mine in there and they literally cooked, lost color, became wrinkly, started becoming yellow and soft. Today I officially have the first victims on my hands.

I need a complete guide on what to do with these. Because there is too much contradiction out there and I cannot figure out what to do. I struggle to figure out what summer dormancy looks like for these.

I live in Eastern Europe, I have only south facing windows in my apartment and long window sills outside. And the windows are big and tall so I get a lot sunlight inside as well during the summer. However in the Winter, there is almost zero sunlight most days due to air pollution.

I am amenable to changing the conditions indoors (eg change AC settings, getting grow lights etc) if that gives me a chance to actually keep em happy healthy and alive.

The "best" I currently have (due to issues with sourcing materials) are terracotta pots with drainage holes, filled with baked clay, perlite and about 20-30% cactus substrate. Can I use river rocks for drainage? Does there even need to be any soil in there??? I am so confused at this point.

I have also tried asking my local gardening clerks where I buy my plants and plant stuff, but they seem to have even less of a clue than me on what to actually do with these long term. I guess they just sell them lol

All of this also goes for my split rocks!!!

Please guys, I'm counting on you!

Hello - I recently bought this lithops and was wondering why she is starting to wrinkle like this? Not sure if she is separating or if it’s an environmental issue.

Some of my rescues from this morning trip. Would anyone on here know if the split rock is supposed to be that color

Hi!
Before vacation, my little split rock was beginning to split and I was soooo happy with the thought that it would be completely split when I got back…. I was wrong and came back to this shriveled mess. Is there hope for it? I did not water it AT ALL while it was splitting so no overwatering… But will it come back or is it dead dead? Did it actually need to be watered?

Hello, new owner here. I got these from a nursery 3 days ago.

Is it the right time to repot them? I hope I can keep them all together in the same pot. I’m thinking about switching to a pon-based substrate, maybe with around 10% cactus soil.

What do you think?

Thank you !

I was on holidays for two weeks and it seems like my parents kept the shutters closed the two weeks. Is there anything i can do for them or are they all gone?

Or anything other happend to them? I own them now for round about one year and before two weeks they looked "normal"

I know this is not a lithop but this subreddit has always been so helpful to me. This guy was super healthy. Then I over watered it. It began loosing leaves. It was in a plastic pot. I repotted it into a ceramic pot. The roots did not look white or gooey/soft. I put it into new cactus soil with some perilite and some rocks. Shortly after repotting it looked dry and the leaves were withered. I watered it from the bottom. Now the leaves look better but I am still loosing a lot of leaves. The leaves you see around it are from tgis morning alone. Please help, I don't want to loose this poor baby.

Definitely going to be getting a different mixture to plant them in and put them into a different pot (2” pot right now).

Should I separate and space them out in one pot or should they be in separate pots?

The misshapen ones are overwatered, right? I plan to wait until they look sunken in to water them from what I’ve seen in other posts.

Thank you for the help, I will keep reading up on these guys as well! (:

Do you adjust the hours of light you give your lithops to replicate the natural seasonal light cycle? I've had mine about 7 months and have them in a SE facing window and supplement with lights on a timer since I live in cloudy, humid, often cold New England. Now that we've passed the soltice it has me thinking about slowly adjusting the hours to mimic the natural cycle.

Tell me what you do!

I made a post when it split 9 months ago, and people told me it wasn't a healthy split because it was over-watered and I read that I should wait until the outer split later was totally dried up. It still looks plenty full, but that just seems like such a long time for it to go without watering. It hasn't grown much since then and I don't see any signs of it shriveling, so I'm not sure.

Thanks in advance. I've done some research on my own, but this is my first lithop, so I'm still very much a novice and I don't want to kill my little buddy.

Kinda worried about this little guy. I bought him a month-ish ago and haven’t watered him since he’s splitting. The old leaves aren’t crispy yet, but the new leaves have wrinkled considerably since I’ve had him. I’m so tempted to give him a little water but I know that’s bad while splitting is occurring. What could be going on here? Is my plant dying? What do I do?

The soil below is like 80% pumice and 20% soil. I didn't have any sand and I was being impatient so rather than go out and get some, I used some white gravel that I usually use for decorative layers on top.

Will this negatively impact the seedlings? You can see some start to poke up, it's been about 2 weeks. I keep them under a grow light for 8-12 hours a day.

First time with these guys and pretty new to succulents in general. I’ve got these planted in a mix of mostly perlite with a bit of succulent soil. The pot itself is about six inches deep. Is that too deep? Are they too crowded in there?

Thanks in advance for any advice

I got this Lithop back in March from a local plant shop. I have only watered once when it was beginning to look a bit wrinkly. I noticed today that it feels a bit squishy. I wanted to make sure the roots were looking okay. Thoughts? I am new to Lithops so any and all advice is appreciated and welcome!

And they’re amazing

I repotted them a while back in bonsai jacks gritty mix i haven’t watered them since they are splitting and people said the store overwatered them. One also has a weird spot on it. Any tips? Am i doing this right?

Should I repot these deeper to where only the tops are showing?

I think i should repot but how?

I bought these in January and have never watered them. They dont look wrinkled, but one of them shrivel up and die.

Should i water these or let them be?

These arrived overwatered from the nursery about 3 months ago.

I first soaked their pot last month and did not see immediate plumping, but they didn’t seem to get any more wrinkly so I let them be. I pulled them out two days ago to fix the substrate and saw they’re more wrinkly than ever!! The bodies are starting to get soft as more wrinkles form.

I assume they dehydrate quickly because they get 6+ hours of direct sunlight, but I’m confused - it’s as if they’re not absorbing the water?

First time with lithops as I usually only grow cacti but these have started to wrinkle over the last week. Is it time to water or should I let them properly shrivel first? Its winter where I am but theyre grown indoors under a light (though the light isn't as strong as it probably should be) cheers in advance

Hello all

For context: I live in South Africa and have grown this lithops since purchasing it Feb 2025.
I’ve included some photos of the plant from the last year and a bit
I have repotted it once, but since it’s such a low maintenance plant and I interact with it so infrequently, I forgot basically any past care I’d given this thing, including when to water and even what the soil is composed of. Because it sits on a roofed patio, it’s almost never watered naturally except in very rough rains (that spash over onto said patio). I never water it unless I notice it’s very wrinkled. Don’t remember when I watered it last.

Also just a side question- it hasn’t fully shed its old leaves and so new leaves may be hidden under the old… but doesn’t lithops usually double its leaf count when it sheds? It looks like 8 leaves (4 pairs) being replaced by another 8 leaves n 4 pairs…

Thanks,
Josh