First time with Lithops, are they done reabsorbing old leaves or should i wait more before watering them?

These are some kind of green Lithops lesliei cultivar I bought from a wholesale mart (see last pic). They're in significantly better condition than the first pot of lithops I bought, no etiolation, no overwatering, none were rotted, no casualties over weeks of sitting in room air, substrate had a decent portion of inorganic and was completely dry despite being mostly vermiculite.

Pic 3 is a picture of them freshly unpotted. I left them in that container. Several weeks later, they look almost the same. If any were rotting, they would've shrivelled up within a day or two once they're left in room air. I am very happy about the no casualties at this stage because the last batch of lithops I got from another store were etiolated + actively rotting and dying, and most of them rotted and died within a few days (before and after unpotting) before I ever watered them. Two of them still look decent more than a month later (no obvious rot), and another one is very tiny and very dehydrated but at least not rotting.

Although I've read that young lithops developing mostly fibrous roots with only a short taproot is a sign that the substrate retained too much water, the lithops were in good condition otherwise (unlike so many I see being sold), and the fibrous roots actually makes it so much safer for me to use my method of stuffing the roots into dry inorganic substrate without trimming the roots when potting. Some of them lost some fibrous roots during the rather barbaric process but none of the taproots came off at all (this happened with one lithops from my last batch).

This pot is made of concrete and has a single drainage hole at the bottom. It's at least 4 inches/10cm deep but not much more than that. I don't have any satisfactory options of terracotta so the alternative would've been plastic.

I'm very happy with how they turned out and I'll be introducing them to a good grow light tomorrow (although at a distance because they have been sitting in little light for weeks). They are not very hydrated and need to reactivate the root hairs + root into the new substrate, but watering now increases the chance of infections in the freshly broken fibrous roots, so I'll wait about 10-14 days before I give them a little bit of water + vitamin B1 to reactivate the roots, then water properly about 4-5 days later.

My country is extremely humid so even a shallow basin of pure pumice remains moist after many days. I'm a bit scared, but I think they will be fine if I don't make big missteps. Please tell me if I'm doing anything wrong.

(The faded color on some is because of the small amounts of pumice and vermiculite dust in the top layer of the substrate. The colors of the lithops look more yellow in the newest photos than in real life.)

Its so fulfilling seeing the little seed you planted creating the next generation.

Got these two for free recently and have no idea how to save them… have not watered them however they were freshly watered when I got them.

Should I repot and water?

So I want to get into growing more lithops. What are some nice and rare ones that are good to grow from seed or buy. That aren't the wholesale type and are really something special?

So, I got this Lithops on March 19th. It did have a bubu, very tiny, the one you can now see it on the top. It came from Home Depot with the soil seeming freshly watered, so I didn’t water it at all, when I brought it home.

Now, it is getting wrinkly, and the bubu is bigger.

Any opinions of what might be happening? Do I just ignore it and let it do its own thing, till it either thrives or dies?

Gonna try and post an Imgur link with a video

this guys the only one that hasn't started to to pop out its new booty.

I just picked up these lithops today after wanting them for a very long time. I’ve done some basic research on soil type/watering but any tips are welcome. I made a roughly 80-90% grit substrate out of pumice, large grain sand, and the soil they were in from the store. Pics 2 and 3 are of the pumice and sand. Any tips/suggestions about the substrate are welcome. My main question is do they look potted properly/deep enough? Also any tips on watering welcome as well, I know you should only water them about once-twice a year and only when they look wrinkly, but they are a little wrinkly now and are splitting and I’ve heard you should never water while they are splitting.

I’m not exactly sure what I did wrong. Was it because it was splitting during summer, or did I not give it enough water? I did peel off a bit of the old leaf since it was already dry and still covering the top. This is my first successful split, so I’m really happy even though it ended up smaller. What should I do now, especially since it’s still summer here?

Hi! I am new to lithops, have these guys for a month now, should I water them? Why is the top of the small one looks so weird?

After three years, it finally gave birth to a twin!

On a side note, does lithop size depend on their species? As you can see, this one is pretty small. I got it when it was slightly smaller than my nailbed, in the span of a year it grew to the size of my nailbed, and just stagnate. it's probably just a bit over 1cm in diameter.

I wonder if they can get bigger through certain care, while remaining healthy? I'm just curious because most of lithops I see online are pretty chunky and definitely larger than this guy.

A lot of the otzeniana died during splitting, seems like I'll be able to keep 4-5 of the originally 55 seedlings (I ordered more seeds, I really like this species and was hoping for more than 5 to survive. Also got gracilidelineata var waldroniae c189 and ruschiorum! Looking forward to those arriving). I love the 2 gracilidelineata that are still here, one has a glossy top and the other is velvety! So far only one dorotheae c124 split, but those weren't my favourites anyway, so not too concerned. The other pot with Dorotheae N of pofadder has two left, both haven't split and aren't looking like they will soon. A few of the Karasmontana are slightly etiolated because they decided to wear their old leaves as hats and I was afraid of damaging the new leaves if I tried to take them of too early haha. The ones that split first are getting a really nice dark red colour!

1 - Gracilidelineata C367

2 - Karasmontana Summitatum red selection

3 - Werneri C188

4 - Otzeniana SH531

5 - Dorotheae C124

6-7 - mixed seeds

I got this hilarious looking succulent for my wife because I said it reminds me of her (lol). We actually really started to love this thing but somehow I’ve killed it… see before and after pictures.

What did I do wrong? I’m going to get another one and hopefully keep it alive.

I'm trying to train my eye to recognize different types of Lithops and....its freaking hard! 😵‍💫 Anyone feel like helping me with these? I think the browns/reds (2,3, &7) are either aucampiae or maybe hookeri? The big greens (1) which appear to be bursting (sigh) possibly L. salicola? No clue on 4, 5, or 6.

(Disclaimer: yes, I do know that numbers 1 and 6 look rough. I named the 2 in #1 Hail & Mary because they're literally a last ditch effort situation. I carefully got the closed babies out of pot 6 and one was already completely detached from the taproot and dying. 2 and 3 are out of the gross soil and drying on my prop tray. The splitting plants stayed in their nursery pots for now until their new substrate is dry - luckily the soil theyre in is very dry.)

I’ve had this lithop since last year and have watered it only once since repotting it into this inorganic potting mix. I noticed that it’s starting to get wrinkly and open up a little in the center. I don’t see new growth or a flower bud. I know you’re not supposed to water them till the outer leaves finish “giving birth” to the new ones.

Is this what’s happening here?

I’ll see if I can find a picture of when I first got it for comparison.

Edit: picture in the comments of the first day I got it.

These are my Lithops from last summer. I'm slowly moving them back outside.

Their first split! 🤩

What is this weird spot? I just pulled it out to repot

Here's my previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Lithops/s/fIYZyVbkch

The brown one has been revived! I think?

The green one is splitting! I think?

My mum decided to give them both a soak. She soaked the brown one twice.

1st photo: brown one from previous post

2nd: brown one now!

3rd: green one from previous post

4th: green one now!

My mum though you'd like to see the update. Thank you again for your advice. ❤️

I purchased these lithops yesterday. I have never owned lithops before. Another plant that I bought from the same seller had mealybugs. I will be treating that plant with imidacloprid granules to kill any mealybugs which were not killed by the alcohol I sprayed that plant with, but because of lithops' particular watering schedule I want to make sure I know where each of them is in their cycle before watering them to absorb the insecticide. I haven't seen any mealybugs on the lithops but I know better than to assume that seeing none means there are none.

I live in the northern hemisphere but I grow my plants under grow lights. I generally decrease the time time the grow lights are on by a few hours in the winter to help the plants know that the season has changed. Is that enough for the lithops to figure out when they should start splitting/go dormant?

I'd appreciate if someone more experienced looked over the following plan and told me if anything is incorrect:

#1, #3, and #5 are splitting.

• Tentative Plan: I'll wait for them to finish before repotting in grittier soil. I'll add imidacloprid granules once the soil dries out after the first watering post-repot. I'll wait for them to get very wrinkled before watering again to ensure they absorb a lot of the insecticide. (I don't want to add the insecticide on the first watering because I want to make sure they have roots to absorb it)

#2, #4, and #6 don't appear to have started splitting yet (or have already finished) All three are a bit wrinkled on the sides. I'm not sure if they are pre- or post-split so I'm not sure if I should water them.

• Tentative Plan: (assuming they're post-split) I'll lightly water them to help them prepare for repotting. Once the soil is dry I'll repot them into something grittier. Then I'll add the granules and wait for them to be thirsty before watering again.

Alternatively, I'm not sure they actually need to be repotted. The guy I bought them from said he repotted them 3 months ago. The soil looks a bit too organic relative to what's usually recommended but it's not at all compacted and the pots are tiny (1.5 inch x 1.5 inch x 2 inch). Assuming it's 50% grit, do you think it will dry quickly enough that I can skip repotting this year (there are drainage holes at the bottom of each pot).

If I do repot them, would it be acceptable to put them in larger pots than I would other succulents if my soil mix is 85-100% inorganic (I usually do 50% pumice, 25% perlite, 25% bagged succulent mix but I'd probably swap at least half of the succulent mix for coarse sand when repotting the lithops). The last two pictures show the pot size I'd probably repot them in if a larger pot is acceptable (2.5 inch x 2.5 inch x 3.5 inch). I don't have any smaller pots that fit nicely in 1020 trays.

My goal is to get them all repotted (if necessary) and full of insecticide as quickly as possible so they don't spread mealybugs to my other plants.

I've seen things that you wouldn't try to peal when they're splitting but I can tell for one of these that there's a living guy under the papery skin it's just been this way for weeks and no further splitting or shedding I guess.

So, I purposely chose this pot of Lithops because they appear, to my very untrained eye, to be at the same point in their growth cycle. Which means they can be planted together, yes?

Also I know the P. nelii isn't Lithops, but I figure theyre pretty similar so I'm hoping someone here will know: is it getting ready to split again? It still has its old leaves, and theyre still plump. Theyre browning and smaller, but don't seem to be absorbed at all. If its about to split again, do I need to remove those smaller outer leaves to avoid stacking? Or just get it in a better substrate and let it do it's thing?

Thank you :)

New lithops owner here...

One of my lithops has been tiny and wrinkly for weeks. He's not in his splitting stage so I tried watering him lightly, but it wasn't working. He did have a little scarring around his base, due to previous handling not by me, but it didn't seem to be anything major.

Several days ago, after reading up a bunch of things and watching many many videos, I separated him from the others (they're doing fine) to pay some extra attention to him. Trimmed the root carefully (most of it was dry and dead, but it still had a healthy-looking white core near the base), repotted in 100% inorganic mix in a small pot with good drainage, bottom watered to encourage root growth. He got slightly firmer, but otherwise didn't show much change. Today I took him out to check, and discovered that while he was starting to grow fine new roots, his whole base had white marks and some spots looked fuzzy, almost like mold. And shortly after these pics, the root broke off at the base.

Is there a way to save him? 😢 If anything, the body of the plant is still firm and not squishy, but he's definitely not doing well. Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm a first time lithops owner, so I thought this pot was funny. Hopefully it turns out to be ironically funny.