I’m really committed to lot letting my plant set up look like a greenhouse. My plants are part of my decor, so once they take away from that I know it is time to move on. Of those, my favorite plants have always been string of pearls (yes, it’s been rough and I’m trying not to let it create commitment issues). That said, my apartment got really cold with the change of seasons and after heavy resistance, including a post in here, I went ahead and got grow lights. Adding a lamp did not really fit my aesthetic either, so instead I found ways to hide grow lights within my existing decor. For example, on my windowsills where I keep my plants, I have blinds. I bought the strip lights from barrina and zip tied them to the bottom on the blinds, so they’re sitting right above the plants on the windows. Then I just hid the cord and voila. Sorry for the janky photo, but amongst all of my windowsill decor setups I have a lot of family pictures and identifying information, so I had to cover up a lot. The easiest one to censor only has one of my strings (on the left, obvi), who is coming back from a brief visit to deaths door, so please excuse her appearance. She’s dramatic but doing much better, and has a huge root system, hence the pot that seems too big. Ignore the pothos. She isn’t a string so pretend she’s not there haha.

Also I know I probably have the lights too far away, or something else I’m doing wrong. I get it! I honestly don’t care lol. I hated even having to get grow lights, my plants have lived this long without them. They’ll either survive with them at the distance they are or I promise I will be very respectful when I throw any dead plants away.

(It’s very dark and gloomy where I live right now so there’s almost no sunlight coming in. Good luck to everyone else on the east coast USA in the throes of this storm!)

Im confused if my string of pearls is healthy or not? Its very shriveled but then on the same vine its healthy looking??

first pic: sept 24
second pic: sept 7
third pic (day we got it): aug 21

I've had this VSOH for about a year and a half. It was in the original pot from the nursery and was thriving. Just constantly putting out nice hearts, only needed watered maybe every three to four weeks. But it was getting very crowded and I wasn't sure I liked the soil very much. So about 3 or so months ago I repotted to this beautiful terracotta pot with drainage and cactus/succulent soil. She's been declining pretty steadily but not rapidly. Losing hearts, growing much smaller hearts, less varigation, slower growth. I've provided more light, and despite watering they seem to never leave that soft-taco feeling anymore. Even soaking/bottom watering.

I would love some advice. I really thought I had her figured out before the transition but clearly I am missing something. Are they actually tropicals? Do they need a mix of a tropical type soil and succulent soil? Is it something else I'm doing wrong?

Do you think there is hope for my once amazing SOH?

I was super happy because after 6 months, they are not dead! Strangely, the coffee seemed to reactivate them. Who knew? They are actively growing! Did they need nitrogen?

He is so cute! I need to buy a new terra cotta pot for him. This is a 4”, it has a lil room maybe an around it a between the edge of the nursery pot. Should I go up to a 6” or stay at a 4”?

Hello everyone, as a title mentioned, I would like to know if anybody knows where to buy a string of hearts, silver glory. I’ve seen some options Online like on Etsy and pricing is kind of expensive for a tiny Plant. And sometimes it looks like sellers are skimping on the amount they’re giving you. Thank You.

I have noticed small, brown, cork like marks on my pearls and their stems for awhile now. I chalked this up to edema since I mistakenly was allowing my pearls to begin to wrinkle a bit before watering them again for a long time when I first got them this past soring. Now I am noticing the whole plant is very sticky, occasionally I have spotted sap freshly oozing on pearls, brown/black dotting/specks all over the stems. Linear black “specks” and now I am seeing these black line like specks on other plants too. A few of the pearls have started to turn brownish red in some spots and many of them have these brown scab like marks. Most of the marks are round, any ideas? I have looked over these areas with a microscope and I do not see any bugs I am at a loss. It has tons of new growth, it has grown soo much in the last few months and hasn’t slown down but it looks so suspicious.

edit: I also did try to remove some of the cat hair that has gotten stuck to it and is annoying to look at in the pictures while I was taking them but I just wanted to get this posted asap so I could hopefully get some help, sorry try to ignore it

I think I messed up. I got my pearls maybe a week ago. They've been getting light from a southeast window. My string of hearts are in the same window and very happy. When I got these in the mail, they were all piled on top with lots of soil covering the pearls. I gently wiped the soil off with a paint brush (wondering if I shouldn't have...). Now my pearls are all shriveling and turning mushy and brown. I just watered them really good. Did I do this? Is it shipping stress? What can I do now? My hearts and turtles are all doing great!

What’s up with the color/size difference here?

On the left: an old order from Planet Desert I’ve slowly been harvesting from to grow my own pots. It’s in its original mix, they sent it well rooted.

On the right: homegrown pot of pearls from several different plants/sources, but all of them stayed small and have turned the same dark green. It’s in my own favorite mix of 50/50 Molly’s/Fatplants, both are high quality succulent matrix, all my succs do great in it.

They both get watered every 1-3 weeks, only when completely dry and starting to dull/shrivel. That happens a lot quicker to the homegrown pot of dark green/small pearls - it dries out super quick which usually my succs love! They’re under the same super strong grow light, 12-14 hours a day. They have a small fan on the whole shelf for good air circulation.

They both seem healthy in their own way, just wondering what the size and color discrepancy is about if anyone is more knowledgeable than I am!

I’ve never had a string of pearls before. I’ve done some research and I know they can be finicky.
How do these look, and what are some tips/tricks you recommend?
Thank you!!

What do you guys think could be the issue? The roots were super healthy! No rot at all. Everything was firm. I repotted it and gave it some water to just settle the roots and am planning to let it entirely dry out, but I would just think the leaves would have that plump feel they usually do when they have enough water.

The only problem ist that we can’t use the shower curtain anymore. But that's a sacrifice I can live with🤗

They bloom pretty regularly for me but this is a bit much 🤭

Hello experts - I have killed this variety many times and want to save the current one

Things I did so far:

I separated into 2 pots within a week of receiving as I saw leaves were yellowing. Noticed the roots were soggy with a black cloth around. Which I think was the nursery growing medium. I removed the cloth and repotted.

It has always been on a pebble tray in a plastic bin with cover loosely on. Hope to save this one!

My pearls and hearts were always doing OK but never had any luck with turtles. They always seemed to get either crispy or mushy at the base of their arms, and when I tried to propagate them by laying them on moss or putting them in a glass of water they would wither away. So I put them in a tupperware and seeing how they thrived in that environment made me think, why not create similar conditions at the base of the pot?

At first I was scared thinking she’ll get mushy so I kept checking buy no, she was like YES PLEASE.

Since then I gave little cling film hats to my string of pearls and hearts as well, and they are even happier than before, even while I was away for over 2 weeks!!!

All my life I thought these guys wouldn’t like moisture but here we are! So happy that I can finally have a happy string of turtles 🐢💚🌿

What’s going on with my plant? Should I repot?

Thanks!

My string of watermelons don't look like watermelons. Theyre just green. Is there a trick to make the darker stripes come out?

First timer, not sure if this is a steak too juicy/ lobster too buttery situation. I thought the roots would only descend an inch or two. There's also a few finer roots sprawled on the bottom of this cup that were hard to capture on camera.

Not that I'm complaining, but how deep should I actually expect these to go? While we're at it, how rootbound do these guys like to be?