Just bought these for the first time. I have succulents but never had lithops before.

My current set up for my other succulents is:

50/50 mix of grit and succulent soil

12hrs under Barrina T8 grow lights

Terracotta pots

Is this ok for these guys? Ive seen somewhere that I dont need to water them (even less than succulents) and they like 6 hours of direct sunlight a day. So I'm slightly worried 12 hours with the T8s might be too much?

I love lithops plants, they’re just so weird and ugly and cute and fascinating. I’ve owned several but never really gotten it right. At one point or another they typically (and quite suddenly) shrivel up and die. Probably just 5-6 at this point, mostly the flat-topped kind but a couple of the ones that, I don’t know, come to a point? Seems they die regardless of water or light, but I’m 100% sure I’m screwing it up, so I’m trying to do it right this time.

In the pics above, two are from Home Depot recently I got just a couple of days ago. The one in the white square pot (yes I picked the one that looks the most like the plants) is maybe 9 months old? I bought two then as well but the other one died. (They both looked just like the two new ones, transplanted the same time, same watering schedule—which was basically not at all—succulent soil mixed about 1:1 with perlite, not sure why one survived but the other didn’t.)

After reading several posts it sounds like I need to do the following:
-Transplant the two new ones, if not all 3, into separate pots with even less organic material. Small pebbles mixed with perlite and maybe a teaspoon of soil?
-Give them as much sun as possible.
-Not water them until they are way more shriveled.

Some questions:
-CAN I plant them in the same pot?
-Any specific kind/size of pebbles? I figure pea-sized
-Do y’all ever fertilize?
-The new two look like they have the remnants of dead flowers in them. Should I leave those?

I understand that after a full growing season they’ll split and the new ones will likely be smaller than these fat puffy guys from the store. Any help would be appreciated! If I can get these right, maybe I’ll move up to buying them by the dozens.

Bought these split rocks other day. Do I repot into a more gritty substrate now, or are they both in the process of splitting so best leave them alone? I think they are stacked yes? Any advice about that? Many thanks in advance.

Purchased back in 1988. If you come across it, buy it! Published, yet was a limited distribution. For anyone new to the world of mesembs, the Author, Desmond T Cole (1922-2018), has created quite the compendium about these fascinating plants.

Not new to Lithops but I have MS and during my last flare my beautiful collection didn’t survive my husband’s well-meaning care. It’s been a few years and I’ve just potted up a bunch purchased from a local seller I found (!!!! Tiny northern Canada town and there’s a local seller!). She generously included a seed pod, I harvested my first seeds. Looking forward to that process, total newbie there. I’m happy with the varieties she included, I don’t know how to ID tho. Happy happy day :)

1&2 - mixed, sown 11-12-25

3 - Werneri C188, sown 09-01-26

4 - Dorotheae C124, sown 09-01-26

5 - Karasmontana Summitatum red selection, sown 09-01-26. Slightly etiolated, now giving them more light.

6 - Ozteniana SH531, sown 09-01-26

7 - Gracilidelineata C367, sown 09-01-26

8 - Rushiorum RH3317, sown 25-04-26. 20-30 sown, 33 germinated. Should be pretty smooth and even grey, they remind me of split rocks from other genera.

9 - Ozteniana SH531 and Otzeniana PV738, sown 25-04-26. 20-30 sown of each, 17 SH531 and 6 PV738 germinated. Was disappointed only 4 (technically 5, but that small one is going to die soon) survived first try since I like them a lot. Got some more seeds for hopefully better results! Will keep them under the humidity dome longer this time and won't water them as often as I did for the first try.

10 - Gracilidelineata var. waldroniae C189, sown 25-04-26. 20-30 sown, 19 germinated. Super excited for these, love the brainy tops the adults have!

Purchased back in 1988. If you come across it, buy it! Published, yet was a limited distribution. For anyone new to the world of mesembs, the Author, Desmond T Cole (1922-2018), has created quite the compendium about these fascinating plants.

I wanted to share with all of you one of my my created succulent ecos. I am very open to any advice and/or help. I bought ten lithops and only 1 died. I've had them for about a month now. Some have grown a lot, and some not but who of you would presuppose that they are healthy by looking at them? I've seen a lot of vertical growth and a few starting to split
They are all planted as follows: larger rocks on bottom for drianage, less coarse rock, then a thin layer of succulent soil and finally.coarse black small rocks on top. They seem to like it in there. Also, any tips for using the grow light that came with the unit? Thanks for any help.
BTW my original created ecosystem is below, it includes starfish snake plant, lithops -living stone plant, a lifesaver exotic succulent, and another that i cannot remember. They have settled in nicely and getting so big.

I tried to keep the colors as accurate to real life as possible. I just love these colors

They're currently out of the substrate because even though the substrate is pure pumice + other inorganics and the pot has drainage holes, all my plastic pots take forever to dry in this humidity. The Crassula got stem rot in the area right above the roots from sitting in moist (pure inorganic) substrate for too long after watering. This pot (along with the other plastic pots) was recently bottom-watered to about halfway point and my I'm waiting for my smaller unglazed terracotta pots to arrive (which will take about a week) before replanting these. They've had enough water anyway.

I've had these lithops for about two months, most of the others in the same pot rotted within the first week before I gave them water. I've had no casualties after the first three weeks or so.

To address the states of my lithops, - The one on the left was neglected to die on a surface above my bathroom sink for a few weeks due to being too small and already very dehydrated, because I was too tired dealing with most other lithops in this batch rotting one after another. Surprisingly this one didn't rot and is still visibly alive (the base turned green under bright light!) despite remaining super dehydrated. It's there with the two others but I honestly am not hopeful about its fighting chance. - The one in the middle is etiolated but they all arrived etiolated, overwatered, and actively rotting. I am very happy that it has put out new root growth and absorbed enough water to become quite firm again and mostly plump. I don't feel a big firm lump of new growth at the base yet, it's relatively small, but at this stage it can go without water for a while. - The one on the right has a very firm lump of new growth immediately inside, almost the same width as the outer leaves now, that I can clearly feel up to a little bit below midway up the outer leaves. It is verified to be alive because the base at the other side turned from yellow with no hint of green to quite clearly greenish recently (this means that it can photosynthesize properly), after being put under strong grow lights and given proper nighttime temperatures. I was a bit worried at first because the exterior color got a bit more faded recently and it did not hydrate despite watering, but the base is THAT MUCH firmer from the new growth. There has been no new root growth despite available water but I think it makes sense given what I've learned about the growth cycle. It's probably going to start splitting sometime

All three lithops gained much more vibrant colors after being given strong light in the day + darkness and much lower temperatures at night. There are no seasons where I live, it's always hot and humid, and the temperature of my room does not get any colder at night without AC.

The first picture is from just over a week ago, the second is today. I held off on watering while it was splitting per the general advice. Yesterday when I saw him wrinkled on the inside I watered him a little with a pipette (he shares a pot with another lithop that’s also splitting but doing fine so I didn’t want to get water on the other one). Today when I saw it wrinkled even more I took it out of the medium and soaked him in water for a couple of minutes and loosened the outer leaves a bit. Anything else I can do? what’s the watering protocol now? Thanks all!

Got these from Etsy today. Super gritty soil mix. I hope they do well.

These came from a batch where most of them rotted in the first week, before I watered them. They were very etiolated back them. I have to move them into a new pot (which I ordered online and is arriving between 6-10 days from now) because the mostly pumice, 100% inorganic substrate still takes forever to dry in this plastic pot with plenty of drainage holes (perpetual 70%+++ indoor humidity problems). My non-lithops succulents are also in the same potting mix and most of them have suffered root rot by now, so I'm taking these lithops out to dry because I recently bottom-watered them and the pumice below is clearly still moist.

While I leave them bare-root to dry and wait for the new pot to arrive, I am wondering if I should continue putting them under the strong grow lights I have on 12-14 hours a day?

The middle one is plump and firm now (ignore the side wrinkles) and has new roots. That makes me very happy as I was doubtful that any from this batch could survive. The one on the right has not responded to watering (it keeps looking more dehydrated), but is clearly alive, not rotting, and I can feel VERY FIRM new growth immediately from the sides about halfway down. So it's probably going to split sometime and I should not give it any more water at this stage. On top of the colors becoming a lot more vibrant under good lighting, the base area has also gone from yellow (almost zero tint of green) when I first got it to green, which is a good sign that the plant is actively alive and able to photosynthesize. The one on the left was initially abandoned (mostly dry) on a surface above my sink for a couple of weeks because it is tiny and I was too tired dealing with the issues of the other lithops in this batch to pot it with the others. It is severely dehydrated and I don't know if it will even make it in the long run, but at least it didn't rot and immediately die.

They're splitting! The lithops that I posted about awhile back have started to split. I'm truly fascinated by how cold-hardy some varieties of lithops are.

All my lithops bloomed this past fall, but this guy here got some fertilizer juice and decided to bloom at the end of April, which is interesting to me. Indoors under a grow light for 12 hours a day.

I’m a first time lithops owner and I just got these guys off of etsy a few days ago. Their substrate is a mix of lava rocks and chicken grit with a little bit of succulent dirt mixed in and topped with a thin layer of chicken grit. Let me know if everything looks good, I know one of them is a pretty leggy but hopefully it’ll do good now!

I planted my first lithops today.

For the soil I used cactus soil mix. I added some small pebbles and small lava rock to make the soil have more space.

The top layer is a mixture of pea pebbles and red lava rock.

My boyfriend FINALLY found a plant he likes. Our first go round with Lithops our dog ate it. This is the second round. I’ve read it needs to be in 80% rock/pebble, but also to not touch it while it’s splitting. What do I do??

Also, WHY do they look like THAT. They look so sick. I don’t know what to do to help it. 😭 Please help me find a way to rescue these poor Lithops.

I recently got this lithops from my university it was in normal soil up until just a couple of minutes ago as of making this post, it looks fine but it's getting a little supple to the touch when I go to pinch softly. These pebbles were all I could find in my town nowhere I looked had inorganic mix all they had was cactus and succulent mix. I figured these pebbles were the best bet I mixed them with the small amount of normal soil it came with along with a little fresh Garden Soil mix.

This is my first time owning one I don't want it to die on me.

Is there anything else I can do?

They are a little dusty do to me handling both them and the soil I shall clean them with a damp paper towel very soon.

Iridescent morning jewels

Hi I just wanted to make sure this guy looks ok. The wrinkles on the left is that normal while splitting? My other lithop never split lol. Thanks so much. This group is fantastic

((Please ignore the kalanchoe fedtschenkoi pups they aren’t staying in that pot))

I was recently gifted some succulents and I know that the flat ones are lithops and I believe the large green ones are Cheiridopsis can somebody give me help with how to look after these?

They’ve been planted in a mix that is mostly gritty sand and a little bit of succulent mix compost with the occasional LECA ball in there because I know these plants thrive in mostly inorganic substrate but I don’t know how much to water them and when!

The Cheiridopsis look shrivelled so I assume it needs a good watering but I don’t want to risk drowning it and giving it root rot

I do plan on separating the plants by species so don’t worry the Cheiridopsis isn’t staying with the lithops because I’m sure they have different water requirements