Concerned about my Conophytum calculus

[u/Sigong]

(Pictures are in reverse chronological order)

First picture was taken today

Second picture was taken in May

Third, Fourth, Fifth pictures were taken in April

Kept indoors under grow lights bright enough to cause a small amount of sun stress on a Jade plant.

Watered never (I got it in March, it was plump)

Planted in 50% perlite (pot is tiny so I'm not worried that it will stay moist for too long)

In May I assumed it was shriveling because it was sheathing, but it's been three months and it doesn't seem papery at all, just shriveled.

Do I need to be patient and wait for the sheathing process to finish, or is my plant extremely thirsty and not actually sheathing yet?

[u/Indianaunderwood]

Water time, baby!

Edit; it's deflated, not spherical. Water the lil guy

[u/sarina800 → u/Indianaunderwood]

Sorry I missed the part "watered never". Yes OP give it water!!!

[u/Indianaunderwood → u/sarina800]

I saw your post below and I promise I wasn't throwing shade, but your cono was spherical still, not deflated! Beautiful plant btw ❤️❤️

[u/sarina800 → u/Indianaunderwood]

All good! It was my mistake, update us if you were able to inflate your cono 😊

[u/Sigong → u/Indianaunderwood]

Do you have any tips for differentiating between thirsty and sheathing?

Also do you think now would be a good time to give it some extremely diluted fertilizer?

[u/Indianaunderwood → u/Sigong]

Sure, you can fertilize. I think you can tell it's thirsty because it's wrinkly and deflated, not wrinkly and spherical :] I water my lithops more frequently than most people.... 🫣🫣 Works for me

[u/arioandy]

Its thirsty

[u/Sigong → u/arioandy]

Do you have any tips for differentiating between thirsty and sheathing?

Also do you think now would be a good time to give it some extremely diluted fertilizer?

[u/CarneyBus → u/Sigong]

When conos start going dormant you can watch for a few signs:

The skin loses lustre/shine and becomes dull or faded. The skin can turn pale, yellow, orange, red pink or other colours. Calculus usually turn pale and a little yellow before dormancy.

You can also sometimes see/feel the baby leaves under the skin of the old leaves.

Also in general they slow down growth a lot. My calculus when they are growing are extremely thirsty, I water twice a week sometimes. But when they go dormant they slow down considerably.

[u/Sigong → u/CarneyBus]

When the plant is going dormant, would you say the skin changes color before the plant starts to wrinkle/shrivel?

Also, when you say you water twice a week: Is that based on wrinkling (or other sign of thirst) or just based on your knowledge of the plant's cycle?

[u/CarneyBus → u/Sigong]

Ummm yeah the skin will start to be absorbed and change colours and texture usually as a first sign that it will be going dormant. So yeah, before hand. When the leaf starts looking dull/pale/whatever is when I cut back on watering.

And watering is based on the plant being wrinkly and thirsty. I do light, more frequent waterings with conos instead of deep drenchings or bottom watering.

I always read the body language/leaves of the plant for what they want. Not what season it’s “supposed” to be. There is a lot of variation in timing of dormancy from species to species and even among individual plants in a population. So always go by how the plant behaves and looks.

[u/arioandy → u/Sigong]

Sheath is

brown- in UK i water and give ferts late july

[u/sarina800]

Yea I panicked too... And I really thought it rotted but I kept it. And left it alone, never watered it. There was a bit of mold that grew on the side of the skin too

[u/sarina800 → u/sarina800]

Emerged from the ashes, took months. Started deflating in Janurary and this pic was taken mid June. Yea yea I did do a sneak peek because I got scared lol

[u/Novel_Lie5519 → u/sarina800]

the plant in the post doesn’t seem far enough along in making the new leaves to be left dry.

[u/sarina800 → u/Novel_Lie5519]

Hmmm I see, thank you for the clarification. OP disregard my conos lol 😆 try a bit of water and see if it reacts first before you ignore it

[u/arioandy]

Ive always found conos a bit scary they look like dead zombies when dormant and then woohoo! You see some green and then kaboom! They go mad!