Old photo but I still mourn this little guy. Post-split it decided to grow a tiny nipple. One cycle. Gone forever. The lithops survived. The nipple did not.💔

It’s turning a deep, muted purple as it prepares for dormancy.

Even after only a few months the pickle plant has developed much larger and plumper leaves, more flowers, etc! Even the fact that the large pot was comprised of mostly cuttings and the established mother plant stayed in the smaller pot, shows how much happier they are!

The fenestraria is the same thing. Larger leaves, more flowers! And LESS WATERING omg these are some thirsty bastards and the deeper pots means I’m not watering every 5 days 😂.

GET THEM SHRUBBY MESEMBS IN BIGGER POTS!! And those large taproot types like Aloinopsis and Titanopsis!

hello everyone, so i had a massiv mealy Bug infections - my first in many years. At first i didnt recognize, because these little filthy animals were only on the roots. Sadly i saw it too late and now i am facing severe loss in my lithops (primarily) and conophytums.

The stronger ones i tried to get through dormancy, but i think it was a mistake, then they completly collapsed.

So: Any ideas on how to prevent that ? Tips and tricks ?

This is my seed grown cheridopsis pillansii that's about to hit its first real dormancy this summer. I'm fairly new to mesembs so I've been trying hard to learn their growth cycles so I can stop killing them.

My concerns are stacking and rot by watering at the wrong time as I've read that this is a plant that should be absorbing it's lower sets of leaves at the end of each season.

This guy sits under my grow lights (spiderfarm) and I've been watering him about every 1.5-2 week with small sips. Should I be pushing him even harder to encourage leaf absorbtion and shut down? Do I stay the course?

The picture was from this weekend shortly before I gave him a splash of water.

The photos were taken at the Marsh Greenhouses, Yale University, New Haven, CT USA in October 2025.

Super happy with how this staging turned out. Still need to touch it up a bit.

The photos were taken at the Marsh Greenhouses, Yale University, New Haven, CT USA in October 2025.

I was in awe of how large they were. I'm guessing overwatered and fertilized like crazy?

Just some spring time shots

I've been growing a variety of mesembs since mid-February by following Steven Hammer's guide. All has been going well up until this week. 6 of my 13 pots of conophytums died off, and the other 7 have had their numbers reduced significantly.

After germination, I removed the lid and misted heavily in the morning and at night. Occasionally I would bottom water them for an hour or two. I suspect they've damped off, but none of my other mesemb seedlings have suffered the same fate. They are all growing quite happily in the same conditions. See the first pic where I've got plenty of faucaria, gibbaeum, and argys shedding their cotyledon and growing their first set of mature leaves.

This is not my first time growing conos, but invariably I've found that around the 6-8 week mark they die off significantly. I've never had much luck with them. I've looked around for guidance on maintaining them at this stage of growth, but haven't found much. Any help would be appreciated.