Ghost Plant

[bluerose8099]

I have a Ghost Plant I bought a couple of weeks ago. It hasn't had much more than a teaspoon of water in that time, so I am sure that over-watering is likely no problem. However, some of the leaves have gotten soft and fallen off. (It is in the MG cactus mix right now until I can add perlite.) Is there anything I can do to help this plant?

[iann]

I have to ask: why are you watering with a teaspoon?

[bluerose8099]

For fear of overwatering! After killing one plant (with what I thought wasn't much water in the first place), I am scared to add too much.

[Harriet]

You can get your plants wet as long as you let them dry out between waterings.

[bluerose8099]

I guess it was killing my Tiger Jaws that made me so cautious. I checked that it was dry before I went on a week long trip and watered it and when I returned it was in the beginning stages of dying. That's why I have been so cautious with my new plants. I just wondered if over-watering was not a factor, why my Ghost Plant's leaves are getting soft and falling off.

[iann]

I can't tell without a picture. Getting soft and falling off could be too much water or too little. Sounds to me like too little for this plant. It should be watered deeply until water appears through the holes at the bottom of the pot (you have holes, right ). Then it should be allowed to dry out completely (or almost completely if you live in a hot climate) before you water again.

Now for the bad news. If your soil is unsuitable then a deep watering may cause the plant to rot. There is no way around this except to improve the "drainage". Watering with a teaspoon isn't the answer because a teaspoon isn't enough for many succulents and cacti. Watering more often isn't a solution because then the plant will be constantly wet and it will die anyway.

Now the even more bad news. Mesembs are weird! Your Faucaria is a mesemb and many of them go dormant in hot muggy weather. Then you have to water with a teaspoon! Every day!!! Or at least don't drench the whole pot, just a little water every few days. I use this on Coke bottle to give my dormant plants a squirt every now and then, some people use a sprayer. This is to mimic dew which is what these plants live off in their dry season.

bottlecap1.jpg (27.28 KiB) Viewed 524 times

[bluerose8099]

Oh, wow, that's alot to take in! I guess sometimes things can be very tricky, and even more so for a newbie like me! If it has anything to do with water, then it's a lack of. I will be getting perlite to mix with my soil this weekend, which should further help any drainage. The pot does have holes now that I got after it with the drill! It is indoors, as are all my cacti/succulents. Would that be an issue when deciding when to water as opposed to having it outdoors? (It's 105 here today, so that would dry it out faster!) When I added drainage holes to my pots recently, I left the stones in the bottom to help with drainage. I wasn't sure with the holes if they needed to go or stay.
Here is my Ghost Plant (or rather plants, as there are 4 small ones). The one with the least amount of leaves was damaged by something that fell on it, so that's why it's much more bare. The bottom leaf on the plant on the far left is starting to get soft at this time.

100_9933.jpg (65.28 KiB) Viewed 523 times

[bluerose8099]

Well, I have since mixed my MG cactus soil with a 50% perlite mix. (The cashier at Lowe's asked me what perlite was for when I was checking out, so I explained what I was doing.) I left the rocks in the bottom (even though there are now drainage holes). I waited about a week to water after re-potting, because I was told on here last time I re-potted to do so. It has been nearly a week and the leaves on the Ghost Plant are still shriveling up one at a time and falling off. I guess maybe I need to water more as suggested. Will these stems with only a leaf or two be able to bounce back and re-grow more leaves to resemble the plant I bought?

[juliab]

Please don't take me as being bossy some people have I am a retired teacher and I am use to just telling not meaning to come across as a boss or mean now got that out of the way so this one person will not chastise me....

this needs to be in the smallest pot you can find decrees the penlite and remember its kin to a cactus I can not think of its name at the moment but when you put it in smaller pot you take the risk out of over watering , make sure you put it in a west window for the bright warm light or a table lamp. if it looks puffy and full leafed I go by this on all my plants its happy and has enough water. now that the change of weather your going to see some changes in your plants also.

hope this helps.
Good luck.

[bluerose8099]

I ended up with only one stem of this left and I just stuck it over in a pot of mixed items. It is barely hanging on at this point, but held longer than I expected (considering I thought it would die several months ago). This pot that it was in when I first posted this was quite small, but maybe not small enough!

[AmanitaM]

I find that rooting succulents is easy any time except in the heat of summer. Up to 90-degree highs is fine, but at some point, heat and moisture combine to kill succulents. The smaller pot size is advisable, and the shallower the better. With very shallow containers, you don't need drainage holes if you water very carefully. And always let your cuttings sit for several days off the plant, out in the air, but out of the sun, before you plant them. Then, don't insert them too far into the soil. Placing the container with the cuttings in a north facing window indoors is ideal for rooting during the warm months. Your Graptopetalum (ghost plant) is very easy to root, but very succulent and prone to rot in the wrong conditions.

[bluerose8099]

I did buy this plant from a Lowe's in June, and never put it outdoors the whole time I had it. This pot was definitely shallow, and started with no holes. After the loss of one plant in these pots, I made sure to put holes in all of them. When I got down to one stem left alive, I moved it in another pot that had a variety of succulents. It stayed alive for quite a long time, but it finally died. Some of my things have done great, others like this Graptopetalum didn't do well from the start.