Sick Lithop? pics added

[Gail]

I have a pot of mixed Lithop and one isn't looking so hot. Its about 1/2" across and one of the leaves is wrinkled, changing color and getting soft. It almost looks like the leaves do when they die back and a new set comes in except no new set is coming in.

I just recently started watering them but they really don't have any fine roots yet to take in water. Is this just a waiting game until the roots grow or is the color change a bad thing? Should I maybe move this little guy into a individual pot so I can care for it differently? I will try and get pictures of it later.

[Gail]

Sorry for the bad quality but you can see the color difference. I went ahead and repotted it alone with smaller gravel, what else should I do?

[Saxicola]

I can't tell from those pictures. If it is dead it will be rotten right where the root touches the bottom of the leaves. Basically you can wiggle it slightly and if it is bad it will start to pull away from the leaves. If it seem firmly attached it may just be slow to come out of dormancy this year. All you can do is give it time at this point.

[Gail]

It didn't seem like the root was pulling away from the leaves. Is it possible for a leaf to just die without rotting? This is my favorite lithop, I really don't want it to die. I'll just tend to it like it was healthy and see what happens.

[iann]

It looks basically OK, but one leaf may be a little scorched. Or it may be completely dead inside, sometimes it is hard to tell the difference! They are so succulent that they can linger for months or years when there is no hope of survival.

The roots don't look good, although it could just be a natural loss of fine roots. That may be the only problem or the original problem. You've repotted it now, but you could have given it a few weeks in temporary medium to see if the feeder roots would develop. If not you can chop them off completely and root as a cutting.

[Gail]

what would you use for a temporary medium? All the lithops I bought have roots like that. There isn't any change yet but if the one leaf does die, can I cut it away or is the plant doomed?

[iann]

If a leaf dies then it looks ugly until next year. The bit that is important is the meristem, the growing point of the plant buried deep between the leaves and usually below ground level. If that is intact then it will grow a new set of leaves next year and all will be well.

The roots look old and tired to me, but they should be able to support the plant for a good few years yet assuming they are still alive.

I use a dish of cat litter for rooting cuttings and storing plants, or you can just leave them somewhere warm and shaded. Lithops aren't good at sprouting roots unless there is some water about, which is a bit different to most cacti.

[Gail]

I ended up getting napa 8822 and repotted all my succulent and cactus in it straight. When I pulled up this struggling lithop, the root still looks pretty dried out but the leaves themselves do look better. I'm watering it more often then my healthy lithops, either it will grown better roots or it will explode.

My other lithops all had similar dry roots and the majority of them are putting on new feeder roots so maybe I have a change at keep at least some alive. I know I'd be better off sowing my own but its so hard to walk away from the little pots of sad dried up succulents, especially when they are so cheap.

Thanks for all your help Iann, I really appreciate it:)

[iann]

Make sure it isn't overpotted for the small roots. You can always repot again next year, but you don't want it sitting in a big mass of wet soil because that will kill it pretty fast. You can water a Lithops every time it sucks the pot bone dry, at least until it fills up and bursts.