kids in my prog. lithops withering away...why?

[KittieKAT]

So we had finally gotton enough lithops for all the kids to enjoy and everything was going fine up until they changed their skins then i noticed they started losing their bodies that sprouted out of the new skin change. I thought maybe they were thirsty so i gave one a lite spritz of water before id do it to the others...but it still withered as did the others.. Now its becomming a problem because many are withering away and im afraid it will be quite some time for me to collect donations and enough funds to replace the ones we are loosing. Can anyone help me figure out what is going on to try and fix the problem. Thanks

Some examples below. They seem to just deflate like a balloon then turn to a hard shell...

[KittieKAT]

They are in a mix of lava, pumice and turface with some perlite and sidted c&s mix more course then soil

[iann]

Lithops? Are you sure? The photos look like something else.

The obvious thing is roots. They don't have any! Well hardly any. They are either growing in pots far too small or are stunted for some other reason. Also, a light spritz of water isn't going to cut it, that's just teasing them. If they need a drink, water them properly.

When a Lithops dries up, it probably died a long time ago, but I can't really see what happened to your plants. They just don't look like normal Lithops to me. Maybe a photo of one that isn't dead might help?

[KittieKAT]

The roots are fine it has a taproot abd tge tiny hair like roots are all curled up intertwinted atleast the ones that didnt break unpotting it. They were shedding their skins as they started to shrivel up and deflate and i dont water them till the skin dries up into paper shell and can be peeled away. And the ones that i watered thoroughly spraying them wouldn't retain their body the roots looked fine the runner roots were fine but they kept deflating before they could revive the ones i left to finish absorbing their old skin still deflated slowly.. Idk what's causing it they've been in the same place for months and they were fine before they started to change skins.. They were a little long when they started too switch skins but i think that's due to the kids burying them to far in the soil so they grew talker to find more light over the other pots..

[KittieKAT]

They just dried up. .i dunno how to explain it..
Here is what they looked like before they started to deflate some i had dug up to remove the deflated dead 2nd lithop head after it deflated and i removed it to get it off the surviving lithop head/body and uncovered for the photo to send to someone else for their opinion on the matter.

[KittieKAT]

Others, most of these are dead and they are hard and deflated like the first pictures uploaded

[BarryRice]

Man, why do you choose such hard, expensive, slow growing plants for these programs? Get them frickin' beans or something like that. Sure, the plants are mundane, but the students can watch them grow in front of their eyes, instead of a near-stationary Lithops!

[iann]

Those are not healthy roots, whatever you think. These are healthy Lithops roots:

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Usually you don't get to see all those roots, because they die off when the soil is dry, and just a persistent taproot remains like this

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I think the main problem with your plants could be too little light, specifically too little sun. Without lots of direct sun they become soft and fragile. The slightest provocation and they just die. Then all you're left with is a dry husk. Growing them in thimbles doesn't help. It seems to happen a lot with box store Lithops that are effectively pre-killed in the store. Or maybe it is down to the type of soil they get grown in. Either way it means people lose them after a few weeks or months, and not necessarily from doing anything drastically bad.

[CactusMad]

Hi,it seems like they don't have very much substrate,they seem very low in the pots which will really not help at all.

[KittieKAT]

The kids choose what they want to grow... They have many different types of plants...why they seem stuck on Lithops ..beats me.

The runner roots were a huge mass of tangled mess many broke off trying to remove the soil and substrate they were planted in. I took alot of the soil out to show how long they got after changing skins. They are by a huge window but during winter they were under a timed grow light but i dont think it was enough but thats all i could provide until i finished moving into the new place.

They werent from a big box store we dont have lithops for sale in my area many were donated from different sources or grown by me and the kids.

The trap roots seemed fine sending out runners when watered... I think they got some kind of moisture under the drying up skins cause they were fine until they started to dry up their skins then i noticed they were deflating from the bottom middle and up or vice versa

[KittieKAT]

And forgot to ad many are just getting over shedding so many have just few runner roots and the tap root cause i had started watering them a few days after the skin was completely dried up

[BarryRice]

Well, as the expert adult, I think you should advise the kids against impossible (for them) plants. Setting them up for heart break does nothing except cause drama. But I'll stuff a sock in it!

Barry

[KittieKAT]

Nothing is impossible, heartbreak is reality u can't shield kids from the inevitably of life...unfortunate as it is. They are very aware that not all plants they want to grow are easy. Here is a picture of a lithop i removed from a pot had this one for 3 years just finished changing its skin and it just dried up to paper enough to peel off i was gonna water it but as soon as i remove the paper skin from the top of the lithop it had deflated like the others. I snipped off the runner roots byt their werent many from being without water during their shedding. I honestly think they are getting done kind of bacteria or something under their skin or moisture that's molding from the humidity or whatever cause its only hapoening the ones that have the paper shells still on the bodies of the plants.. If its not removed Completely after its completely dried/drying out from touching the plants body which is something i don't like to do cause i want it to absorb all the old skin as possible. This plant was in a 4inch pot with lava,pumice,turface and sifted c&s mix with perlite mostly coarse material. And was grown by a big sunny window for years with no issues this was one from my own collection of plants.

[iann]

Looks like it went fast, from the base of the leaves. Could it have overheated? Or it might have rotted, they all look similar once they're dead.

[K.W.]

Good morning Kittie,

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I'm pretty sure, the causes are lack of light, lack of water and very coarse substrate.
AND fresh air!!!
Also Lithops need water. In habitat they live never so dry.
Humidity and Dew provide moderate moisture.

This two-year seedlings I have repotted the end of February.

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Although they have not changed their leaves they get some water.

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The large established plants manage without additional water.

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Best wishes

K.W.