NOT sick after all ... so what's this Crassula kimnachi doing???

Trouble shoot problems you are having with your cactus.
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WayneByerly
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Location: In the north end of the Sequachee Valley, 65 miles north of Chattanooga Tennessee USA. Zone 7a

NOT sick after all ... so what's this Crassula kimnachi doing???

Post by WayneByerly »

Some of the leaves on my Crassula kimnachi 'Buddha's Temple' were starting to turn yellow and then dry up completely. So I posted a New Topic here asking if anyone knew what was going on. Uncommon to this forum, I did NOT get a satisfactory response to my question. And none of my research on the internet was yielding any fundamentally useful information as to what was going on with my succulent.

Along with all of the leaves dying, there were some sprouts appearing. I combined the appearance of these sprouts with my research ... and FINALLY discovered what was happening with my Crassula kimnachi 'Buddha's Temple'.

This is the way it looked like when I bought it.
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And 3 years laters, the year before its leaves started dying, it looked like this ...
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The simple answer to the question of what was happening, was that it was beginning to sprout offsets ... BUNCHES of them ... in the next two pictures, you'll see over 30 offsets. I thought you MIGHT like to see what it lookes like!
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Last edited by WayneByerly on Thu Dec 07, 2017 5:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
williamsii823
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Re: NOT sick after all ... so what's it doing???

Post by williamsii823 »

That's a lot of offsets at one time! I've had a Buddha's Temple that lost several leaves before sprouting offshoots. And another one that lost only a few before sprouting out. Obviously it loses leaves to make room for expansion through offshoots. No?
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WayneByerly
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Re: NOT sick after all ... so what's it doing???

Post by WayneByerly »

It's obvious to me now, in retrospect, that having its leaves turn yellow and dry up was a natural process, but at the time I was extremely concerned for why it was losing leaves. I've never seen even a picture of a Buddhist temple with offsets like this. Its just crazy!
Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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ElieEstephane
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Re: NOT sick after all ... so what's it doing???

Post by ElieEstephane »

There's a sticker inside the pot that says wet...is that some sort of watering guideline of each plant? That would be neat organization skills!
There are more cacti in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
One of the few cactus lovers in Lebanon (zone 11a) :mrgreen:
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WayneByerly
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Re: NOT sick after all ... so what's this Crassula kimnachi doing???

Post by WayneByerly »

:D Actually, it IS watering related. I use a very inexpensive kitchen scale (about $10) to weigh the pot after I've watered it, giving me a "wet" weight (in grams) that I write on the plant label. And then I'll weigh it over time as it dries out, also writing the lowest "dry" weight on the plant label, so that I can know how much it will weigh when it is dry so that I will know at what point I need to water it. I do that with all my indoor cacti. It's not practical to do it for my Greenhouse succulents. I know that each succulent has its own specific watering requirement, but it has been my experience that keeping them damp for too long can result in its death from root rot. So I like to let all my succulents dry out between waterings. I've just lost too many of them from excess water to do any differently. It breaks my heart to have one die.
Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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WayneByerly
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Re: NOT sick after all ... so what's this Crassula kimnachi doing???

Post by WayneByerly »

This is an update of the growth rate of my Crassula kimnachi. Look at the last pictures posted (4.jpg) of this succulent, and THEN look at these photos. The growth rate is over the last two months. Incredible eh?
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Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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WayneByerly
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Re: NOT sick after all ... so what's this Crassula kimnachi doing???

Post by WayneByerly »

WayneByerly wrote: Sat Feb 03, 2018 7:30 pm This is an update of the growth rate of my Crassula kimnachi. Look at the last pictures posted (4.jpg) of this succulent, and THEN look at these photos. The growth rate is over the last two months. Incredible eh?
All my pictures disappeared, and the system would not allow me to edit the posting, so I'm making a reply and reposting the picture.
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Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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WayneByerly
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Re: NOT sick after all ... so what's this Crassula kimnachi doing???

Post by WayneByerly »

Thought I would drop in and post an updated picture of my Crassula kimnachi so that anyone who is interested can see what its been doing since i last posted a picture of it about 6 weeks ago. I think that I much prefer cacti to any other succulents, but this holds a special place in my consideration. Not a day goes by that I don't stop as i walk by my living room window, pick it up and look at it in wonder.

Progress can be seen in each of the offsets... both the ones I've broken off and planted in the pot with the parent, AND the ones still on the ... trunk? stalk? branch?

What a fascinating plant. From the way the leaves grow, stacked up on top of each other like pancakes on a plate... to the way they look like an architectural wonder structure from the top... to its offsets growing in the soil around it... I just LOVE this Crassula ...

Just the one picture of it
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Last edited by WayneByerly on Sun Mar 25, 2018 3:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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greenknight
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Re: NOT sick after all ... so what's this Crassula kimnachi doing???

Post by greenknight »

Now you know why these plants are widely available - not at all hard to propagate. Hybrid vigor.
Spence :mrgreen:
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DesertSun
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Re: NOT sick after all ... so what's this Crassula kimnachi doing???

Post by DesertSun »

Wow, Wayne, stunning growth pattern of your Crassula, it really is a fascinating plant!
"The best fertilizer is the gardener's own shadow"
Chinese proverb
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