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Succulent Guide

Congratulations on becoming a proud plant parent! Welcome to to the wonderful world of succulents and cacti, here is a small guide of how to take care of your succulents properly and tips on how to maintain a healthy, happy plant based on personal experience. (・ω・)ノ

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General Knowledge

Firstly, here is some general knowledge on succulents that will (believe it or not) help you greatly when it comes to taking care of your plant.

Succulents and cacti are in the same family! This means there are many different kinds and like dry places with little water

The world “succulent” refers to the plant’s fleshy, thick leaves. They are like this to retain water.

Because succulents are cacti, some can be pointy and have spines (like aloe!) so in general, be careful.

That’s basically all the general information you need to know that will help your plant grow.

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Watering your plant:

Although most people believe that succulents thrive on neglect, they really don’t, and need almost as much maintenance as a regular house plant.

MY RULE OF THUMB: When the leave look thin, water the plant.

This rule of thumb is a bit of a last resort. If your plant’s leaves are withered or thin, it needs a lot of water.

Regularly, I water my 2" succulents with about 2 tablespoons of water A WEEK.

In winter, succulents and Cacti go through a dormant phase and don’t need to be watered as often, but I found this information as not useful because when I went as little as 1.5 weeks without watering some of my plants in the winter, they’d start to wither.

Remember, succulent leaves should remain fleshy! And watering them often is the key to doing this.

If you happen to forget to water your succulents for up to three weeks and even beyond, do not worry. At that point, the plant will ration it’s water until you water it.

If you happen to do this, do not immediately think that you have to drown your plant in water to make up the weeks you missed. For a 2" succulent, 2 tablespoons or less is the key. These types of plants can only take so much water at one time.

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Soil/Potting:

Repotting Cacti and Succulents is a lot of fun, especially when you get decorative pots or creative with potting ideas.

Some people like to use teacups, and other people use plain old terra-cotta pots.

Whatever the case may be, succulents and cacti like drainage.

So your teacup doesn’t have a drainage hole? No problem.

It is ideal to pot your plant in something that has drainage holes, but if it doesn’t, adding rocks to the bottom of whatever it is you’re using will help greatly.

I have small, 2" white square ceramic pots for my babies, which have a singular, small drainage hole in the bottom. Because I wanted more drainage, I used a few rocks on the bottom, and filled the rest of the pot with succulent and cacti potting mix.

It’s also healthy to keep some of the soil from the original pot to mix in with the potting mix.

When repotting my cactus plant, I preferred using thick rubber gloves to repot rather than gardening gloves because I didn’t want the thin spines to prick me.

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Sunlight/Heat:

I normally keep my succulents on the windowsill over my kitchen sink because it gets the most light in the house while being indirect.

This is the key to good sunlight: light, but indirect. So if you have a windowsill where the sun crosses over it throughout the day, that is the ideal place for your succulent. In winter, keep your succulents inside! And on the sill of a west facing window is ideal because the light is not too harsh in the afternoon.

TIP: make sure to rotate the pot so the plant grows straight.

If you do not have much sun, although I have not tried this, I know some people grow their plants under special lamps which work just as fine.

As far as heat goes, heat was not much of a problem for my plants except for my one pesky Echeveria nodulosa ‘Painted Beauty’ which I had named Rory.

Rory was not a fan of being near an open window, and since I had gotten my succulents in January, it was cold outside. A few rare days of warmth would occur in February which called for an open window, and any time he was near it, he would wilt.

And although Rory is due for what looks like propagation, he is my smallest plant to this day and I don’t want to go onto that step for him yet.

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Propagation

When I noticed my plants reaching for sunlight, they’d bend towards the window and grow very tall and their leaves would space out. Soon, the bottom leaves would die and need to be plucked off and I’d be left with a long stem, a few spaces but still alive leaves, and a small rosette on the top.

This means it’s time for propagation. When I first read on how to stop my plants from getting so leggy, results appeared calling it “decapitation” where you would cut of the head of the plant and leave a stump.

This sounded very scary to me and I waited until a month before I tried to look for answers again and found propagation as the solution.

There are basically three parts of propagation.

the stump

the rosette

the babies (which are actually a bunch of little parts).

The first step to propagation is to remove the bottom leaves from the plant completely from the stem by gently twisting them off. (Even if they are alive)

Place the leaves on a wet paper towel on a pan after they have calloused over and dried out (takes about 2-3 days). You may notice the the root of the leaf may already be growing roots, and if it has not, it will eventually. From each leaf you will grow a new baby rosette and have a forest of succulents! The babies make great gifts. (Note that not every leaf will be successful in growing a baby). This process takes about 3-4 weeks.

For the left over plant, you now have a super long stem with a rosette at the top. Cut the rosette leaving some stem on it and submerge the stem in water after letting it callous and dry out (takes about 5 days) For mine, I submerged the rosette in a medicine cup filled with 2 tablespoons of water. Soon, roots will appear so you can repot the rosette. This takes 2-3 weeks.

Then, cut the rest of the stem the is in the original pot down to a stub. After the stub callouses over, it will start to regenerate new babies around it. This takes about 3 weeks.

When it comes to propagation, it takes time and patience.

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Tips:

Here is where I was going to put any tips I had for growing plants but I kind of mentioned them throughout my spiel. In that case, here is where I will reiterate my most important tips:

- Water your plants once a week or when the leaves look less fleshy. - 2 tablespoons of water a week for 2" plants (some species may need more or less) - For repotting cactus plants with spines, it’s ideal to use rubber gloves instead of gardening gloves - Rotate the plant so it grows straight!

Those are my best tips. There really aren’t any tips on propagation since its a hit or miss kind of ordeal.

Feel free to ask questions! uwu

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trying to get your story together like:

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november lessons

aries: think before you react, you may not be seeing the whole story. people aren’t always cruel and out to get you. you need to see all sides before developing an opinion.

taurus: breathe and let love in. don’t stay guarded when things feel right. you need to be open to loving and being loved.

gemini: don’t stay in your bubble, branch out. there are endless amounts of people who would love to get to know you if you just stretched outside of your comfort zone. 

cancer: be yourself, unapologetically. you don’t have to change yourself in order for people to love you, or feel like you have to fake a version of yourself in order to be loved.

leo: don’t make yourself feel worse than you have to. things may not be going right, but don’t make yourself endlessly worry. you can’t stop things from happening, but you have control over how you handle them. 

virgo: don’t be so secretive about the things going on in your head. more people care than you think.

libra: watch out for yourself. things aren’t always as they seem and you can’t trust people so easily, especially when your gut is telling you  that something is off.

scorpio: don’t let others water you down. you are intense and passionate in the most magical of ways, it would be a shame to let other people take that from you.

sagittarius: be cautious. don’t make decisions too quickly, make sure you are thinking things through before jumping into something that could change your whole life.

capricorn: embrace change and let the negativity of the past go. you don’t have to live in it forever. 

aquarius: the more you think, the more your mind wanders into places it shouldn’t. remember to take a deep breath and get out of your head when you find yourself wandering too far. 

pisces: if you don’t have hope, you have nothing. don’t ever lose the fire that kept you going in the first place. it will get better. 

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Friendly reminder that

bisexual girls who have a boyfriend are still part of the LGBT+ community

bisexual girls who’ve never kissed a girl before are still part of the LGBT+ community

bisexual girls who are more attracted to boys than to girls are still part of the LGBT+ community

bisexual girls who’ve never had a boyfriend/girlfriend before are still part of the LGBT+ community

bisexuals are part of the LGBT+ community

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Who is up here respecting trans lesbians on this fine November night hit that mf reblog

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✨ REBLOG IF YOUR BLOG IS, AND ALWAYS WILL BE, A SAFE SPACE FOR LGBT+ PEOPLE ✨

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OwO?

What pokemon type do you think i am?

Bonus points if you have a reason

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To any one of my followers who

Belittles women

Is sexist

Hates anyone who’s not white

thinks lgbtq+ people are disgusting

fetishizes lgtq+ couples

Thinks trans people are invalid

Is transphobic

Is a nazi/white supremacist

Supports the kkk

Go ahead and unfollow me :)

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You wanna fuckin bet Shadow bitch

…yes… It did… I.. I tried to fix it inbetween all the bullshit, but Wisp just kept having at it! I.. I don’t know… Im sorry… I dont… Just… Dont worry about me okay? It doesn’t matter…

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YOU ARE NOT A PAIN IN THE ASS!

NEVER HAVE BEEN NEVER WILL BE

You’re an inspiration to me, Kristīne! Being able to uphold so many different masks — even if it’s hard at times, you haven’t cracked yet, and that’s honestly amazing and awesome.

I love you, ok? And I could never hate you.

Don’t ever doubt that.

…yes… It did… I.. I tried to fix it inbetween all the bullshit, but Wisp just kept having at it! I.. I don’t know… Im sorry… I dont… Just… Dont worry about me okay? It doesn’t matter…

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Shut up, Wisp. Your input isn’t appreciated.

Lurker... Kristīne... I could never hate you. Even if you haven’t been fully yourself, you know what you have been? A huge help.

None of us could have done this without you. You’re important to us.

I could never hate you, and I’m almost 100% certain the others would say the same.

…yes… It did… I.. I tried to fix it inbetween all the bullshit, but Wisp just kept having at it! I.. I don’t know… Im sorry… I dont… Just… Dont worry about me okay? It doesn’t matter…

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Doesn’t matter.

I could never hate you.

…yes… It did… I.. I tried to fix it inbetween all the bullshit, but Wisp just kept having at it! I.. I don’t know… Im sorry… I dont… Just… Dont worry about me okay? It doesn’t matter…

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No problem.

Feel free to stop by again if you need anything else.

*flashes onto a nearby screen* -Digi

((I’ll answer this through a reblog over @lullaby-and-locked due to… idk, general reasons. That’s the personal blog — if you have inquiries, feel free to yeet them over there!))