Reasons and Solutions for the Stretching of Succulents
Sharing the reasons and solutions for the stretching of succulents and teaching you the tips for caring for succulents, here is a comprehensive introduction.
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Caring for succulents is like our daily life, not always perfect. Many friends always admire others' colorful and plump succulents, but when they look at their own, they are always tall, thin, and green, like heads of lettuce. Did we buy fake ones? Actually not, it's just that due to our lack of care, the succulents have stretched.
What Does It Mean When Succulents Stretch?
In the growth process of succulents, due to the imbalance of growth environment or care methods, the stems or leaves of the succulents stretch excessively, causing the stems to become longer and thinner, the spacing between leaves to become sparse, the leaf shape to become larger and thinner, and spread outwards, which we call "stretching" of the succulents.
Fireworks Stretching
Succulents usually show two forms of stretching: one is the succulents stretching upwards, stems becoming thin and curved, leaves turning green and sparse; the other is the originally tightly packed leaves arranged in a rosette shape all flattened or drooping, making it look like wearing a skirt from a distance, which we generally call "making a big pancake" or "wearing a skirt."
Queen of the Cold Moon Making a Big Pancake
What Are the Dangers of Succulent Stretching?
Succulent stretching mainly has the following dangers:
1. The most visible is that it affects the aesthetic appearance of the plant shape. As mentioned earlier, stretching will make the succulents look bent like lettuce. And because stretching is irreversible, even if they grow into old stakes later, the stretched part of the stem is明显 thinner than other normal parts, looking very uncoordinated.
2. After stretching, succulents not only fear sunlight and cold, but are also more prone to diseases and pests, and very prone to falling over, greatly reducing their resistance and becoming very fragile.
What Are the Causes of Succulent Stretching?
The main reasons for succulent stretching are as follows:
1. Lack of Light
Because plants have phototropism, in environments with insufficient light, succulents will strive to stretch to find places with more sunlight, which over time becomes thin and long; some succulents will try to spread their leaves to increase the area of sunlight exposure, thus forming the "making a big pancake" or "wearing a skirt" situation. It can be said that insufficient light is the main cause of succulent stretching.
2. Excessive Water
If succulents are watered too frequently, two results usually occur: one is severe cases where the potting soil accumulates water and causes root rot, and the other is less severe cases where excessive water makes the succulents feel "无忧无虑" and grow upwards.
3. Too Much Nitrogen
If there is too much nitrogen in the potting soil, it will make the leaves of the succulents green and difficult to color, and accelerate the cell division speed of the succulent plants, causing rapid and wild growth.
What Preventive Measures Can Be Taken Against Succulent Stretching?
Understanding the causes of succulent stretching, we can take targeted preventive measures:
1. Try to keep succulents outdoors in spring and autumn to get the most sunlight; in winter, when the temperature is low, ensure that the succulents are not frozen while giving them as much sunlight as possible. If conditions allow, full-spectrum grow lights can be used for supplemental lighting. In summer, due to strong sunlight, direct exposure can easily burn the succulents, so it is necessary to provide some shade while ensuring scattered light reaches the succulents.
2. Reasonably control water, making the succulents "feel" the crisis of water shortage, so they "dare not" grow tall but store water in their bodies instead, making them plumper.
3. Do not fertilize randomly. Succulents are not fond of fertilizer, especially nitrogenous fertilizer. If you must fertilize, you can apply some potassium-based fertilizer, which is beneficial for root growth and the synthesis of anthocyanins, helping the succulents to color.
Reasons and Solutions for the Stretching of Succulents
How to Remedy Stretching in Succulents?
So, if succulents have already stretched, how should we remedy the situation?
1. Cut the Top
For severely stretched succulents, we can cut the top, selecting a suitable position to cut the stem. The bottom part with roots will burst with many side buds and become a multi-head succulent after the wound heals; the top part can be repotted after the wound dries to become a new succulent plant.
2. Pick the Leaves
For moderately stretched succulents, we can remove all the leaves of the stretched part to make it into a "fake old stake." Removing the leaf growth points can still have a high chance of bursting side buds. Don't throw away the leaves you pick, but use them for leaf propagation, with each leaf growing into a new succulent plant, that's how large-scale succulent collections are built.
3. Control Care
For succulents with less severe stretching, we can increase sunlight and control water and fertilizer to manage their growth, so that the new leaves will become compact and dense again. After the old leaves of the stretched part gradually dry up and are consumed, the succulents will return to their plump state.
It should be noted that whether it's cutting the top or plucking leaves, or slowly nurturing, these are only remedial measures. The premise is to first curb the continuous stretching of the succulents, otherwise even if you cut the top, you might end up with two stretched succulents.
Have you understood the detailed introduction of the reasons and solutions for succulent stretching and the tips for caring for succulents shared in this article?