Transcript:
Hey, guy’s, nature never ceases to amaze me. Especially when it comes to plants and particularly these houseplants, which are so unique and special. Today’s video is all about these odd and interesting succulents from Africa now. These plants are camouflaged to look like something that they’re not, and this clearly helps them protect themselves from any type of predators that they may have, which can be a pretty effective survival strategy. And if you look like a stone or a rock, then you’re probably not gonna taste that great either. The living stone and the split rock are some of those amazing plants that have evolved over time and we’re successfully able to camouflage themselves. And if you ask me, they’re pretty effing cool. That’s the good news. The bad news is you do. Unfortunately need some knowledge in order to take care of these plants more good news, though. I’m going to be sharing some general care tips and instructions so that you can keep your stones and rocks alive. I have a couple of the split rocks and a few more of the living stones just to be totally clear. These plants are not the same. They do, however, have generally speaking similar care instructions, but there are some differences because they’re not the same plant, so the living stones are known as lithups, and as you can see, they come in a variety of colors and sizes. Now the same can be said about the split rock. These are known as the pleospulos. Neelie now! The purple one right here is called the Royal Flush. And as far as I know, this green one here doesn’t have a special name. Thanks for checking out this video. I’m Tyler, and if you like what you’re seeing or you find this video to be useful, Don’t forget to give it a thumbs up or better yet you can subscribe to my channel. So when it comes to crucial care tips for these plants, you do first need to understand their growth and life cycle because that is going to dictate the timing of when you water these succulents, so let’s set that aside for the time being and let’s start off by discussing soil light and container choices, and then we can come back to the growth and life cycle afterwards when it comes to soil, these succulents want something that drains very rapidly? They want something that has very little to no organic material and something that really doesn’t hold on to that much or any moisture. I’ve opted to use Akidama as my soil Mix for my living stones and split rocks. Now this can be a little bit pricier than the alternatives. So if you don’t want to dole out a little bit of extra cash for this soil mix or you just don’t have access to Akidama. Then a gritty, succulent mix will work just as we’ll just keep in mind that there will be more organic material in a gritty, succulent mix when it comes to light and lighting these little rocks and stones need their light so a few hours anywhere from three to four hours of direct early morning. Sunlight is ideal, plus more hours of indirect bright light. You know, you’re gonna want your living stones and split rocks to be receiving a full day, you know, in and around seven hours of combined direct and indirect sunlight. These little stones are needy. Af that being said the direct afternoon sun is too harsh of a light for these succulents and can cause damage to them, so a bit of a finicky light situation with the living stones and split rocks. There are some telltale signs that your succulents aren’t receiving enough light, and I love when plants communicate to us and tell us what they need because that makes our job and our life so much easier. So if you notice that, your lithops are stretching or they’re getting taller, then they are trying to tell you that they are not receiving enough light, and you’re going to need to move them or up your light game so that they are not stretching Lithops can be fertilized about once every two years. That’s right every two years, so you might want to make your cal reminder right about now now. Some have said a slow release fertilizer in early. Spring is best If you remember if you haven’t already seen my worthiness video. Check that out. Here’s a link now. The reason I bring up Haworthia is because Lycoworthia Lithups also photosynthesize deeper to the base of the plant. So when you are thinking about your light situation, make sure you’re taking that into consideration, okay, before we jump in to growth and life cycle, one pro tip, I know on social media folks love to put and group a whole bunch of living stones, all in one container or one pot, and it looks really cool. However, it’s not the greatest idea, because unless you are a thousand percent, Sure that the different lithos are, you know, going through their growth and life cycle at the same time, you really can’t be if you can’t be sure of that, then because that dictates how you water them, and when you water them, you could be needing to water one or some of them. Without having to water the other ones. And if they’re in the same container, that’s just not going to work, so it is best to, you know. Divide these up among your containers. Okay, we made it. Are you ready so lithup’s flower in late summer early fall? They may not flower at all, but if they do, that’s when they’re going to do that. Following flowering is when new growth starts to emerge now, this new growth actually comes out in between the two stones, and when that happens that new growth gets resources and energy from the living stone, that is already there, so those older stones, that old growth that old those old stones will begin to shrivel and disappear because they’re providing all of that water and resources to the new growth. Are you following flowering then new growth once the old stones have shriveled and been depleted and that new growth. If it looks sort of a little bit wrinkled or a little bit soft to the touch, that is when you can water them. If they do, look wrinkled and a little bit soft to the touch and we’re talking drops of water here, folks, one more complication, which isn’t too bad, is that these succulents and these plants do go dormant in the summertime and as we know any plants that go dormant. We don’t do anything to them. We don’t water them. That’s for sure so back to the whole good news. Bad news. One way to look at it is that these plants are extremely low maintenance. You do need to understand the life cycle, and when that’s taking place in order to know when to water them, but it’s really not that complicated, like always over water, these succulents or water them at the wrong time, and that can mean root rot and almost certainly death. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Most people do need to have some experience in growing lift ups and split rocks. And if it takes you a couple of tries to get there, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that Now. I didn’t touch on the split rocks as much, but it’s generally the same idea when it comes to watering them when the new growth emerges and the old growth has been tripled away and depleted and that new growth is looking a little bit sort of wrinkled then. That would be the time when you want to give it the most little littlest amount of water. That’s basically it generally speaking sound off in the comments down below. Well, that’s it for me. Oh, yeah, don’t forget to hit that. Subscribe button or give this video a thumbs up. Miss, you guys already until the next one.