Unsuitable Conditions for Growing Succulents

If you want to enjoy healthy and good-looking succulents, you should create suitable conditions for their growth and avoid common mistakes rookies make.

You can easily change any place and make it cozier by adding more flowers and plants. This trick is often utilized by interior designers and those who want to improve their home atmosphere on a budget. Most plants require special care and attention a modern citizen cannot provide them with. However, it doesn’t mean that you should completely reject this idea since some plants stand out from the rest with their qualities and requirements. Thus, many people opt for succulents that have an attractive appearance and less picky nature. You should just create suitable conditions for their growth to get Instagram-looking plants that will improve your home’s coziness. We’ll consider the most common mistakes.

Putting Plants in a Poorly Lit Space

Many people treat succulents as the most versatile plants that can survive under any circumstances since they are used to living in harsh conditions. Unfortunately, this misbelief leads to the fact that owners don’t create the required conditions for their growth, so plants don’t look like on Pinterest pics or can even die. Thus, you should not turn a blind eye to the importance of sunlight. Even if you grab species that can feel well in little light, you should still provide your plants with minimal sunlight (about 5 hours per day). If you grow your succulents indoors, you should place them in a west- or south-facing window. People who decide to grow these plants in an apartment that lacks lighting should utilize a grow lamp to meet this challenge.

Absence of Fertilizers

Inexperienced gardeners believe that these plants can do well without any fertilizers, so there is no need to purchase them. Even though this statement is partly true, way too many things will depend on the type of succulents you grow. Besides, any plant requires nutrients for growth and health support, just like any student needs professional dissertation writing help sooner or later.

However, everything must be in moderation because overfeeding is as dangerous as the lack of nutrients. Therefore, you should provide your succulents with additional support about four times per year. In other words, you should resort to fertilizers twice per spring and summer.

Placing Too Many Succulents in One Space

The market offers a wide range of succulents, so it can be hard to decide which ones to choose, especially if you have limited space. Besides, pictures that you can come across on Pinterest suggest that growing different types in one place is a great idea. Thus, many people overdo it by placing too many plants in one space. It will result in various serious issues like malnourishment and the spread of mold. Hence, you can lose the whole collection quite soon if you don’t listen to common sense.

Lack of Water

If you ask a rookie how often they need to water their succulents, they may tell you that the latter can do well without it at all. It is one of the most common misbeliefs since it’s well known that these plants can adapt to desert conditions. However, succulents look healthy and juicy when their leaves store enough water to cope with the task. Rains happen even in a desert, so you shouldn’t deprive your plants of water supply. It’s worth going deep down this question to examine all the peculiarities of the process to do everything right. If you lack time because of college assignments, you can ask professionals to help you with writing a cause and effect paper on a event, for example. Nonetheless, the key rule here is that if you grow your succulents in pots, you should drain off excess water to eliminate stem rot. Better safe than sorry.

Placing Succulents with Other Plants

Your attempts to create beautiful plant arrangements may result in new problems. Even though you will get a beautiful pot if you combine succulents with moss varieties of ferns, you will hardly enjoy it for too long. Succulents stand out with growing conditions, so you will hardly meet the requirements of all the plants you place in a single pot. Thus, for instance, you should water your basil every seven hours to make it look fresh and juicy, but succulents will not survive under such circumstances. So, you will destroy one of the plants anyway. This rule can be applied even to different succulent types because while some of them can do well without water for about several weeks or more, others need watering every week. If you turn a blind eye to this moment, all your efforts to grow beautiful plants will be in vain.

Usage of Standard Potting Soil

Even though it’s believed that succulents are the most modest plants ever, they turn out to be quite picky when it comes to soil choice. While standard potting soil is a perfect option for most house plants, it is completely unsuitable for succulents. The latter requires well-draining ‘desert’ soils. Thus, if you provide them with soil that retains water for a long time, you will kill your plants because you will increase the likelihood of root rot. It can be a real challenge for a beginner. Therefore, you should pay more attention to the commercial cacti mix that you can find on the web. However, if you don’t mind dealing with soil, you can make cacti mix with your own hands. For example, you can combine equal portions of usual garden soil with pumice, perlite, or building sand.