Our 3 Best Tips for New Plant Parents
All too often I find that plants are seen as intimidating and they absolutely can be if you’re not sure how to care for them. Many people seem to think plants require a ton of work, when the truth is succulents often don’t need much maintenance at all. So here’s my advice on how to be a good plant parent (as someone who thought they would never be able to keep their plants alive)
Give Your Plants the Right Amount of Sunlight
Slightly Etiolated Debbie Succulents
The first tip is making sure your new plant baby is getting the right amount of sun! Sunlight plays a huge role in plant photosynthesis and can determine the color and shape of your plant. This is particularly true for succulents and cacti, which often prefer full or partial sun. If your home doesn’t have many sunny spaces, you’ll want to get a succulent that tolerates less light in partial shade such as a Flaming Katy (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana). Succulents that don’t get enough sunlight will undergo a process called etiolation, where the plant will “stretch” and grow vertically when it’s not intended to. Most succulents have tight & short rosettes that grow wider before reaching their peak growth at about 6 inches generally. When these plants go through etiolation, they grow longer stems as pictured above. Over time these stems can grow weak from the weight of the plant and are more susceptible to illnesses. Usually, this can be remedied through propagation and prevented with adequate lighting either from the sun or a grow light.
Mildly Sunburnt Jelly Bean Plant with new growth
On the flip side, you also have to be careful of overexposing your plant to light. Even full sun plants like succulents can get sunburnt if left in direct sunlight for too long. Often, too much sun will result in bleached foliage and scorched flowers. This is an issue I had when I tried to plant some new succulents and flowers outside last year. Unfortunately, the backyard simply had too much direct sunlight throughout the day and ended up bleaching all the petals a pale olive green. In this yellowing stage, the succulents were still salvageable and some got saved by repotting and moving them to shadier areas under the patio umbrella. Although I managed to save about half of them by moving them to a better source of light, sunburn is irreversible in plants and the damage had to be grown out. Once a plant is in the browning stage of sunburn, it’s much harder to cure. But so long as your plant baby has healthy roots, there’s a good chance it’ll pull through.
2. Avoid Over or Under Watering Your Plants!
Underwatered Blue Echeveria
The most common mistakes I see young plant parents make are often related to watering habits. Some beginners will overwater by underwatering. That may sound like a contradiction but hear me out. Underwatering can happen when you don’t properly saturate the soil. But it becomes overwatering when you water more frequently to try to ”make up” for the underwatering. Many succulents do not like to be watered frequently, which makes sense since they’re usually native to warm desert climates where it does not rain often. Thus with succulents its best to give em a nice ”soak” every 1-2 weeks in the summer and 3-4 weeks in the winter, depending on the needs of your specific plant baby and its environment. Usually you’ll know if your plant is underwatered if the stems are crisp and dry or if you have pests like spider mites (which prefer dryer conditions). Wilting, mushy, and drooping leaves can be a sign of either under or overwatering so make sure to check the soil for moisture conditions. Overwatered plants can be much harder to treat, as they’re susceptible to mildew, pests like fungus gnats, and root rot (which is irreversible). The trick to a well watered succulent is to only water when the soil is actually dry, not just the surface of it. If you’re unsure whether to water you plant, stick your index finger about a knuckle deep into the soil. If it feels slightly moist still, it’s not time to water yet!
3. Remember to Repot & Propagate for More Plant Babies
When I was a young plant parent, I was always afraid of repotting. It seems silly now looking back, but at the time I was concerned about mishandling the succulents and accidentally breaking them. And while that may still be true for some of the the more fragile petaled plants (I’m looking at you Burro’s Tail, with your cute dainty beads), repotting your plant doesn’t have to be as intimidating as it seems. That said let’s take my Burro’s Tail plant, Pablo, as an example anyway.
Pablo in his original 5” Hanging Glassware from Fern & Fossil
This is Pablo about 2 years ago back in 2022. Don’t let my other plant babies know this, but Pablo may be my favorite. He’s like my first born, the first plant I had that I didn’t immediately kill. I got him just before I officially started working at Fern & Fossil in 2021 and he bloomed so beautifully in his 5” glassware. But about 2 years in, he really began to outgrow his environment. His stems had etiolated a bit, his growth slowed down a lot, and his soil was depleted of nutrients causing his growth to slow dramatically. I was a bit of a lazy parent last summer, I decided against my better judgment and did not repot or propagate Pablo. So when Autumn and Winter rolled around, I was concerned if Pablo would make it through to Spring. He suddenly started getting a bunch of pests, his stems got weaker, his beads began to shrivel and not retain water properly. And then an unintended miracle: my boyfriend accidentally knocked Pablo out of his Hanging Glass. The glass sadly broke which meant whether I felt like it or not, it was time to repot. Luckily this happened at the start of Spring, a good time to propagate. And as a result of propagating, I now have a second Burro’s Tail plant that I named Pablito or ”Little Pablo”.
Pablo (large planter on right) & Pablito (small planter on left)
Repotting is easy, just be sure to use a container 1.5 - 2” larger with proper drainage when you replant your succulent. At Fern & Fossil, we use clay pebbles to create a small water reservoir and use fresh soil with Perlite to ensure good drainage. After removing the plant from its original container, unbind the roots by gently massaging the compressed soil off. If the roots are very long and compacted, you may need to trim them a bit. Fill the new container with fresh soil, make a space in the center for your plant and plop them right in. Then add more soil to secure your plant baby in place, just be careful not to pack too much soil in or the roots won’t be able to breathe! That’s all there really is to it! Freshly repotted plants don’t need to fertilized either, as their soil is fresh with nutrients already so you won't have to worry for at least a year.
Signing off,
Ina