Question
Hello Greg,
Last fall I decided to buy some succulents -- a deep green, almost cylindrical cactus with white wooly bits around the spines, a tall succulent with pendulous, jade-like leaves and a white dusty coating, a little jade plant, and an assortment of small plants in a pot (most seem to be haworthia, and one is almost definitely an aloe). I did this with little plant-growing experience or botanical knowledge, and bought them from a big supermarket -- the store didn't have any tags in the plants telling their names, oddly. Well, I should have known better than to buy a bunch of unidentified delicate plants, because they aren't thriving. I don't overwater them and I do let them drain, but one haworthia has wet rot anyway. The tall, "dusty" succulent is etiolating like crazy, and my little cactus has been growing taller but is also much narrower at the top. I think that a major problem is the fact that ALL of the windows in my apartment face south. I bought a plant light for them but I don't think it's enough, or maybe I'm not positioning it correctly; maybe they need a closer exposure to the light, but would putting it closer to them scorch them? I'm worried that they're not going to thrive, and after spending several hours reading a book about cacti and succulents and reading websites, I still cannot identify what most of these plants are for sure, so I'm clueless about what each plant needs -- for instance, I don't know why only one plant in the little assortment got wet rot but the others didn't! Can you recommend a good book or website about succulents that offers lots of pictures so I could ID my plants? Would sending a picture to you be helpful? Is there a best way to position my plant light? Or should I just try to find someone to take them whose windows don't all face south? I really like these little plants and want to save them, but I also don't want to have them in the wrong environment and see them die. What can I do? Thanks for your help -- I know that this was technically several questions, but I'm stumped at this point.
Thea

Answer
Thea,

Please send me a picture to [email protected] and I will try to identify your plants. As far as your plants symptoms goes, mostly it sounds like a lack of light. A "grow light" would work best and should be on close to 15 hours per day. Unfortunately, sunlight is the best thing for your plants, but at this point direct sunlight would probably kill them.

As far as watering goes, it wasn't necessarily the amount of water but the "when". Succulents like Aloes or Haworthias like to stay dry in the winter and may rot if given any water during that time. Hope this helps, don't forget to send me a photo. Thanks!

Sincerely,

Greg