Good day! I wonder if anyone could help me figure out what's going on with my lithops. I got it in July 2013 from a local Botanical Garden, didn't replant it in another pot, watered it a couple of times (just a few drops of water) during the remaining summertime, then as the cold season started I stopped watering it at all. Sometime during November lithops started cracking up, other than that it looked the same as in summer. During December the first outer set of leaves slowly started to shrink and the inner set of leaves started to get visible through the crack. I thought it was a normal process for lithops to go through during the cold season and didn't touch it, but several days ago for some reason the outer leaves shrunk and dried up rapidly and it seems that the inner ones are drying up too. Any ideas what might be going on with it and if there's any way to help it? Thank you
If you look these up annual shriveling during the dry season is normal. However, if yours is collapsing suddenly it may have rotted. The plant has such an extreme growth habit because it is evolved for extremely hot and dry environments, where it may not be able to maintain the full size and extent of the top - such as it is - under all conditions, every year.
Thank you for reply! Is there any way to determine if it's actually rotting? And if it's rotting, is there any way to stop it or make it grow again?
If rotting will become mush, at which point it's history. If instead shriveling due to dryness will not be damp.
I've been observing it for some time and so far it's the same, I've also poked it a little and it didn't feel mushy, more like dry and firm (like a tree bark or like dried leaves to touch). So what would be the right tactics in this case, just keep observing until springtime? Should I keep somewhere warm or it's better to keep it on window sill with lots of light( I tend to keep windows opened most of the time, so in winter it gets quite chilly on the sill thus I usually relocate part of plants away from opened window) and chill air? Summing up, should I keep my plant near the window, where it gets the most sun but also cold air, or further away where there's less sun but it's warmer?
