Very sad, shriveling string of beads/pearls/peas...

I bought my first beautiful String of Beads last month and am having some major problems with it. =(

The beads are shriveling and some are turning very dark green before rotting away into nothingness. I don't know if I'm over or underwatering, if it's too cold or dark or some other reason. Please help me save this plant!

 

Looks like you've got it potted in dirt and it's too heavy for it.

 

Oh. Is that the problem? What do you recommend I pot it in?

 

Potting medium, extra sandy for succulents in general. If I could remember the botanical name I would give that to you, tell you searching by that should bring up pages with cultural hints about this one in particular. Likely looking with "string of pearls" will get you some, too, along with a ton of irrelevant ones.

 

The latin name for the plant is Senecio rowleyanus. Joe

 

Yes, I've done plenty of research on it, but I haven't found anything particularly useful. I was hoping to get advice from someone who knew about this plant specifically, but it is a succulent, so hopefully a different potting mix will help. The pot is too deep, as well, so maybe I can find a shallow one and some sandy mix. =| Poor little plant.

 

Last time I grew it I noticed it did not like to get really dry, at least not for more than a brief time. I suspect if there is enough of yours left it would respond to more normal conditions, that is a well-aerated soilless medium kept evenly moist or nearly so.

 

The plant is shriveling up very quickly -- there is only one bead left that is whole! I'm not sure what to do at this point. Tomorrow I'm going to buy some sand and/or suitable soil, but I'm not sure it will make it. There is some newer growth but I'm not sure how long that will last. I may just have to buy a new one and pay very careful attention to it. =(

 

I have this same plant, for the second time. Mine did the same thing because I overwatered it. It's a succulent so it doesn't need a whole lot of water at once but misting it until the soil on top is moist works great! Good luck!

 

Thank you! I've finally found out the difference between what underwatered and overwatered look like. (= I'm going to start a houseplant blog and post things like this that I learn along the way... because this is just ridiculous. XD

 

Maybe it's a fog desert plant, like the bromeliads and cacti in Baja.

 

A fog desert plant? I've never heard of that...

 

I used to have one of these. They do root easily from cuttings. I agree that the soil looks heavy (clayey) and that could easily lead to overwatering. Good luck, but it looks like you might need to start with a new plant or cutting, alas.

 

stakey, you can read more about deserts (including fog deserts) here:

Deserts from the University of Wisconsin