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New skins for my Lithops!


Guest Andreas Eils

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Guest Andreas Eils

And on....

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Lithops karasmontana ssp. bella C 108

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Lithops karasmontana ssp. bella C 108

I have four specimens of this subspecies. All of them look almost completely different!

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Lithops vallis-mariae C 282 seedling

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Lithops verruculosa v. verruculosa C 95 (syn. inae)

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Lithops verruculosa v. verruculosa C 229B

Can you imagine I like these warts? :laugh:

If you are finally sick of Lithops please let me know and I stop posting pics of them! :whistling:

Regards

Andreas

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Guest Andreas Eils

Hello James,

many plants divide when older and over the years form multiheaded cluster. I can show pictures of my L. otzenianas which have all doubled in the number of heads. But the process of renewing isn´t finished yet, so the "Otzenianas" have to wait for being photographed. :) You can propagate them by dividing such clusters. But never divide a single head which has only TWO lobes. It will die! All other kinds of cuttings which usually work well with CPs fail with Lithops. Dividing multiheaded clusters is the only vegetative method of propagation. The other (generative) is raising them from seed which takes a couple years (3 - 6) until you have a mature plant. Raising Lithops from seed is actually quite easy.

Yes, when the colours of the old lobes fade in late autumn and the lobes start to shrivel in December they don´t look that beautiful. They are best in summer and early autumn I think. The new lobes are smaller then the old ones at this time of the year. The new lobes have to grow during summer and autumn. In autumn Lithops usually flower.

Cheers

Andreas

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Very interesting plants indeed. But do they eat insects? No? HA!

:sun_bespectacled:

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  • 1 month later...
Guest Andreas Eils

Okay, a last update: Some more plants with new lobes! :smile:

On page one my L. dinteri ssp. multipunctata caused a discussion as it looked not typical for a Dinteri someone said. Maybe this one does more appropriately?

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Lithops dinteri ssp. fredericii - C 180

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Lithops helmutii - C 271

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Lithops dorotheae - C 124

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Lithops dorotheae - C 300

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Lithops karasmontana ssp. bella - C 285

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Lithops terricolor - C 346 (syn. localis)

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Lithops otzeniana - C 128

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Lithops otzeniana acf. 'Aquamarine' - C 128A (acf. = aberrant colour form)

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Lithops otzeniana - C 280

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Lithops otzeniana - C 350

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Lithops marmorata var. marmorata - C 365 (syn. framesii)

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Lithops optica acf. 'Rubra' - C 287

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Lithops salicola - C 351

Thanks for watching!

Bye

Andreas

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  • 2 months later...
Guest Andreas Eils

Hi there again, Anıl!

Yes, I though the same when looking closer to the surface of the Lithops salicola C 351.

Sadly almost ALL of the nice Lithops I´ve shown here are DEAD now! They grow fine for me for about six months and then suddenly I slide into a catastrophy!

I was called a "troll" in a German cacti forum because I shew some of my nice Lithops and then just ten days or so later I numbly reported of the sudden decay of many of them! That ironically was the result of following the advices of professional growers! :verymad: Take deep containers when you grow Lithops and take pure pumice as medium. *Hahahahahaha!*

The reason was very simple: Indoors there is not so much air movement then outside or in a greenhouse and composts dry out much slowlier. I used a 16 cm deep balcony box to put my Lithops in all together --> "Lithops are best grown in company!" Of course; they can easily feel lonely! :laugh1:

After six weeks first bodies suddenly collapsed! I knew I have to water sparsely! The surface was bonedry. The upper 7 cm were bonedry, but the lower 9 cm were still moist and the roots of the Lithops have intensely expanded - taking all the available space! And you know: As long as there is moisture Lithops and other Mesembs suck it in. Finally some plants burst and others rot!

The plants I´ve posted here have mainly died after my application of grain alcohol against spider mites! :eek:

The "Otzenianas" are all dead except acf. "Aquamarine". And to my very surprise Lithops optica acf. "Rubra" C 287 and C 81A - which are reported to be extremely picky - have survived the grain alcohol attack!

Strange world but I´m happy about that fact sometimes! :wink:

Best regards

Andreas

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I only grow one Lithop, which I thought I had lost in spring. It had produced its skin; however, after many many weeks it showed no sign of opening. I had been told not to water until the skin had cracked open but figured that the plant had died anyway so decided to give it a watering. Within a day of doing so the skin had split and this is it today:

Pseudotruncatella C70

1.JPG

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Guest Andreas Eils

Hi Carl,

looking very good! :thumbsup: Where do you grow it? You surely own a greenhouse, don´t you? ;-) I have two C 70 one year old seedlings which seem to have survived my grain alcohol application.

I first really believed I´ll lose ALL of my Lithops even including all of my self sown seedlings. D. naureeniae has reacted the most sensitive onto this unintended alcohol intoxication! :dry: It doesn´t look that bad anymore for all species and I am happy especially the Coleorums recover, but who knows. Lithops can suddenly collapse months later from trouble.

Actually its correct to start watering again when the old lobes have shrivelled to a skin and new lobes are visible and have broken through the cleft between the two old lobes. Not every specimen behaves normally though. And there are some species or varieties like L. optica and particularly acf. "Rubra" which cannot take bone dry soil for a longer period.

There are so many nice things beside CPs... But sometimes I believe growing CPs was in fact the easiest for me compared to other botanical treasures!

Kind regards

Andreas

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Hi Andreas,

This one lives on a sunny windowsill. It was a sort of 'unwanted' plants, as I wanted to purchase another succulent from a supplier who had a minimum order value, so to reach that value I added the Lithop. I have since grown quite fond of it though :smile: I'm sorry to read that you lost plants... maybe you should add some cola to the vodka next time :wink:

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Guest Andreas Eils

Damn, why didn´t I think of that before? COLA! Cola contains a lot of artificial food additives such as E 322, E 144 and E 605! The last one is reported to be able to kill insects. :P E 605 combined with Vodka...I have just to find out the correct mix ratio... :morons:

Cheers!

Andreas

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  • 2 months later...
Guest Andreas Eils

Yes, I still grow them! Since I regularly mist them with Coca Cola (instead of Vodka) no more spider mites have been spotted! :biggrin:

Here are news: Some flowers during the last weeks! :-)

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Lithops marmorata var. marmorata C 305

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Faucaria tuberculosa

The majority of my Mesembs looks stable now...the question only is: For how long? Every experienced grower I talked to the last time stated: You can hardly grow Lithops indoors longterm...even at the attic it´s very difficult! I still hope they will be proven wrong... Honestly it would be even harder for me giving up the Lithops than CPs!

Regards

Andreas

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Guest Andreas Eils

:hi: Chris,

when I watch your pic I think L. steineckeana is not such an unattractive plant! :-D Your specimen must be quite happy where it lives! :tu:

Thanks for showing!

Regards

Andreas

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  • 1 year later...
Guest Andreas Eils

Time for some update, don´t you think so, too? :biggrin:

I could have thrown them all into the compost bin so much trouble I have suffered with them! :ireful2: But I still have them...and not even only a few! *ggg*

The extended winter this year has retarded the majority of my plants to renew their lobes... :dry: But some are happy at least...some very nice gems... :happy:

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Lithops lesliei ssp. lesliei v. lesliei C 014 [Kimberly form] (from Kakteen Haage)

The markings always appear brownish in my pictures than blackish-grey ... I wonder if this is because they partially receive direct sunlight. :unsure:

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C 014 - another plant.

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Lithops lesliei v. venteri 'Maraisii' C 153 (from Kakteen Haage)

Here the same: Appearing rather brownish on top than blackish what I consider to be more normal. :o/

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One of my favourites: Lithops karasmontana ssp. bella C 285 (from Uhlig Kakteen)

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C 285 - another plant. I love how variable the surface of the same species can be (even on the same plant from season to season!!!).

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C 285 - still another plant! :laugh:

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No, that´s the same plant as before but now you can see it has two heads! *hehe*

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Lithops coleorum C 396 (from Uhlig Kakteen) - an very nice specimen! :happy:

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another view

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Lithops werneri C 188 (from Kakteen Haage)

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from another angle

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Lithops werneri C 188 (from Uhlig Kakteen)

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another angle and more sunlight :-)

That´s it for today.

Greetings

Andreas

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