Placing your succulents in the dark is one of the simplest ways to stress them out. For four or five days, cover your succulents in darkness to replicate the conditions they would encounter when being transported in a dark box (one of the reasons why store-bought succulents are so colorful at first).
For the colors to truly stand out, you can continue doing this for up to fourteen days. Low-light indoor succulents including jade plants, air plants, gasteria, and haworthia work well for this.
Stressing Succulents With Grow Lights
On the other hand, by giving your succulents more sunlight, you might be able to encourage them to exhibit vibrant hues. Consider beginning the plants outside, where they can receive up to a week’s worth of bright shade (note – only do this if you live in a warm enough climate to grow succulents outdoors, or you may kill them with too much cold),
Give the plants another week or so to adjust before moving them to an area with partial sunlight. Bring the plants inside, where you should place them in a full-sun area or beneath grow lights.
When exposed to more sunshine, certain sun-loving succulents, such as cacti and sedum, will reveal more lovely colours of red, pink, and purple because their pigments will grow more bright.
Pay close attention to your succulents if you plan to light stress them. You’ll be able to recognize sunburn symptoms early. Succulents can typically bounce back from the majority of light-related issues in just a week or two if you gradually introduce them to the proper circumstances.
How to Cold Stress Succulents
Start with a robust collection of plants. You should pick succulent kinds like aloes, kalanchoes, euphorbias, sedums, sempervivums, aeoniums, and echeveria because not all succulents will change color when stressed. Normally, agave doesn’t change color under stress.
Cold stress has the same positive effects on succulents’ color as light stress does. While keeping temperatures above freezing, you could leave the plant outside in the cold. Similar to mild stress, this shock may cause pigments to flush.
But this procedure is a little more delicate. To ensure that your succulent plants aren’t stressed to the point of death by spending an excessive amount of time below their cold hardiness thresholds, you’ll want to keep a close check on them.
How to Stress Your Succulents With Moisture
You may stress your succulent plants with water just like you can with light and cold stress. Succulents are known for their capacity to tolerate extended droughts, therefore doing this can be challenging.
However, you can frequently stress your plant out enough to flush pigments by cutting out water (the precise amount you should cut out will vary depending on what kind of succulent you’re growing and how much water you are giving it now; consult your planting instructions for more information on this).
Succulents need to be stressed for how long?
Some succulents may undergo changes or lose the vivid hues they had when they were first purchased. Some plants may gradually turn green in a few months, especially if they are planted in the shade or in locations with poor natural lighting. For succulents to “stress” and show off their vibrant hues, they require intense sunlight all day long or at least six hours every day. To ensure that your succulent plants receive adequate sunlight, thrive indoors, and keep their brilliant red/pink hue, you must have windows that face south. Make sure there are no obstructions to natural sunlight for your succulents, such as trees or structures.  
What does “stressing” a succulent mean?
Such “stressed” succulents are fine because they get their hydration from the leaves. When the weather cools and the rains come back, they wake up and produce new growth.
Stress doesn’t necessarily cause all succulents to turn red, pink, or orange; in fact, most don’t. However, numerous common aloes, as well as some kalanchoes, euphorbias, sempervivums, sedums, aeoniums, and echeverias, do. The one mentioned above is an exception to the rule for agaves. The anthocyanin in its tissues has been visible because it is post-bloom and withering.
It’s all about anthocyanin
Sunset colors become apparent in the same manner that deciduous trees change color in the autumn. The pigment, which is also present in berries and other fruits, is regarded as a potent antioxidant. Anthocyanins are believed to be produced for photoprotection, or protection from excessive sunlight, much like melanin tans skin, according to Wikipedia. They are not produced until the plant has started to break down chlorophyll. The smart statement from Wikipedia that “plants with excessively high anthocyanin levels are attractive as decorative plants” is also noteworthy.
How to Stress Your Succulents
A non-gardening acquaintance remarked, “I’d probably stress them so much, they’d croak,” after watching my YouTube video, “How to Stress Your Succulents…and Why You Should.” Well said. How much stress—but not too much—should you apply to a succulent? How do you decide which things merit emphasizing and which don’t?
Basically, keep an eye on the plant. It is probably the case if the leaves have red margins or tips. However, it is in distress if excessive heat, sunlight, or cold causes its tips to shrivel and turn beige-gray. Change its location, water it regularly (but not excessively), and/or repot it. also look at its roots. In the instance of a cutting that is lying on top of the soil rather than being firmly planted, the issue may be that roots cannot access moisture and nutrients.
How about an oxymoron? This Crassula ovata specimen is delightfully stressed. Due to less water than the plant would like and more cold than jade prefers, its leaves have turned red (frost will turn the leaves to mush, but temperatures near but above freezing reddens them).
The majority of succulents, especially those with thick, fleshy leaves, can survive in hot weather, in frost-bite, and/or with only gravel roots for weeks or even months without water. But ultimately they require a break, should their stress become fatal.
Several common succulents that turn red under stress include:
How can I add color to my succulents?
Succulents have attracted a lot of attention recently due to their resilience, seeming immortality, and ability to make almost any garden look more attractive. However, there is a way to vary the color of your succulents, so why limit yourself to having only green ones?
You must alter the environment that succulents are growing in and “stress” them in order to color them. They can alter their color in response to factors including fewer or more water, less or more sunlight, and hotter or colder temperatures. But you may also use food coloring if you want to create some wilder hues.
How may a dejected succulent be revived?
- Symptoms. Succulents’ leaves can become soft and mushy and become brown or black, but the intensity of the cold damage will determine the exact symptoms.
- Causes. Although some succulent plants may endure a light frost, this is uncommon because most succulents are native to hot climes and normally suffer in temperatures lower than 50F (10C).
The majority of succulent types are not cold tolerant and will perish if left in temps below 50F (10C) for an extended period of time.
The majority of succulent species thrive in a standard room temperature environment, with a range of 55F-80F (13C-27C) being ideal for aloe vera.
Succulents’ leaves and stems may become mushy in texture and appear dark or black if they are subjected to chilly weather or even frost.
How to Revive Cold Damaged Succulents
Place your succulent in a location in your home or garden where the temperature is consistently between 55F and 80F (13C and 27C). Make sure that none of the leaves are directly in contact with windows, as these areas of the house can get much colder than the rest of the house. Reduce watering for the time being.
The cold damage should not likely worsen once the succulent is in a more stable environment.
Wait a few days, if not weeks, and the succulent’s mushy, cold-damaged section should dry out and callus over if the leaves feel gooey.
Cut the leaf back to below the injured section once the mushy portion has dried out. Cold-damaged succulent areas normally do not recover, but the succulent plant as a whole can recover.
In order to avoid additional potential issues, you should only restart watering the succulent once the callus of the leaf cut has completely healed over. Cold damage increases the danger of root rot.
The succulent can ultimately sprout new leaves and begin to regain its usual appearance after being damaged by the cold, but it takes a lot of persistence.
Key Takeaways:
- The most frequent cause of succulent death is root rot brought on by over watering and poorly draining soils. Plants that can withstand drought, succulents need the soil to dry out between waterings. A succulent that has mushy, brown, yellow, or black leaves is withering because the soil is excessively wet.
- Overwatering or sunburn cause succulents to turn brown. Brown, mushy succulent leaves are a sign of excessive moisture around the roots. Due to a rapid rise in sunshine intensity, scorched-looking brown succulent leaves may be the result of sunburn.
- Because of excessive moisture around the roots brought on by frequent watering, wet soils, or pots without drainage holes, succulent leaves turn yellow. The soil needs to dry out between waterings for succulents. Yellow and mushy succulent leaves may be a sign of root rot brought on by over watering.
- If succulents are exposed to too much shade, they become tall and lanky. Succulent leaves grow tall in the direction of the strongest light since the majority of succulents need bright, indirect light or full sun. Tall succulent leaves can droop under their own weight and often have weaker, withering leaves at the base.
- Due to inadequate or excessive watering, succulent plants experience drought stress, which causes their leaves to shrivel. As a means of survival, succulents store moisture in their leaves. Underwatering your succulent causes it to draw on the moisture reserves in the leaves, giving it a shriveled appearance.
- Recreate the circumstances of the succulents’ natural environment by planting them in well-draining, rocky soil with the appropriate amount of sunshine, and watering them when the soil becomes dry. To preserve the succulent, take cuttings from healthy areas of the plant.
Do succulents need direct sunlight?
Depending on the type, succulents need six hours of sunlight each day because they are light-loving plants. You might need to gradually expose newly planted succulents to full sun exposure or give shade with a translucent screen because they can burn in direct sunshine.