Why Succulents Get Leggy

How can leggy succulents be prevented?

As we all know, not all succulents get lanky due to inadequate sunshine. Because of the way some succulents develop, they can become lanky. Here’s how to keep your succulents from growing lanky as a result of inadequate light:

  • Whether inside or outside, make sure they are getting enough sunlight. The ideal amount of daylight is between four and six hours every day.
  • Succulents grown indoors are more likely to become lanky. Put them close to the house’s brightest window. If required, relocate the plant to a more light-filled area. If at all possible, provide the plant access to the outdoors. To augment the plant’s illumination requirements, think about utilizing a grow lamp.
  • Ensure that no taller plants in a planter are blocking them. The planter was outdoors and receiving full sun, just like what occurred to my plant up top, however the plant was being obstructed by taller plants. When potting your plants, it’s ideal to think ahead to determine which ones will work best with which ones. But even if you don’t, the problem is easy enough to rectify. Simply remove the plant—whether it is tall, stretched, or both—from the planter and repotted it in a separate planter. Check out this post, “Revamping an Overgrown Succulent Fairy Garden,” to see how I did it.
  • To ensure that every plant in the planter receives enough sunshine, turn the pot. You might need to rotate the pot occasionally to ensure that all of the plants are receiving enough sunlight, depending on where it is positioned and how the sun strikes the plants. My planter gets a lot of early sun, but because it is at an angle, the plants behind it don’t get as much light and are beginning to sag. To ensure that all the plants receive sunlight, simply rotate the pot periodically.
  • Avoid overfeeding and overfertilizing your succulents. Because succulents are light feeders, overfertilizing will cause the plant to spread out and result in inferior growth. This is a result of the plant’s inability to support its own pace of growth due to its excessive rate of growth. It is advisable to use 1/4 to 1/2 strength of the fertilizer’s suggested dosage. For the majority of succulents, the active growing season is from early spring to late fall. Fertilize at this time. Avoid fertilizing in the late fall and winter when growth typically slows.

Leggy succulents can occasionally be very attractive, especially if they begin to cascade down the pot. Many succulents naturally grow in this manner, which adds to their appeal. However, there is usually a fast treatment for it and the plant will recover quickly once the issue has been resolved if your succulents are growing leggy from lack of light.

Can you make a succulent grow taller?

The majority of succulents are graceful low-growing plants that easily tuck into cracks in rockeries, flower beds, containers, and between paving stones. Although succulent pruning is not usually necessary, it is a simple procedure that can be used on plants that grow long and lose the compact nature that makes them so prized. Understanding how to prune a leggy succulent can help you get the plant back to the size you want while also giving you plant material for another one of these hardy, simple plants.

When you complain that your plant is too tall, you should manage it. This could be caused by blooms, leaves, or stalks, and the plant may end up seeming smaller or not fitting into its original location. The type of plant you are growing will determine what to do if your succulents get too tall.

Plants go through a process known as etioliation when they are grown indoors or in other low light environments. The plant is stretching upward to catch more light, which causes the stem to lengthen. Transferring the plant to a southern exposure is the straightforward solution. But that leggy party is still left after this. Fortunately, it is possible to top leggy succulent plants, which will remove the excessively tall portion and encourage the growth of new, more compact shoots.

Why is my succulent sagging?

When they don’t receive enough sunshine, succulents swell out. The succulent will first begin to turn and bend in the direction of the light source.

As it grows, the leaves will spread farther apart, making the plant taller.

The leaves are often smaller and paler in color than usual. The succulent will typically turn green or lose the strength of its original color when it is not exposed to sunshine.

This Echeveria ‘Lola’ is beginning to bend toward the light, and it isn’t quite as colorful as it was when I took the photo for the post about top dressings.

The majority of the time, this will occur when succulents are cultivated indoors, but it can also occur outside when succulents are exposed to too much shadow.

How are lanky plants fixed?

A leggy indoor plant can be pruned to foster the growth of new stems, which will help it regain its former lushness in addition to being moved into more light. Snip just above a node to remove one-third of the length of very long, lanky stems (the point where leaves grow from the stem). If your plant is already producing new shoots from the ground, trimming back gangly stems around it will give the new growth space to absorb sunlight and thrive.

How are etiolated succulents repaired?

A succulent that has etiolated is unsalvageable. Once the succulent has stretched, thinned, and become lanky, it is unable to recover. Etiolation lasts forever. As was previously mentioned, the plant can still be saved if etiolation symptoms are caught in time before the plant begins to stretch.

Your Succulent Isn’t Getting Enough Light

All plants require light, but succulents particularly crave it. Your pal may be leggy if you don’t provide a sunny area where they can soak up the light.

Insufficient sunshine causes succulents to develop lengthy stems. They begin to turn and spread out in search of light during a process known as etiolation, which gives them a “leggy appearance with a long stem and smaller, spaced-out leaves.

It can be challenging to determine how much light your plant needs right immediately because every plant is unique. Try transferring the succulent to an area where it will receive more light if you find it starting to grow a long stem without adding more leaves. You might want to think about buying a tiny tabletop grow light if your house doesn’t have a place where the sun shines.

How do I encourage my succulents to spread out?

The right conditions will help your succulent grow bigger more quickly. A few hours of sun exposure per day is all that most succulents (but not all) require to grow healthily and keep their form and frequently their color.

In light of the foregoing, it would be helpful to understand the kind of succulent you are attempting to grow larger. A position where they receive at least 4-5 hours of sun each day is required for a plant like an Echeveria. Echeveria will thrive in full sun when planted in the ground.

Since many succulents can burn if they are in pots and placed in direct sunlight on hot summer afternoons, it would be ideal to position potted plants in areas that receive morning sun and afternoon shade. Growing succulents that require sunlight, like the Echeveria, indoors is not advised because they will almost surely wither away after a few weeks. In general, a Haworthia will thrive in a bright but shaded location.

Another thing to keep in mind is that most succulents are not frost hardy, so it would be better to bring them inside for the winter until the risk of frosts has gone if you live in a cold region and want your succulents to survive and get larger.

Use succulent potting mix

When succulents have the best growing medium to support their growth, plants will expand larger and more quickly. You may grow big, happy, healthy succulents with succulent potting soil.

While many succulents will grow in ordinary potting soil, they probably won’t get as big or as attractive.

The nursery’s potting soil has the ideal ratio of minerals and nutrients, and the way our plants look says it all.

Remember that some succulents grow all year long, while others dormant in the winter and others in the summer. Aeonium Kiwi is inactive over the summer, so it’s unlikely that you’ll have much luck attempting to get it to grow larger during that time. Again, when trying to develop a succulent, it is really helpful to know what it is.

Leaving dormant succulents alone is the best course of action. Placing a summer-dormant plant in direct sunlight will help it survive the hottest parts of the summer.

In order to find out what kind of growing conditions your succulent like and if it can actually get bigger, it is best to know its name.

How much sunlight are required for succulents?

1. Ensure that your succulents receive adequate light. 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.

When ought to succulents be potted again?

Evergreen succulents have always captured my heart. Succulents are low maintenance plants that thrive in containers because to their unusual forms and thick leaves; I have a large collection of these well-liked varieties.

Repotting succulents every two years is a good general rule of thumb, if only to give them access to new, fertile soil. The beginning of a succulent’s growing season is the optimal time to repot it because it provides the plant its best chance of surviving. My gardeners, Ryan and Wilmer, took advantage of the snowy weather earlier this week to repot many succulent plants and propagate a variety of cuttings. Here are some pictures of the steps we took.

In times of drought, succulents, sometimes known as fat plants, store water in their fleshy leaves, stems, or stem-root systems. Because of their eye-catching shapes, succulents are frequently planted as attractive plants.

I needed to repot a few of the succulents in my collection either they had outgrown their pots or I wanted to relocate them into more attractive clay containers.

He stamps my name and the year the pot was produced on the reverse side. When I host big events in my home, they invariably look fantastic.

To aid in drainage, a clay shard is placed over the hole. Additionally, I like using clay pots because they permit adequate aeration and moisture to reach the plant via the sides.

We always keep the shards from broken pots; it’s a fantastic method to use those parts again.

Wilmer carefully takes a succulent from its pot without damaging any of the roots.

Wilmer then conducts a meticulous test to determine if the pot is the proper size for the plant. He picks a pot just a hair bigger than the plant’s original container.

Prills are the name for osmocote particles. A core of nutrients composed of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium is covered by the prill’s beige shell.

For the finest drainage, we mix equal parts of sand, perlite, and vermiculite for succulents. The correct soil mixture will also aid in promoting rapid root growth and provide young roots with quick anchoring.

Wait a few days before watering the succulents after repotting to give them time to become used to the new soil.

Wilmer shifts to the following plant. This one too need a little maintenance attention. He picked up any fallen leaves.

In order to promote new development, Wilmer lightly pruned the roots after manually loosening the root ball.

Wilmer inserted the plant into the pot after adding some Osmocote and a little amount of potting soil.

The pale blue-gray leaves of Echevaria runyonii ‘Topsy turvy’ curve upward, are prominently inversely keeled on the bottom surface, and have leaf tips that point inward toward the center of the plant.

Echeverias are among the most alluring succulents, and plant aficionados greatly respect them for their brilliant colors and lovely rosette shapes.

An aeonium is a succulent with rosette-like leaves that grows quickly. Aeonium is a varied genus that includes little or medium-sized plants, stemless or shrub-like, and plants that favor sun or shade.

Succulents should be placed on a table so that they can get enough of natural light even when the sun isn’t shining directly on their pots.

Moreover, propagation is fairly simple. Here, Ryan uses sharp pruners to cut a three to four-inch portion of stem off the mother plant.

There should be about a half-inch of stem showing. A handful of them are ready to be planted here.

Ryan provides plenty of space for the plants. There will be plenty to use in mixed urns during the summer if all of these take root and grow into succulent plants. Four to six weeks following planting, new growth should start to show, at which point each plant should be repotted independently.

Inside my main greenhouse, all of my priceless plant collections are kept on long, sliding tables. They all have such lovely looks. Which succulents are your favorites? Please share your feedback in the spaces below.