Echeveria pulidonis Propagation Update 9 Months

It's been about 9 months (36 weeks) since I pulled a leaf off my Echeveria pulidonis succulent on January 2, 2015. I've been posting a few updates since then following the progress with photos. I wanted to post this update to show the latest progress! I also noticed my babies look very different from the mommy plant, and I think it has to do with the amount of sunlight they get.

Echeveria pulidonis - Propagation 9 months

The mommy plant sits on the lower shelf of a window table and doesn't get as much sunlight, that probably explains the longer leggy leaves and lack of red tips

Compare the mommy plant to the baby - pretty easy to see the difference! I don't know if I would think this was the same plant if I didn't know it was a leaf propagation. It's technically the same exact plant, same genes!

The parent plant sits in a succulent pot on the lower shelf of a window table and gets less sun than my windowsill babies

Echeveria pulidonis Propagation After 14 Weeks

I'm not going to post all the photos over again, but you might remember I'm propagating Echeveria pulidonis in a ramekin on my windowsill. It's been a very slow process, slower than I imagined when I saw other blog posts of succulent propagation. They are nonetheless adorable and growing a lot quicker now that they have 'leaves' of their own and more roots.

Echeveria pulidonis propagation from leaf after 14 weeks

Take a look back at the first 8 weeks in these progress photos. I decided that these babies are big enough for their own tiny adorable terra cotta pots from Walmart (only 32¢ each). 

Echeveria pulidonis - a rare look at the delicate roots between pots

14 week Echeveria pulidonis in a tiny terra cotta pot

Cute succulent babies!

New tiny terra cotta pots in the window

Windowsill Succulents Changing Colors

I noticed my windowsill succulents changing color - and in these bleak snowy times I have the luxury of over-analyzing the smallest change in my house plants. So let's take a closer look at these color changes and try to figure out what's going on.



First up, my Echeveria pulidonis (a popular blog post topic these days) is not only getting bigger, but the parent leaf is starting to turn yellow. Presumably, the nutrients in this mommy leaf are about used up, and the new baby succulent has developed underground roots of its own. It really seems to be speeding up in growth these past couple weeks. My only question is why the other leaves aren't turning yellow yet since they were all plucked around the same time.

The mommy leaf is yellowing and shrinking, and the growth of the baby succulent has sped up

Echeveria pulidonis parent leaf turning yellow

Next, check out what is happening to my Cryptanthus bivittatus on the windowsill. The leaves are turning pink in some spots. While I have seen varieties of Cryptanthus bivittatus that are pink intentionally, I think this might be attributed to over-watering and possibly triggered by the fact that more direct sunlight is coming in. If you look closely, the only spots that are pink are the ones that are getting direct sun - so maybe that's the answer. I'm going to hold off watering for a week and see if there's a change.

Check out the before and after, notice the pink on the leaves. But also, see below, the pink seems to be in the exact spots that get direct sunbeams in the morning.

Cryptanthus bivittatus turning pink in the sun, possibly aggravated by overwatering

Echeveria pulidonis Propagation Week 8

Echeveria pulidonis after 8 weeks, and 'Baby Jade' [Crassula argentea] after 24 days

This is my photo update for Echeveria pulidonis propagation. Tomorrow it will be 8 weeks since I carefully plucked leaves off this succulent and placed them on top of the soil. To simplify, here are photos from the 8 week progress so far, but I also have blog posts at Week 3, Week 4, and Week 6 if you want to get more in-depth.



When I re-potted the babies last week, I noticed they had single longer white roots below the soil. I didn't want to up-root them just for a photo - so perhaps more is going on underground. On top, the 'leaves' are getting fuller and larger ever so slowly. They are taking a loooong time!

Flashback: Week 0

Flashback: Week 3

Flashback: Week 4

Flashback: Week 6

Echeveria pulidonis after 8 weeks!

Baby Jade [Crassula argentea] after 24 days

Aeonium haworthii or Echeveria pulidonis?

I was in Lowe's just now and saw a succulent that looked just like one of mine that came in a 'various' mixed potting. After hours of scouring the internet for photos trying to identify the succulents, nothing beats seeing another one in the store with a name tag!



This one has little baby shoots coming up the sides even though it is so small, but the leaf shape and texture is unmistakable. Not to mention that it's probably from the same supplier in the same location, my chances of having a match are much better than just surfing the net looking for Google images that look similar. 

A name tag really helps when I'm trying to be as pedantic as possible

Ok, so what I thought was Aeonium haworthii all along looks like was really Echeveria pulidonis - a completely different genus. Oh geez, I was way off!

Comparing side by side it's easy to see how I could have been mistaken. Both have bluish green long succulent leaves with pink reddish tips. Photo on the left is mine, photo on the right from GreenMeadowGrowers.com used for comparison.

Echeveria is a genus originating from Central America and Mexico - which makes a lot of sense since the mixed succulent pot I got was made in Mexico. Aeonium, on the other hand, is a genus originating in East Africa.

Now I have to go back and re-label all the posts I had incorrect, luckily there are only 4 of them so far. Ugh!

Baby Succulents with iPhone Macro Lens

Check out these macro photos of my baby succulents. I got up close and personal for super detailed shots using just my iPhone 6 and these inexpensive clip on lenses. The kit comes with a macro lens and two fish eye lenses. They're surprisingly good quality considering how cheap they are!



My Aeonium haworthii Echeveria pulidonis after 6 weeks are still very tiny, but with many more leaves and roots than before. Flashback to Week 3 and Week 4.They're growing quite slow, but filling in a little more and more each day. Most of the roots are pointing toward the soil and might be growing more underneath.

A tiny Aeonium haworthii Echeveria pulidonis - 6 weeks old

This Aeonium haworthii Echeveria pulidonis baby already has pink tips on the leaves just like the parent plant

A detail I didn't notice before, the tiny red tip to the emerging root on this Crassula argentea

Checking In: Succulent Propagation Week 4

We're really cookin now! After a solid month since I pulled the leaves off the Aeonium haworthii Echeveria pulidonis plant, progress is speeding up - roots are shooting out - and I believe I'm seeing multiple baby plants not just one on the tip here.



See also, my previous post for the first few weeks: Succulent Propagation Week 3

Baby succulents emerging after 4 weeks

Checking In: Succulent Propagation Week 3

After reading this AMAZING blog post about succulent propagation, I decided to try my hand at making little succulent babies of my own! That was about 3 weeks ago, and I was starting to worry that the leaves I pulled from the Aeonium haworthii Echeveria pulidonis weren't going to sprout babies. If you don't pull them off close to the stem you leave off the portion that is capable of regenerating.
 

Succulent leaves on January 2, 2015 (the 'before' photo)

 I put the leaves on top of the soil and let them callous over on the ends. I would drip a few drops of water onto the soil every few days after washing my hands - literally a couple drops each. I guess I was thinking that I would trick them into thinking it was raining and it might be a nice time to put down new roots - no idea if this did anything at all, haha!



I first started with leaf pieces, that didn't do anything. After doing more reading, this isn't surprising because the section of the leaf that is capable of reproducing new roots is on the very very base. I took cuttings from each of the 4 succulent varieties and tried to propagate them as well. I realized that not all succulents reproduce from leaflets.

So where are we now? After 3 weeks, here is some visible progress!

January 25, 2015 (progress 3 weeks)

January 25, 2015 (progress 3 weeks)

January 25, 2015 (progress 3 weeks)

In this last picture, notice the Cryptanthus bivittatus leaves that are just sitting there not doing anything. Yeah, I guess this technique doesn't work with them, so just ignore those!

What about the paddle plant, the Kalanchoe thyrsiflora. Well the leaves didn't do anything after I pulled them off, they just dried up. But the stump that was left behind did sprout some new leaves! I guess this type of succulent doesn't propagate from leaflets, but it looks like I could chop the stump into columns and get new plants from each.

I'm encouraged by the progress! My husband Chris hates looking at these pieces of plants laying in ramekins on the windowsill, so the sooner they look like real plants the better!

On this project I also learned to use manual focus and a tripod to get better narrow depth of field photos

Identifying my Succulents with Google Images

I'm pretty handy with Google, but it still takes me a looooong time to search around until I've found pictures of plants that match the plants I'm trying to identify. For example, without too much prior knowledge of conifer varieties, I was able to more or less pin down the different types of trees I saw around my hotel.



Granted, I'm a bit anal when it comes to getting it right. I don't want to perpetuate mis-identifications, and I want to be as precise as possible. Sometimes, when I get plants that are labeled "various succulents" this is harder to do because it's up to me to search out the true identity.

So here is the challenge, this pot of 4 different types of succulent plants. Let's begin!

Four 'various succulent' plants sold in a pot with no plant tags

I found a great gallery of succulent plants to browse through, looking for general characteristics such as the leaf shape. This actually helped a lot, and I was able to narrow down two of the plants: A and D with just this gallery.

A - looks most similar to Aeonium, but I wasn't sure what kind. The leaves are rather long and slim compared to others that are very fat and juicy. My best guess at this point is some variety of Aeonium haworthii. Update: After I found a labeled individual plant that looks exactly like mine at Lowe's, I discovered it was actually Echeveria pulidonis.

D - was a little more straight forward, the succulent plant gallery had one that looked pretty dead on - it's Haworthia limifolia. When I found it on Dave's Garden called "fairy washboard" I knew this was it from the description and the other photos. It's hard green ridges would make a perfect washboard for a fairy!

C - was easier because I sort of cheated - I saw a similar plant at Lowe's that was obviously the same species but a pink variety. I took a photo of the plant tag to remind myself what it was later, and when I looked it up online I knew it was some variety of Cryptanthus bivittatus.

B - took the longest to identify because it could be one of about 3 different things. It didn't look like any of the plants in the succulent gallery. I was just Googling around for common succulent houseplants and saw one that looked similar but it had red tips and mine clearly does not. It's some kind of Paddle Plant, and goes by many other names. Finally when I read an article that distinguished between the ones with red tips and the one that has "chalky green leaves" I was convinced that this was the one: Kalanchoe thyrsiflora.

I wish all plants came with tags like my Baby Jade [Crassula argentea]

But wait! What's this? There's a tiny green sprout coming up in the very center of my succulent patch! What could it be? A mystery succulent baby!

But wait, what's this in the soil?

Mystery baby succulent coming up in the middle

My guess is that this will turn out to be a Haworthia limifolia 'fairy washboard' growing off of the roots of the other plant. The Haworthia limifolia has the largest root system of any of these succulents, which I discovered when I re-potted them. That is my best guess but time will surely tell!