Growing Living Stones at 63rd Parallel North

in february i notice something new. one of my lithops plants which is splitting into two new sets of leaves is also growing flower spikes! one of them seems to be developing faster than the other. i know it's the wrong time of the year for this and especially since the splitting is happening at the same time. i think the plant is confused because i have treated it like an immature plant and kept watering and fertilizing it regularly after the first year milestone. the plant hasn't absorbed properly its previous leaves either. because splitting time is usually a sign that living stones shouldn't be watered and since my plant seems so confused i decide to stop watering all of the lithops plants and my argyroderma plant which is also splitting. i stop watering right after the first bloom opens. the first bloom lasts 4-5 days. unfortunately i was away for a night and cannot say for sure how long the flower lasted. it had withered when i returned. however i noticed that the ...

this month i watered my living stones only twice (on the 11th and on the 23rd) with 11 days dry period in between waterings. i did not fertilize.

in december i watered but did not fertilize my living stones on the 3rd, the 15th and on the 30th. i reasoned that since many of the living stones are changing their leaves and since the daylight hours are being reduced the plants would need less fertilizer. i think it was not the right decision for the monilaria plants which were still growing like weeds. by the end of the month i kept the daylight hours at 9,5 hours a day. i was afraid to keep the grow lights on too long during my vacation because i thought the plants would survive the drought better with less light. the dry period before the last watering at the end of the month was 14 days.

in november i was supposed to increase the dry periods between waterings. i did water and fertilize on the 5th and on the 16th of november but i forgot to water on the 27th. therfore my living stones experience a 16 day gap between the last watering in november and the first watering in december. during this month i also reduce the daylight hours to 11 hours a day. i also spray the monilaria plants once during this month as a preventative measure as they have started to grow new "bunnies". i have identified the monilaria plants as risk plants because they have a lot of crevices, drying sheets and asymmetric form in which the mites might hide in. this month i also notice that the argyroderma plant and my lithops plants have begun splitting. the conophytum plant doesn't seem to show any change but it has a couple of cracks on its surface, the remnants from overwatering.

during october i water and fertilize my living stones every 10 days: on the 6th, the 16th and on the 26th. at the beginning of the month i still find webbing on the monilaria plants so i also spray with the diy miticide on the 6th and on the 16th. i reduce the daylight hours gradually untill the plant lamps are on only 12 hours a day. i am aiming at 8 hours at winter solstice and at 16 hours at summer solstice but i began to wonder if one is too little and the other too much. i read about the 34th parallel south (about the parallel of cape town) because i believe that the southern tip of africa has the most extreme light levels the living stones could possibly encounter in their habitat. well, their habitat is actually a bit more north from there in the namib desert but i think it's close enough for an approximation of the most extreme light levels. at the 34th parallel south the sun is visible for 14 hours, 28 minutes during the summer solstice (in december) and 9 hours, 50 ...

hurray! i managed to keep alive 1 argyroderma, 3 lithops, 18 monilaria plants and a conophytum plant. one argyroderma perished after the repot and some monilaria feel still a bit loose like they haven't properly been rooted yet. during september i water and fertilize regularly on the 2nd, the 8th, the 17th and on the 26th. at the same time i am reducing the daylight hours to 13 hours a day as i try to mimic the changing seasons outdoors. at the end of the month i realize i have spider mites on another plant and i also decide to spray living stones both preventatively and because i find some living stones already damaged. the ones that show damage are the conophytum plant, the monilaria plants and one lithops plant. i spray my living stones with miss orchid girl's diy solution . it feels like this summer wasn't the best for my living stones which is weird because all my other plants thrive during summer and look sad during winter. i just feel like i didn't do a pro...

i watered and fertilized my living stones on the 4th and the 12th of august. i do not rememeber why i have been watering so sparsely. i do however have a notification on my calendar to water the living stones on the 19th of august although i have no written note to prove i did do that. it is possible i forgot it entirely or i decided to see if i can spread out the watering now that my seedlings are about to turn 1 year old.

on the 4th of july i water my conophytum plant and begin increasing the daylight hours. on the 6th of july i notice that my conophytum plant has a tear in the middle. i am afraid it is almost bursting because of too much watering. i also increase the daylight hours and the plant lamps are now on for 15 hours. on the 7th of july i water and fertilize all of the other living stones except my conophytum plant. on the 14th and on the 21st of july i water and fertilize all of my living stones including my conophytum plant. it has survived against all odds. on the 26th of july i water and fertilize all of my living stones including my conophytum plant. i also record the temperature indoors + 24 °C. this summer's highest temperature indoors has been + 29 °C.

i am watering my conophytum plant still more often than the rest of the living stones. i water it on the 6th and the 12th of june. i also water all my living stones on the 9th and the 14th of june. besides watering i also fertilize all of them on the 30th of june. in the beginning of the month i let the plant lamps stay on for 16 hours but towards the solstice i reduce the hours to only 10 hours a day. it is because at that time i receive guests and i don't want them to be disturbed by the light when they are sleeping in my living room. i am also away for the end of the month and i decide i don't want to find my plants dried into raisins when i return. i am not sure if this is possible but it feels safer to leave the lamps on for only 10 hours a day instead of full 16 hours. i decided to have a break with fertilizing my plants after the transplant. nobody told me to do it, i just felt like doing it was the right thing to do. currently i fertilize with my cactus and succulen...

i water my only conphytum. because of the growing algae problem i am ready to transplant the rest of my living stones. i first rinse pumice and fill the new pots with it. i carefully transplant the living stones and observe that i have 18 monilaria plants, 2 argyroderma plants and 3 lithops plants. i choose a shallow but wide container for the monilaria. it used to be a plastic instant food container. i plant the argyroderma and the lithops in clay pots. clay will help the containers to dry faster since i don't have so many plants left. i separate the algae infested pebbles from the old pumice and only boil the cleaner ones which i pack away to wait for further use. my monilaria plants my argyroderma plants my lithops plants