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 ...

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

i continue watering the only conophytum more often than the rest of the living stones. i am a bit scared it could die at any moment because of the transplanting and because its neighbor did die of drought. i water the conophytum plant on the 2nd (it shows clear wrinkles), the 8th, the 15th and on the 22nd of may. i just let room temperature water run through the pot. in addition i bottom water and fertilize all of the living stones on the 5th, the 12th, the 19th and on the 28th of may. i also gradually increase the amount of light my plants receive until it is about 16 h/day at the end of the month. my only conophytum on the 7th of may . the conophytum plant is residing in a 125 ml cup because it is so tiny. the cup didn't have a drainage hole originally so i needed to drill one in it. you can find several tutorials from youtube by searching for "drilling hole ceramic pot". the important part is to use a correct drill bit and to remember to use water to prevent t...

this month i continued gradually lenghtening the photoperiod (daylenght) with my plant lamps. at the end of the month i had my plant lamps on for 12 h/day. during this month i discovered that the monilaria plants were beginning to grow very strongly towards the light source and that one of the argyroderma plants had also begun changing its leaves the second time. i bottom watered and fertilized my living stones on the 6th, the 16th (one conophytum plant was wrinkled), the 22nd and on the 29th of march. a new monilaria leaf tip turned bright red after bursting into light.

this month i discovered that the 2 lithops plants with brand new leaves had etiolated. it means they had received too little light (8 h/day) and i began gradually lenghtening the photoperiod (daylenght) with my plant lamps. at the end of the month i had my plant lamps on for 10 h/day. i bottom watered and fertilized my living stones on the 2nd, the 7th (i didn't fertilize), the 11th, the 17th, the 22nd and on the 28th of february. the 2 etiolated lithops plants on the 7th of february the last lithops plant is finally splitting

the monilaria (20) the lithops (4) the argyroderma (2) the conophytum (2) it's the 8th of january and the algae just blooms.  - they also turn black when they die...

the temperature is + 23 °C. i am watering the conophytum pot which seems semi-dry, the argyroderma pot which seems quite dry and the lithops pot which seems quite dry. 22 of the monilaria seeds have sprouted and 9 of them are splitting (picture above), 11 + maybe a tiny one of the argyroderma have sprouted, 9 + maybe 2 tiny ones of the lithops and 2 + maybe a tiny one of the conophytum.

Wikipedia on grow lights :  "A plant's specific needs determine which lighting is most appropriate for optimum growth. If a plant does not get enough light, it will not grow, regardless of other conditions." "Grow lights usage is dependent on the plant's phase of growth. Generally speaking, during the seedling/clone phase, plants should receive 16+ hours on, 8- hours off. The vegetative phase typically requires 18 hours on, and 6 hours off. During the final, flower stage of growth, keeping grow lights on for 12 hours on and 12 hours off is recommended." "In addition, many plants also require both dark and light periods, an effect known as photoperiodism, to trigger flowering. Therefore, lights may be turned on or off at set times. The optimum photo/dark period ratio depends on the species and variety of plant, as some prefer long days and short nights and others prefer the opposite or intermediate "day lengths"." ...

the temperature is + 25 °C. the amount of light is the same as previously but the moisture has dropped in the monilaria container which was opened yesterday. i water the monilaria for the first time after sowing them. i also give them diluted cactus and succulent fertilizer. how much fertilizer, it is hard to say because i soaked the bottom of the whole container in a larger container with water and didn't measure the fertilizer exactly either. though the amount of fertilizer was less than recommended on the bottle. i also soaked the pumice through because some of the monilaria seedlings hadn't grown their roots into the pumice yet. clearly a downside of a coarser medium. 19  of the monilaria seeds have sprouted (see picture below), 6 of the argyroderma and 3 of the lithops.