Growing Living Stones at 63rd Parallel North

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 tried to find detailed information about watering living stones seedlings. unfortunately the advice seems to stop when the first leaves are shed and the only advice after that is to reduce watering and that the plant is having a natural cycle after the first year is over. however nobody (i found) seems to describe the watering/fertilizing (after the first leaves). as far as i understand the life in the first year is different from the regular yearly cycle due to the plant being "immature" and needing more water. however i wanted to know all that happens in between the sowing and the 1st year mark. i found these instructions from world of succulents site: https://worldofsucculents.com/grow-lithops-seed/ (the watering of lithops seedlings is in the tips at the end of the article). other living stones didn't seem to have as detailed articles. however i don't know how good the advice is because when i compared some of the site's advice with vivante-pas...

i found useful information about these plants on the websites listed below although some of the information is contradictory. many also seem to agree that the care depends on your climate so general guidelines are difficult to give. e.g. southern africa (the origin of all the species i grow) has a different climate and their summer is when northern hemisphere experiences winter hence i decided to document my journey of growing living stones.  websites   lithops-stories germany includes info about everything i grow except info about argyroderma and pleiospilos  lithops blog south africa includes info about the genus lithops terry smale uk includes info about the genera conophytum and lithops world of succulents includes info about all of the species i grow (see previous post ) youtube channels lithops canada includes info mostly about lithops not updating anymore herbal and succulent alchemy idaho usa includes info about various genera ...