LITHOPS HOME CARE, PHOTO, GROWING FROM SEEDS, LIVE STONE

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Lithops (Lithops), its second name is a living stone - a succulent plant of the aiza family, growing on rocky, limestone, granite dehydrated soils. This amazing exot represents two massive leaves no larger than 5 cm in size both in width and in height.

Outwardly, the leaves strongly resemble stones, between which a peduncle appears in the section, then a flower and a seed fruit, which opens during rain. The birthplace of lithops is the southern regions of South Africa, namely the deserts of Namibia and Botswana.

Lithops flowers with petals are like chamomile, as a rule, these are buds of white or yellow shade, with a pleasant aroma. They grow very slowly - they reach a size of 5 cm in about 10 years of life, which generally has a duration of no more than 15 years.

Also, be sure to pay attention to the guernia plant and prickly pear.

	They grow very slowly - they reach 5 cm in about 10 years of life
	It blooms from late summer to mid-autumn.
	Easy to grow plant. Suitable even for a beginner.
	Perennial.

Lithops: home care. Briefly

Lithops at home will certainly please flowering and successful growth, subject to the following maintenance rules:

Temperature mode	In summer, the flower easily tolerates even the hottest weather, in winter a minimum of 15-20 ºС heat is preferred.
Air humidity	The most comfortable is dry air.
Lighting	South window sills, bright sunlight.
Watering	Rare in the summer, about once a month and a half. In winter - excluded.
Priming	Universal for cacti, or clay-sand with a small amount of garden substrate.
Fertilizer and fertilizer	In summer, it is fed fertilizer for cacti.
Lithops transplant	It is carried out every few years if the flower has grown greatly.
Breeding	Seeds, less often - dividing the sheet.
Features of lithops	The plant does not like rain, it should be protected from excessive moisture. The sheets are wrinkled after flowering, but pretty soon new ones form, that is, the so-called “molting” occurs. Living stone looks decorative and develops faster if you place several of its instances in one container

Lithops: home care. In detail

Flowering lithops

For a better understanding of the characteristics of flowering lithops, it is worth mentioning their main phases of life:

From the beginning of summer, a living stone stops growing and falls into a dormant phase. During this period, watering and top dressing of the flower is completely excluded.
Starting from mid-August, watering of the plant is resumed, which leads to its "awakening", stimulates continued growth. At this moment, the incision between the leaf plates increases, the peduncle appears. And already in the fall, a living stone pleases with flowers.
In winter, home lithops falls into the third, forced phase of the cycle, which is characterized by slow growth, as well as a change of leaves - “molting”.
By early spring, the old leaves of the plant turn into a translucent peel, which eventually fades completely, exposing new leaves.

Despite the peculiar cycle of the flower, its development may slightly differ from the above. For example, flowering in our latitudes can occur in the middle of summer, and not in autumn, provided that the plant was exposed to light in winter and the leaf renewal phase passed faster than it should

Living stone blooms for about 15 days, at about 3-5 years of age, white or yellow daisy flowers. By lunchtime, the buds open and close at night. After flowering, the old leaves finally disperse, releasing a new pair of constantly thickening leaf plates. Also, after vegetation, a seed fruit appears in place of the flower, ripening for several months.

Temperature mode

Lithops at home is unique in that for a very long time it can be in hot, dry conditions, because the temperature in the summer does not play a big role. It can be either ordinary room temperature - 23-25 ºС, or a higher temperature. In winter, in a phase of slow growth, the flower is kept in a slightly cooler environment - this is usually 12-20 ºС.

Due to the fact that lithops like temperature differences, it is recommended to remove them from the window to the floor at night, thereby slightly lowering the usual temperature.

Spraying

The lithops plant at home needs to be sprayed in the following cases:

during molting, if the body of the plant wrinkles;
before hibernation, during the laying of a new body;
in early August, in the morning, imitating dew.

An important condition for spraying lithops is the finely dispersed dispersion of moisture in such an amount that the plant becomes dry in less than an hour.

Lighting

Lithops are extremely photophilous creatures, slowing down in growth with the slightest lack of the required amount of sunlight. They should be placed on open sunny windows, balconies, terraces, while briefly shade from the midday sun. In winter, additional lighting is organized using phytolamps, which are installed at a distance of 10 cm from the plant. If these are young seedlings, the distance is reduced to 5 cm.

After buying in a store where, as a rule, the plant experiences a lack of light, it is not worthwhile to sharply put a live stone under scorching rays at home. This can cause burns. Given this feature of the flower, it is gradually accustomed to the bright sun.

Watering lithops

As with spraying, it is worth remembering the main rule of watering the flower - to prevent stagnation of moisture in the lithops section, not to fill in so that the water is in the pot for several hours, and also to avoid liquid getting on the flower itself.

Watering should only earthy voids between plants. Otherwise, moisture on the flower causes the plant to rot or burns, provided it is in the sun. Even if the leaf plates begin to wrinkle - watering is carried out very carefully in small portions, with the soil being wetted no deeper than 1 cm.

Some experts recommend using a small children's syringe when watering live stone, which will allow you to gently and drip moisten the soil without harming the plant.

Pot for lithops

Flower containers for lithops are selected in such a way that the root system of the plant is not in cramped conditions, but at the same time there should not be too much space. It is better to give preference to wide containers, as lithops are transplanted several copies in one pot, which contributes to a more rapid development of plants.

Priming

For growing live stone, a universal composition for cacti is used, or another similar substrate without a peat component. You can independently make the following version of the earthen mixture:

sheet earth (1 part)
brick chips (1 part)
sand or gravel (2 parts)
clay (1/2 part)
coal (1/2 part)

Before use, it is advisable to bake the mixture in the oven for half an hour. Expanded clay is used as a drainage component, and the soil surface with planted plants can be covered with a centimeter layer of fine pebbles.

Fertilizer and fertilizer

Live stone should not often be fed with fertilizers, especially if it is replanted annually. A plant needs to be replenished only if the transplant has not been carried out for a long time and the soil is somewhat depleted.

For the purpose of feeding, it is better to use special means for cacti, while the lithops are given half of the indicated norm.

Transplant after purchase

A lithops transplant after a purchase in a store is simply necessary in the very near future due to the fact that the soil of a purchased plant, as a rule, includes wet peat soil. It poorly passes moisture and air, has a detrimental effect on the development of lithops. Before planting in a new, more suitable soil, the old earth is carefully cleaned from the roots of the flower with a toothpick or hard brush.

If the storefront soil was wet, the roots are well dried and, when flattened, are placed in a new container. The substrate is poured without compaction, without covering the root neck. So that the lithops do not fall over, you can substitute a small pebble nearby. After planting, the plant should not be watered for several days.

Transfer

The need for a lithops transplant matures when the root system of the plant has grown and fills the entire volume of the pot. Some of the roots can be removed if necessary. But if the rhizome of the flower is generally healthy and has no damage, then the lithops are transplanted into a larger pot, preserving the root lump as much as possible. F

willow stone it is recommended to plant several copies at once in one container with a distance of at least 1-1.5 cm. The gaps are covered with a substrate without compaction, but it is advisable not to create voids. After transplanting, lithops should not be watered. The plant will bloom in the next cycle, after about a year.

Pruning

Caring for a lithops at home does not imply any pruning and shaping procedures. The plant naturally gets rid of fading leaves and even in this case it is not worth interfering with nature in order to manually speed up the process of molting.

Lithops in the winter

In winter, a living stone "creates" the appearance of a state of rest. In fact, at this time, the most important process takes place inside the flower - laying and forming a new pair of sheets, which are developing thanks to the resources of the old pair of sheet plates.

In the natural environment, the process ends with the onset of the precipitation season, under the influence of which, the old couple bursts, revealing the formed new one. In room conditions, there is simply a rapid increase in a fresh pair of leaf halves, with the complete withering of the old, turned into a peel.

In this phase of the cycle, lithops do not need any special care, it is only necessary to exclude watering, up to the complete formation of a young leaf pair.

Rest period

The true state of rest at the lithops occurs in the spring-summer period, after the end of the "slow" winter vegetation. Plants completely slow down in growth, do not require top dressing and gain strength for autumn flowering. Watering during this period is strictly prohibited, in order to avoid decay and death of the flower.

The exception is the case if the sheets of a living stone begin to wrinkle. The problem will be quickly eliminated if you slightly moisten the surface of the soil.

Growing lithops from seeds

For successful breeding of live stone, plant seeds are most often used. In early spring, pre-soaked, the seeds are distributed on a moist, calcined substrate, without sprinkling with soil and without deepening. Covering with film, crops provide a temperature regime of 25-30 degrees with the obligatory daily ventilation to avoid the appearance of fungal spores.

After about a week, a maximum of a month, the first shoots appear. When the leaves reach a size of 1 cm - the surface is covered with expanded clay and after the first wintering, the solidified grown lithops are planted in pots.

Diseases and Pests

The most common difficulties that can be encountered when growing lithops:

leaves are crumbling as a result of a failure of the process of changing old sheet plates;
lithops shrink from insufficient watering when they are in "hibernation", as well as if they were struck by a pest - a spider mite;
rot the roots of lithops when in a wet peat substrate;
leaves swell and burst with excessive moisture of the flower;
brown spots on the leaves indicate improper watering of the plant;
leaves on the leaves fade due to lack of sunlight;
lithops do not bloom due to excess fertilizer, including in case of violation of the conditions of detention during the rest phase.

The most terrible enemies of a living stone, destructively acting on a plant - spider mites, root bugs, mushroom mosquitoes.

Types of home lithops with photos and names

Living stone has more than 46 species, differing in the shape of leaf halves, size and color of inflorescences. The most common varieties are:

Lithops Aucamp (Latin: Lithops aucampiae)

It has a plate size of about 3 cm each, a gray-blue hue with a brownish-green surface. The cut is deep, the flowers are yellow with a faint aroma.

Lithops bromfield (lat.Litops bromfieldii)

The "leaves" of the plant are cone-shaped with a flat top of a reddish hue, the inflorescences are small, yellow-red.

Lithops Compton (Latin: Lithops comptonii)

It has large yellow flowers with a white core. The development cycle is somewhat different from the standard for this type of plant - it blooms in summer and rests in winter.