First, let me thank you for even glancing at my book. Thanks!
The Succulent Journal will document my progress in growing, maintaining and propagating succulent plants! As I am constantly learning new things, I will update this book accordingly to co...
All words that strike fear into the hearts of succulent owners across the globe...but why?
"Aren't bugs good for your garden?"
NO! ...sometimes. Maybe.
Ok, some are good, even great for your plants, but there are a few...that will destroy everything you know, love and care about...
And I am going to help you destroy them. In the process, I will tell you how you can protect your plants from various problems that may occur, and how to not make the mistakes I originally did!
Let us begin with my least favorite, and easiest to acquire, and end with the least likely to murder your entire family (of succulents):
Root Rot: This is the easiest to create and is one of the most common ways new succulent owners experience problems with their plants, often resulting in death. The owner may not completely understand the ways that succulents take in water, and may not have a set cycle for watering their plants. They overwater their plants, not allowing for the water to dry out of the soil between watering, and believe that they are doing ok for a few weeks as their plants plump up and become very big and green. This is because their plants are taking in the generous amounts of water present in the soil, and are for a time ok. They take in as much water as possible , but there is still water left in the soil, and it is too much for the plant. The fleshy, soft plant will begin to rot in the saturated soil, and the lowest areas of the stem touching the soil will begin to turn brown, yellow and black. The entire plant will begin to look sickly as the roots suffer rot damage from the excessive water, but the owner doesn't know this. The plant owner may continue to water the plant thinking it needs more water, when in fact the opposite is true. It is a horrible cycle.
It is very hard to get plants to recover from this, and the easiest way is to propagate them- or of course just stop watering them for awhile. Give the plant time to recover from nearly drowning and you might be ok!
Gnats: Along with extremely wet soil comes an indoor flying pest called the gnat. They lay eggs in the moist soil and mess with your plants all the while looking awful. You don't want these. The best and easiest was to get rid of them is to let the soil dry out and create an uninhabitable place for the adults and eggs alike. The bugs are an annoyance at least and a plant killer at most.
Mealy Bugs: Mealy bugs are the bane of my very existence. They are hard to kill and are not bugs at all, but in fact are worms. They will burrow and eat through your plants and will leave white spots on the stems of your plants. The mealy bugs carry their eggs underneath themselves and make themselves very hard to kill. You can identify them by their white dot-look, as they are very small. They look almost look like little fuzzy white ovals with legs, and they leave fuzzy white stuff on plants.
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This is not a great example, but this kind of describes what they look like.
Insects: Various other insects are known to hurt your plants, such as slugs and snails, ants, red spider mites, flies and leaf cutter bees.
The fastest and safest way to put an end to these murderous problems is through the use of a dish-soap/water mixture or rubbing alcohol, both of which will suffocate or kill the bugs without much harming the plants, but there are also many store-bought insecticides that could be better. I recommend looking up specific pests and their most effective removal techniques before trying anything that could possibly affect the plant. Good luck!
