GUIDE
Watering succulents through the year
6 steps
How to do it
- 1Water thoroughly, then not again until the compost is dry all the way through. Judge by lifting the pot, not by looking: the surface tells you nothing.
- 2Do it in the growing season, which for most leafy succulents means roughly April to September — soaking until it runs out of the bottom, then emptying the saucer.
- 3Read the leaves instead of the calendar. Slightly soft, wrinkled lower leaves mean the plant is thirsty and will plump up in a day; firm leaves mean wait.
- 4Cut right back from October and give almost nothing at all in the depths of winter. The plant is not growing and cold wet compost kills it.
- 5Know the winter-growers, which do the opposite: Aeonium, Aloe and many of the South African kinds grow through our cool damp winter and rest in high summer, so they want a drink in January and very little in August.
- 6Feed rarely — a half-strength balanced feed once or twice in the growing season is plenty. Well-fed succulents grow soft, green and out of character.
COMMON MISTAKE
Treating every succulent as summer-growing. An Aeonium kept bone dry through winter and watered hard in July is being managed exactly backwards, and it shows in a bare, stretched rosette.
Plants that use it
Their calendar has a job that points to this guide.
RELATED GUIDES
Propagating succulents from leaves and offsetsOverwintering succulents outdoors and under coverFeeding & NPK basicsPruning shrubs (general principles)