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| Haworthia devriesii, near Prince Albert |
How to grow them?
Most of the plants from genus Haworthia (+ Haworthiopsis and Tulista), Astroloba and Gasteria are not difficult, you can grow them as other succulent plants. In Winter they excuse temperatures as low as 5 degrees. In Summer they welcome good ventilation. In nature you find them often growing under bushes, in grass or among rocks. This ensures them protection from direct sun and domestic animals (sheep and goats) which consume them without hesitation. Just a few species, e.g. H. leightonii, H. glauca, H. coarctata or H. reinwardtii grow in direct sunlight. From April till September I install 30% density shade cloth over my greenhouse. I have installed two larger ventilators inside greenhouse and they are running nearly 24 hrs a day. Basic rule - in South Africe the wind is always blowing!
Significant advantage in growing is that more than 75% plants can grow for a long period in a 7cm pot and it is not a problem to house quite a large collection in a small greenhouse or window parapet. The largest Haworthia/Tulista/Haworthiopsis specimens grow to max. 15-20 cm in diameter (e.g. T. maxima, T. kingiana or T. marginata). Genus Gasteria belongs to larger succulents (in size) – some species are in mature size almost 1m when mature (e.g. G. acinacifolia, G. croucheri and others), but we can also find smaller species like G. baylissiana, G. elaphiae, G. glauca or G. glomerata. Most of Astroloba genus can be grown on more sunny place. "Healthy color" is dark green. If you plants are too bright green (and rosette is not compact), that´s the sign they need a bit more sun. In case of reddish color (except of H. leightonii) you need to shade them a little.
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| Collection of plants from cooperi group |
It depends on the soil mixture you are using and fresh air movement. I grow my plants in pure pumice (washed, 1-6 mm). I water my collection in growing season (in Spring – from March / April till July and in Autumn from September till November) once in two weeks. In winter once per month or two. During Summer, when days are too hot I stop watering. In case of cooler rainy period I give them water.
In my case, when I´m using pumice, where there is not much sustenance at all, I have to fertilize my collection regularly. I do it with every watering in a very low density 0,0005% of Wuchsal Super. A basic rule is to use fertilizer with a balanced ratio of Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Kalium. I always try to grow my plant as hard and as natural look as possible - be careful with too much fertilizer.
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| Large comercial nursery in Holland |
In contrast to other genera Haworthia, Astroloba and Gasteria are not so tasty for pests. Rarely you find “Mealy Bugs” (a white fluffy mass appears on plant or roots). The worst threat is, in my opinion, watering at the wrong time in combination with no fresh air circulation – water can stay in the middle of the rosette and the plant will rot immediately. The characteristic smell shows that something is going wrong.
Which substrate to choose? The main requirements are leakiness and airiness. You can use normal substrate designed for succulents. Lot of nurseries and specialized collectors use pumice. It is a kind of soil volcanic origin. I have got my whole collection in pure pumice and have great experiences with it. Best grade of pumice for me is 1-6mm, prewashed. If there are too many large particles, it can be difficult (especially for seedlings or smaller plants) to root well. The only disadvantage I found is, that plants run dry very quickly and I have to water them more often – also in Winter. Most of the plants can form nice root system - that´s the sign you grow them well!
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| Healthy root system |
33 comments:
Thank you so much for the information on cultivation. I've been trying to find out what my succulent was(unlabeled--but fell in love with the little fellow) I saw a picture online where it was called "little warty" Gasteria. Will try pumice and watch the watering.
Kathryn
Your site rocks. i only just started taking plants seriously and my 7 haworthias survived the winter. Just the photos of these plants in their native habitat already contains a lot of information to clue me in on how to not kill them in cultivation.
Ginger Steele, Cornelius, Oregon USA
Thank you for creating this useful blog. Your photos are beautifully done.
Question, I heard that Gasterias MUST have a winter rest...is this so? I grow in an apartment in south Texas so I don't really get cold temps indoors ever...does that mean I can grow these?
Re insideout:
I grow my Gasteria collection same as other Haowrthias and other genera. I never give them winter rest, they can grow all year. In central Europe I water them in Winter less - but that´s because of lack of sunshine and low temperatures.
Thank you for all the wonderful information! I've recently switched to growing my Haworthias in pumice, sieved and washed before use. I watered them for the first time yesterday and parts of the top layer of pumice has turned orange, is this normal, should I be concerned?
Re: orange pumice - that's not normal, usually it's sign of using "wrong" water with too many minerals/salt... plant will be OK for some time in it, just you will need to repot it sooner (1-2yrs)
Thank you for replying Kuba! I've been using a high quality distilled water, so that shouldn't be the cause. Is there anything else it could be (I'm using 70% pumice, 30% coconut coir)?
Re: orange pumice - OK, may be it´s caused by coconut coir. try to use in one or two pots only pure pumice - if it will work or not.
Hi , i'm using pure pumice for my Haworthias as well but i just wanna make sure that i understood correctly so here is my question : am i suppose to water my Haworthia in pure pumice with fertilizer once every 2 weeks ?
because the pot is usually dry out after 3 days . what i'm doing right now is i'm using fertilizer like 0.0025 ratio and water the haworthias once every 3 days i just wanna make sure that i'm not damaging my plants , Thanks
how often do you have to repot your plants growing in Pumice
Re Mukesh:If plant is doing well, I repot them every 4-5yrs. In case it lost its roots or other problem appeared, I do it immediatelly.
Hi,
what is you response to haworthia plants loosing roots and some of them stay like that and commit suicide. how to make sure they grow roots and survive.
How important it is to wash the pumice before using it
What a super website! I've learned so much of interest. Thank you,
I have a problem finding pumice in my country. I have a plan to use tuffa or scoria. However, there are two issues: the grains are sharp-edged and may damage roots, and particle size is wrong. I have to sift the material and I end-up with a much smaller volume.
My second option is perlite. I had success with the common species. However, is it a good option in the end? My climate is Mediterranean. Winter precipitations are much higher than in their country of origin.
Re Christmas Snow:
My very good friend has his whole Haw.collection in perlite and they all look good. Just be careful with watering, perlite is too lite and can be washed away. May be used some small stones to cover the top?
Re Mukesh about Haws loosing their roots - this happends usually when you water them in wrong time of the year - for example, when it is too hot and in htis hot temperatures roots doesn´t work - in this case if they stay too long wet, they will rot. Try to move them in more shade condition and during hottest months water them less
Re Mukesh about washing pumice - I´m using washed pumice, but plants can grow in unwashed (=with more dust like parts), they can make the substrate "more" heavy and it will hold moister for a longer time.
Recently came across your website. Thank you for putting together a wealth of information on the internet for us folks. My haws are all growing in Pumice. However, I have root loss issues with a lot of them. I stay at Mumbai and that too very near the sea. Heat, humidity and moisture in plenty here but I keep them in full shade but with good daylight, outdoors in a windy balcony.
After root loss and losing a few of my haworthias, I have switched from watering the medium to just misting them twice a day. I feel that they are looking much better now ( its been a week)
Some totally dried off leaves have started to turn green with prominent windows now.
I read this post here (http://forum.bcss.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=151416)Please read the eighth post by "Gramps".I was totally influenced by this. I now plan to water these only once a month, if at all to ensure no roots are lost and no plants die.
Would appreciate if you could give some advice regarding rooting these rootless bunches on pumice and also your thoughts on misting the haworthias as opposed to watering them. Thanks in advance. :)
Re Sinha: Pumice is good medium, but of course, it isn´t everything. It works in my climate (central europe), but I´m sure in your area it works different. There are 4 main growing factors, which aways must be in balance. Watering/growing substrate/amount of light/air movement. If you have roots issues, it is very often caused by overwatering. I would recommend to water them less. I guess misting them (morning or evening) could help.
Thanks for your reply. Mist the media they are in or the haworthias? I don't want the beauties to turn pulpy and dead....though I know that they absorb dew from leaves. Request this clarification please.
Hi,
I don't know if my previous post went through,
This year (before I began experimenting with potting soil), was very different from previous ones. I had an unprecedented death rate of at-least 10% of my Haworthias shriveling during the hot days of summer. Since I rarely watered them, my first response was to water them. As they did not respond to watering, I inspected the roots and have found root rot. From here, things just got worse. Many of the shriveled ones also fell prey to Scale aphids, but soon I realized that this was just the aftermath, as not all rotted ones had those bugs.
Basically, I have experimented a lot on finding my potting mix with whatever ingredients available in my country. As I posted earlier, I have found Scoria to be very suitable. I have sieved the particles to remove the fine sand and particles under 2mm, as well as grains greater than 5mm in diameter.
Plants which rotted during the peak of summer did not survive as cuttings till fall. Though cuttings did not rot, they began shriveling. I had to deal with those that appear stressed and shriveled and made it through but appear dormant. Those Haworthias, however, did not seem to break dormancy. Haworthia Venosa has rolled-up its leaf margins, and the fenestrated surface became opaque. Cuttings may have rooted, but hardly grew and retained their curled-up appearance. Plants which had scale bugs did not respond to systemic pesticides as they had no roots to absorb them.
While Scoria turned-out superior to my previous potting soil, plants which suffered before I switched to Scoria did not recover. Some may have rooted without recovering, like the above example with H. Venosa. Two varieties of Tulista Marginata have barely taken root and then suffered from root rot shortly after. Tulista Leaf cuttings shriveled and did not root, and two large and otherwise healthy cuttings ended-up in the trash can.
Re Christmas Snow:
Do you use pure scoria? May be would be usefull to add more fine parts in your substrate - for example sand?
If you lost roots - it is usually caused by watering in wrong time - if it is too hot, roots can not absorb water and they rot.
Try to use for rerooting your plants pure perlite - put it on the shade, cool place (under the table?) and slightly water them and wait.
Good luck
Jakub
@Kuba I am currently using a coco-perlite (equal parts) mix and I'm following-up on both rooted cuttings in the mix and those which have been growing in scoria for a long time. Winter in my country has high rainfall (compared to their habitat), summers are hot and dry, though air from the sea is humid (almost no fog, no rain, just humidity). July and August are the hottest. Up to now, both potting mediums are doing well. My shriveled Haworthias which made it through the summer are plumping-up and even growing.
Do you recommend me to pot them into a different mix (or maybe a mix of the two current mediums I have)? Would I do it later when precipitations decrease in spring?
Hi there,
I have this plant and some of the clusters are turning a light brown/pink and a little soft. Is the plant telling me that it needs more water? The rest of the plant has plump bright green leaves.
Hi, send me photo to: kuba.jilemicky@gmail.com, I will check your plant out.
Regsrds Jakub
Great webpage, thank you for your effort! Some of my Haworthias (especially groenewaldii also some bayeri) accumulate what looks like lime deposits on leaves. So I started watering with distilled water (with 1/10 of tap-water) for some months already but it does not get better. I grow them in a mix of pumice/akadama and maybe 1/5 potting soil. I would be grateful for any hint on what to change? Also I find some weird growth on some splendens - could that be caused by Aloe mites? Thanks!
Re lime deposit - in my experience it can be caused by soil mixture, type of water or fertiliser you use. Once They apeared, it takes a longer time to regrow them.
Re weird splendens - can be
Hello Kuba, many thanks for this short but essential summary of Haworthia care. You mentioned that ventilation is very important. Could you elaborate more on why it is important, what will happen if ventilation insufficient, when do you have to ventilate? I am afraid that my plant dry up due to ventilator as they shrink already, not plump. Thank you.
Hi Tanuki, thanks for comment. In their habitat is the wind always blowing...it cooles diwn the plant, they can survive stringer sun light, it prevents them gir rotting and other nasty pests. but I always say, that for succesful cultivation you need right balance of watering, substrate, sun light and air movement. All 4 elements should be in balance, but everybody has slightly different growing conditions. How often do you water them?
Olá,
Obrigado por seus ensinamentos, comecei a colecionar Haworthias em Agosto, já vou em 43 sempre com receio de errar no seu cultivo, por isso seu site é uma bênção para mim. Ainda não perdi nenhuma, estão plantadas em Lechuza, mas tenho uma que não crescem raízes por nada. Então separei as hastes deixei por uns dias a secar o corte, como não tinha hormonas de crescimento pus um leve toque de canela e deitei na Lechuza, sem água. Vamos ver como será!
Fico muito grata por ter encontrado seu site, já que livros em Portuguès não há.
Abraço.
Hi Kuba, apology for my late reply. I just relize that the email notification from your reply got sorted out by outlook. I am newbie when it comes to growing Haworthia, therefore I am still experimenting with sunlight and water.
This summer I watered once every 2 weeks when the substrate is relatively dry. I start now also to look into air movement following your excellent blog. Does the air movement important only when the plant is exposed sunlight or also in the night? Thank you very much for your help.
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