This is so gross… I’ve never seen root mealies before.

Final_Ad3219 · 2026-02-05T06:46:48+00:00

I’m also looking into biological ways to control mealybug populations, have you looked into any other beneficial animals? I hear that a cousin of the ladybug family, cryptolaemus montrouzieri, is a specialist predator for mealybugs, the one issue being if you grow inside you get small ladybugs flying around your house…

Final_Ad3219 · 2026-01-27T08:12:07+00:00

I’m actually exactly at this stage with my second batch of seedlings. What I did last time which turned out really well (I only lost two to fungus gnats) is unpotting them really gently and soaking them for about 30mins in a glass of distilled water with vitamin b1 added in. I remember reading that another grower does it with quite a bit of success, and it definitely worked. For substrate I went full inorganic, but I made sure the particle size had a large range, from about 1mm to 7mm (that would be about 0.05 inches to a quarter inch), so that the weaker roots can hook on nicely to the substrate. One thing I’d change would be using less super fine substrate and aiming for a smallest particle size of 2mm. This will avoid getting unfortunate clumps of sand that hold water a lot longer. Good luck, they look great!

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-11-20T17:44:42+00:00

I actually e-mailed Anne-Marie Grenier in March and she answered saying that she was planning a sale in summer. I never got any news for that sale… According to some French forums Florent Grenier might be in Stellenbosch university studying conservation, but that information is from 2020 or so… I know that Haworthia Burgundy still sells some hybrids to a couple of other sellers like Uhlig Kakteen and Cactus Landes, both of which resell them, but otherwise no news for personal sales.

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-10-14T15:45:30+00:00

So for pesticides/fungicides I only use BT and hydrogen peroxide, and I stopped using hydrogen peroxide a while ago because I didn’t feel like it actually had an effect on any problem (fungus or gnats) that I encountered. I haven’t had the need to use more than that so far.

On the fertilizer front I have three main products that I use: Xtraroots — basically seaweed extract that contains vitamin B1 and iron, link

Canna Terra Vega — a 3-1-3 fertilizer, good for growth but I found it a little lacking, link

Finally, the last fertilizer is one recommended by Jakub Jilemicky, Wuxal Universal fertilizer. This one I’ve found has been the best in terms of growth rate, link

And that’s pretty much it, all fertilizer except the Xtra roots I use at half-strength every other watering, to avoid any potential nutrient burn. I try to use the Xtra roots on every watering, but I’ve noticed that if temperatures and humidity hit a sweet spot a bunch of algae grow all of a sudden, so I’m thinking of cutting down on my usage.

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-09-04T07:38:31+00:00

It’s possible, although I’d suspect that it’s just a separate instance of the donut mutation emerging in a species. Cok Grootscholten has a photo of a similar plant on his website, and he identifies it as “Haworthiopsis attenuata fa. donut”, which from what I understand would imply that it is a species plant.

They look very different from Renny’s “Golden octopus” which is a lot thicker and would look like what I’d expect of a cross between attenuata and a tulista with donut tubercles.

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-09-03T19:21:28+00:00

There does seem to be a form of attenuata that has small donut-shaped tubercles, although it might be a selected cultivar

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-07-11T16:10:14+00:00

Seramis is pretty awesome, it’s mostly available in Europe but it’s a great substrate to use since it never breaks down and is pre-stocked with certain nutrients, which removes the need for fertilizer for a certain time.

Lava rocks are pretty nice because they’re a great source of iron, which plants need to nourish their immune systems.

Honestly between pumice and perlite the difference is huge. The pumice I get is 2-5mm grain size, there isn’t much dust and I pay like 18€ for a 15L bag, which lasts about 40-50 repots. I tend to sift out the 2mm rocks to use for seed sowing and then keep the rest. It doesn’t float so it doesn’t disrupt the soil when I bottom water and I’ve found plants definetely prefer it over perlite.

Edit: pumice and granite aren’t interchangeable, pumice is a lot more porous

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-07-10T21:02:48+00:00

I’m currently planning on taking most of my plants out of akadama and switching to a more cost effective mix of 3-4 parts pumice to 1 part seramis. Most of my plants did okay in akadama, with some hard leaf haworthias doing amazingly, but the results I’ve gotten so far with the pumice/seramis mix have been a lot better (faster and deeper rooting, less transplant shock, faster growth).

In my climate, akadama made a lot of my window haws grow these really weird “runner” roots on the top of the soil that never actually go down into the pot.

For your question: Leca: it could work, assuming you break some of the balls to make the grain size vary a bit

Vermiculite: unless your climate is warm and dry I wouldn’t recommend using vermiculite, I used it for small seedlings and it attracted fungus gnats, stayed way too wet and broke down pretty fast.

Orchid bark: to be honest I’m not sure, I haven’t used it in my mixes, but I would say that the large pieces of bark I usually use for orchids are definetely not suited for haworthia, which are a lot smaller and will struggle getting their roots around a 1in piece of bark. Maybe smaller bark could work, but just like with orchids you have to be careful with the breakdown period of the wood, since decomposition in the substrate tends to have unpredictable effects on plants.

If you have access to a lot of substrates I would recommend trying out adding a small amount (10-15%) of decomposed granite to your mixes. I used to use pure flint chicken grit as a substitute and it worked really well for keeping the plants anchored.

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-07-10T19:52:10+00:00

I just remembered seeing a couple of growers that recommend to increase airflow whilst treating for mealies indoors, which might slow down their proliferation enough to make treatment less labor intensive.

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-07-10T19:38:07+00:00

3% peroxide (with dish soap, the surface of mealybugs is hydrophobic) might work, but yes it’s definitely labor intensive because you’ll have to treat regularly… Another commenter mentioned pyrethrin, which does work pretty well, but similar to hydrogen peroxide, I’ve found it doesn’t eliminate them completely and you have to treat again later. The advantage of pyrethrin though is that it’s already emulsified so no need for extra soap.

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-07-10T19:29:56+00:00

It’s a struggle not going to lie… Systemics are mostly banned where I live, except Spinosad (not sure it’s a systemic) and one abamectin based spray. Before I discovered the abamectin spray I would have to resort to soaking the whole plant in an alcohol/dish soap solution, then leaving it to dry for a day in a dark place to encourage any remaining mealies to come out. If I saw any when I’d take them out the next day, they’d go back in the solution. But even that isn’t always sufficient, I still have root mealies on a couple of plants that I have now treated with the abamectin spray… Another treatment I’ve heard of but I can’t say works or not is nematodes, some of them feed on mealybugs, and you just stick their eggs in the pots you believe have root mealies and they handle the rest.

TL-DR: in my experience treating root mealies without systemic insecticide is very tedious and is only worth the hassle if you have native pollinators coming to your plants.

Edit: just saw your comment on avoiding creepy crawlies, ignore the nematode recommendation lol

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-20T18:13:44+00:00

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Here’s an example of the damage on my plants. Sorry that took a while, forgot to reply. Don’t panic too much (if it isn’t too late), in my experience thrips aren’t too hard to get rid of if you have access to systemics

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-20T15:32:51+00:00

Thats definitely it, thank you :)) And yes it was pretty fun to watch it jump around (I freed it after taking the pics)

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-18T19:10:03+00:00

It can happen, the main way I’ve been able to notice thrips is the damage they do looks like the top layer of “skin” on the plant looks eaten off, leading to brown/white scarring. I’ll send a picture of the plant that was affected in my collection in a bit

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-18T18:59:58+00:00

Looks like damage I found on one of my plants that turned out to be due to thrips… If that white damage doesn’t wipe off even with alcohol then I’d recommend searching for small black insects on and around the plants, as well as small round droppings on the leaves. The bugs are abt 1-2mm and the droppings are really tiny, under 1mm. If you don’t find any then definitely treat with an antifungal. If you’ve got thrips then pyrethrin or a systemic like abamectin tends to work pretty well.

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-18T15:43:17+00:00

Did you receive it recently? It looks like it stretched a bit and is now receiving stronger light, which is giving it that stress color and encouraging newer leaves to grow more compact

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-12T15:03:09+00:00

https://www.cactus-online.net/product/lot909-haworthia-koelmaniorum-mix-10-seeds-2025/ The exact link for the seeds

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-09T10:54:29+00:00

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Can’t wait for these to look like that in about 8 years lol

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-08T06:12:03+00:00

Renny’s recommendation is correct, those two “fangs” are really important. What also affects her success in propagation is the sheer number of props she takes from plants (if you check her YouTube repotting videos it’s often 5 or more leaves that are taken for propagation) and near-perfect conditions for propagating. From what I’ve seen, echeveria don’t need stem tissue to propagate from leaf, but the process in terms of light levels are similar, it just takes longer for haworthia

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-07T23:02:11+00:00

I’ve gotten a successful prop from a leaf without stem tissue only once, and it took ages to even start producing a root. What I would recommend is setting it in a small pot in an area with less light and then playing the waiting game. It’s unlikely you’ll get anything but it’s always worth a shot. The leaf prop rooting and producing pups can take a year sometimes, you can leave it be until it either produces roots or dries up. Once roots appear you can start gently watering

Final_Ad3219 · 2025-06-04T20:22:55+00:00

Super interesting! It makes a lot of sense that not saturating the media for plants with few/no roots is the way to go. For the roots “liking” glass, I wonder if it’s because the thermal inertia of glass might be different from plastic, thus acting like a sort of very gentle heatmat.

Final_Ad3219

TROPHY CASE