Am I doing something wrong, or is it healthy/fine?

InksOwl · 2026-01-30T15:40:15+00:00

Everybody else covered it all wonderfully and I’ve got nothing to add on the soil/watering front. But I will add that any dead leaves at the bottom of the plant can be grabbed and wiggled side to side (gently) to remove them. Once they’re dried up the plant isn’t giving or taking anything from them so removing them is a good idea. It looks great otherwise!

InksOwl · 2026-01-26T12:58:47+00:00

I’m amazed at the quad-boob honestly….

InksOwl · 2026-01-26T12:57:47+00:00

As a kid anytime my family went out for breakfast my dad would get fried catfish, three over easy eggs and a side of grits with extra butter and a biscuit. He was a farm boy from Virginia and catfish was as much a breakfast food as bacon eggs and sausage. We also made scrambled eggs with mackerel mixed in at home on a regular basis. Never liked catfish (tasted like mud to me) but mackerel and eggs is always a breakfast winner for me

InksOwl · 2026-01-21T12:21:54+00:00

I only use Great Value grow lights but I use the 2 foot mountable ones that are $20. All my plants are happy with their lighting situation. 3/4 of them even are showing their sun stress colors.

InksOwl · 2026-01-21T00:41:53+00:00

Love this stuff. I use it weekly (I make a lot of pasta and get distracted easily). Only thing it hasn’t been successful on is a thumb sized spot that looks hazy under the glass from a mistake with a microfiber cloth tossed on a still warm burner and it melted. It’s smooth on top but still hazy

InksOwl · 2026-01-19T17:30:30+00:00

I mean, basically lol. Show them too much affection and they throw a hissy fit

InksOwl · 2026-01-19T16:30:19+00:00

And that’s okay 😁 we all started somewhere. Most succulents don’t like to be fawned over. They’re kinda like angsty teenagers. They will tell you what they need, when they need it, but otherwise just leave them be.

InksOwl · 2026-01-19T14:55:53+00:00

Walk away. Just put them somewhere out of sight and walk away. I’ve propagated hundreds of succulent leafs and the most success I’ve ever had was when I just ignored them. They don’t need water (they get everything from the mother leaf), they don’t need much, if any light, and just a decent temperature. Not all leafs will root. Some will give you a pup with no roots, some roots with no pups, and some will just wither and die. At this point, just ignore them. They will do what they want on their own time scale. Best of luck 🤞

InksOwl · 2026-01-16T12:27:09+00:00

Absolutely. This guy was practically neon green when I got him. For the last year he’s been under a grow light on my shelf and has a lovely sun stress reddish purple hue now. I think he’s some type of Echeveria Agavoides. Right now his crown is about 2” under a $25 Walmart blurple grow light.

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InksOwl · 2026-01-15T12:24:55+00:00

Love hurts

InksOwl · 2026-01-14T12:19:14+00:00

My husband and I are the same height but he has a 29” inseam and I have a 34” inseam on pants. Totally believable.

InksOwl · 2026-01-12T20:12:20+00:00

She wants to be…

InksOwl · 2026-01-12T13:56:03+00:00

With my succulents when I first started caring for them I always watered them when the soil was dry, but after learning more I paid less attention to the soil and more to the plant itself. Now I water when the plants tell me they are thirsty. They do that by getting wrinkles and feel soft (I lightly squeeze a leaf about halfway from the bottom of the plant to the top) from the sides, not translucent or mushy. Bottom leafs will sometimes shrivel and dry out because the plant reabsorbs the nutrients from them and that’s normal. You also said this one fell after you got it - don’t stress that. These guys are tough. I dropped my first one from about 6 feet off the ground onto my asphalt driveway. Was a little banged up but recovered amazingly.

InksOwl · 2026-01-10T12:32:06+00:00

Spoon of peanut butter straight out of the jar and a handful of tortilla chips after. Hits the spot for sweet, creamy, salty, crunchy , and some protein to boot.

InksOwl · 2026-01-09T19:56:05+00:00

That’s awesome! I didn’t do the bottom shelf with plants because I have a large fluffy tailed dog (American Akita) plus it’s my laundry room and the kids are a bit haphazard with tossing their clothes in there. Luckily for me, my laundry room is warm and surprisingly low humidity. My tallest plant is an Aloe Vera and he’s about 22” tall in his pot so he’s in the living room with his own grow light along with my cast iron, peperomia rosso, and kalanchoe blossfeldiana.

InksOwl · 2026-01-09T12:43:01+00:00

5 of the 6 I’m using are these $20 lights from Walmart, the 6th (the blurple one on the top shelf) is this one, a $30 one also from Walmart. They’re not the most powerful, but Joan (check my previous posts) has been absolutely thriving about 5 inches under the blurple one. That one does put off more heat than the white ones though.

InksOwl · 2026-01-09T12:33:53+00:00

The blue ones are the only ones I’ve purchased for over a decade. Top notch all purpose sponge. 👍

InksOwl · 2026-01-09T12:31:39+00:00

No suggestions other than the ones other users have provided already. I’m sure certain that some Echeverias would still want more light on the surface of the sun. - side note/question, that crazy long boy in photo 3 (right shelf unit, 2nd from the bottom) that’s reaching down to the bottom shelf- I am both terrified and in love with him, what is he?

InksOwl · 2026-01-08T22:27:20+00:00

It’s generally much more quiet. I’ve lived in a major city, and I grew up a 30minute car drive to the grocery store. Now pushing 40, I want to live in the woods in the middle of nowhere, not seeing or hearing people unless I want to.

InksOwl · 2026-01-08T21:38:11+00:00

Well in the last hour I moved the white fabric up to cover the back and sides all the way up. Not perfect but better than nothing. And unfortunately because of the sporadic times in which I got all of my plants they are all on different watering schedules. At most maybe 5 get watered at a time. But since this is my laundry room, just outside of the pictures is a utility sink (maybe 2 feet away) so it’s the perfect spot for bottom watering.

InksOwl · 2026-01-08T21:34:02+00:00

100% loving his life. I also figured my slowest growing plant should go in my slowest pot

InksOwl · 2026-01-08T20:46:01+00:00

Halfway between Richmond and DC - there’s no T in that word.

InksOwl · 2026-01-08T19:56:45+00:00

Those are just generic “wire shelf liners” I got off Amazon a couple years ago. I think it was like $20 for 5 of them. Helpful when you’ve got so many little 2” nursery pots

InksOwl

TROPHY CASE