My university professor said I should just water my succulents less and ignore the yellow leaves, but I kept adding fertilizer instead for 6 months

Yeah, I know it sounds dumb now. Professor Chen at State told me back in March that yellow leaves on succulents usually mean too much water, not too little. But I was stubborn and bought this expensive liquid fertilizer from a garden center downtown. I used it every other week. By June, three of my echeverias were basically mush. One of them rotted right through the stem. I finally caved and followed his advice - stopped watering for like 3 weeks and switched to a gritty soil mix. Now they're all plump and green again. Has anyone else been dead set on a fix that made things way worse?

2 comments

2 Comments

wendy_clark7d ago

My neighbor went through something similar but with her orchids. She was convinced they needed more light so she put them right in a south facing window. They got all crispy and brown within two weeks. I told her to move them back but she said no, they need more sun. She kept at it for like three months before she finally gave up and moved them to an east window. Now they're blooming like crazy. Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way even when people who know better are telling you what to do. It's like your brain gets stuck on one idea and won't let go no matter what.

tara3457d ago

Guess it depends on how you look at it though. I mean yeah it sucks that her orchids got crispy but three months of bad decisions with some plants isn't exactly a life or death thing. People get so hung up on being right about the dumbest stuff. Like my dad spent a whole summer trying to grow tomatoes in a spot that got like two hours of sun a day. We all told him it was pointless but he kept at it and got like three tiny tomatoes. He still acts like he won somehow. Sometimes I wonder if it even matters that much in the long run.