Secret Succulent Care Tips From a Master Succulent Grower

Succulents. Let's talk about them for a second here. Definitely something that I don't grow as much as other things, either indoors or outdoors, but I'm certainly interested in them. And I'm particularly interested in what are some misconceptions we have about succulents? And then also just where do they come from? We have millions of them being sold all over the country, all over the world. Who's actually producing all these? And so what I thought I would do is snap my fingers, head up to San Jose later on in this video and talk to someone who's in charge of a succulent program that is developing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, or even tens of millions of succulents. And how he does that at scale, misconceptions that people have about succulents, and just some really fun under the curtain things about succulent creation, propagation, and care. So let's go ahead and go up to San Jose and I'll see you in a second. We're here with Dylan, the succulent God of this nursery, and he's about to drop some serious epic knowledge on us. So what are we, what are we looking at right here? So what we're looking at right here is a selection of cuttings that we both have sourced from different, different growers across the globe, basically. And also from a large selection of plants that we have here in the nursery. And so what my workers were just, that you just saw here, we're doing is she's putting together these schedules for upcoming planting forecasts that we've got that are coming through. So she's coming through quantifying each plant that we have, how many we have, and also trying to pull material that's of a like size so that when we're planting into certain sizes, like I think these are for, probably going to be for a 2.5, which is a little two inch pot by pot. Yeah. Pot by pot sizing. So most of these will be one plant per. Some of the stuff that we get sometimes can be a little undersized and can make things difficult. Plants are, are a diverse thing. It can't always be perfect, but we have been doing really well here. I'm pulling a lot of really nice consistent material out of here. This is a kalanchoe tomentosa. It's kind of a short little shrubby kalanchoe that's native to Madagascar in South Africa. Really popular. Yeah, very fuzzy. They call it panda plant, which is kind of a silly name, but it's got the black and white on it. Plant names can be a little funny. Yeah, exactly. But so you can see a lot of different cuttings. Basically what we do is that she goes out, she takes the cuttings or we get them in from our suppliers. They then sit as a stage here for about a week or two until we're then ready to plant. They've got to kind of scab over a little bit. That week of drying time. Yeah. And we've been finding, let me just show you these guys right here. These ones I've been finding that over time. Oh, these are crazy. Yeah. So this is a really cool one called Senecio stapiliformis. Yep. It's a kind of a small little rhizomatinous grower from South Africa. It's actually, you can tell from the flowers, those that know their flowers, these are in the daisy family. So it's an Asteraceae family plant, which is pretty bizarre because it looks nothing like a herbaceous perennial. Yeah. It doesn't have your same leafy colors or an, and also the flowers are highly reduced so that they don't have those auxiliary petals around the outside of that. Just popping right out of the top. Just, just the, just the parts that are totally necessary. Yeah. When a red flower like this pops up in the South African Sahara, bugs are going to come to it. That's for sure. Yeah, no. What I've been finding with plants like this is that these actually need a significant amount of time to callus over this wound. Yeah. What's a big cutting too? There's a big cut opening. There's a real fine line between a plant becoming so desiccated that it is throwing out its last bit of energy to set roots into the soil. Yeah. And then that perfect amount of time that a plant needs in order to transfer to a cutting. Too soon and you have a rotting scenario. Too soon. And so like with things like this, so this is a perfect example of a cutting that was just taken and you can see that the wound there is still completely and totally fresh, totally open. Yep. So we would want to let this sit here and dry. And that callusing is for a couple of different reasons. It basically stimulates the root growth, but it also closes off that wound, which is a vector for viruses and diseases or anything like that that can get in there. And so it'll dry out. And then actually once that calluses is hardened, there's a hormonal response that happens within the plant that then stimulates it to grow roots. And with succulents it can be very difficult. A lot of other herbaceous plants that are take, that cuttings are taken up, you need hormones and you actually need moisture in order to induce those rooting sites. With succulents, like I said, it's a very fine line. And so when we're rooting large swaths of plants like this, if you look out over here, this was actually just one large project that we had done. Um, it's, I think 24,000 individual plants or something like that. And so to get consistent rooting times throughout all of those, you need to be totally aware of what plant you're planting, every single variable requirements are and what it's actually really going to need and take. So with a plant like this, we've been making some adjustments. Most of the time we'll give these things a one week dry time, but for these guys we're going to try out two weeks. Right. So we've had some unfortunate rotting, but nothing's perfect. You're just watching everything, right? Cause you do a one week dry time, it doesn't work as well. You switch it to two, you change one variable. Yeah. Exactly. And so, um, you know, it really, with succulents, um, a lot of things can be very generalized. Um, full sun, no water, let it dry before you plant it. A lot of these things, um, are said because it gives us the best chance of general success for most of these plants. I think also from like the home gardener perspective, you don't have to be right on this scale. You know what I mean? You can have some losses, but if you have a 5% loss, that's devastating for you. When your Senecio at home starts to die and you want to save it and you take your three little cuttings that are left and you're going to bring it back from the brink of death, it's not as dire as say these, these larger projects like this, but it is still good to know what you're working with. Um, here's another Senecio. Senecio's typically are pretty voracious growers. And in fact, um, I could probably dig up a cutting here that's actually got some adventitious root growth starting to pop out already. Yeah. Yeah. Um, they'll start from the undersides of the, of the stems. So there's a couple of sites right there and it's really small, but you can see just those little nubs there. Those are actually rooting sites. And so the plants will actually start to throw roots out well before you even cut them. And so plants like that can't... It's like similar to the bottom of a tomato where you see the nodules start to form. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. And it's those, uh, yeah, you can see, you can almost see a little nub right there. So it's the beginning of a root. And so with these, you really, the cutting and the callusing is almost superfluous act. You could really, truly with plants like this, I've called them the garden worthy succulents where you could take a cutting and throw it over your shoulder and it'll root where it lands. You know what I mean? So those are, those are fairly, fairly easy. Yeah. So, uh, we moved down to see a bunch of different types. We've got plants from all over the world in here. Oh, these are awesome. We've got Scilla. This is a little bulbous type plant that comes from South Africa. Wow. It's really neat. That's a really cool one. We've got some blooms right there. Yeah. Super highly reduced, but beautiful. Silver Squill is another name for those ones. Pretty cool. So plants like this are actually pretty easy cause division is the ideal form. Right. Like most people have done. You can see there's even another little baby right in there. And so now you got five. Pull those apart and there you go. That's your setting. With a lot of this stuff too, what we do is probably just take the roots away and just be, we just be just like that. Yeah. And so then we've got Sedums. We've got some more Senecios. Here's some Graptopetalums. These are from Central America. It's kind of a really cool little plant here. Wow. I really like these guys. Yeah. Um, the flowers, let's see if I can get a live flower on these guys. Um, I'm not seeing one. I can't see any, but these are really neat, super diminutive little plant in the Cressaceae family. Yeah, there you go. They're just a really neat little. Right there. Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. Yeah. They're beautiful. Wow. Love these ones. Super small, tiny little plants. A lot of big ones. We've got more Kalanchoes here. Um, here's some Burrow's tail. That's a little classic one. Oh, it's a super popular one. Yeah. And then when we get down here, we're getting into the, where they're. So as we get into here, we're going to get into what we've actually stuffed already. Um, you can see this is kind of a prime example of plants that are in this intermittent stage. Um, you can visually see the ones that have not totally thrown roots yet. And then you can see the ones that are actually. Starting to dry out. They're using up their resources. So a lot of the times for me, visual cues are what I'm using on a daily basis. Um, before I'm even touching the plants, I've summarized at least three or four different things about how the plant is doing, what it's doing, where it is in its rooting stage, and how much water it's actually going to need. And so, um, you can see ones that are kind of in between. Like this guy right here, on the sketchy side. Yeah. Well, see, it's still got a little play to it. These guys are pretty much fully rooted in. Yeah, exactly. And so do you come through then and quality control and pull if it's like too far gone? That's, I mean, any, yeah, any good grower is constantly observing and it's basically, it's a huge portion of the job is to basically just observe these plants on a day-to-day basis. And that is both from picking them up, larger pots you do this a lot where you pick it up and you actually feel the weight of it. Um, the top visual representation of the color of the soil isn't always an indicator of whether or not the entire profile is totally saturated with water. So picking up larger pots and just kind of giving them a heft is a good way of really, you know, recognizing whether or not there's enough soil. Coloration on the plants. Um, and then also, um, yeah, pulling on them. Yeah, new growth coming out right there. Yeah, exactly. And so you can see some new growth on there. This is a Haworthia pentagona. I'd imagine it at your sort of level, you see so much, you can look at a plant and be like, this is this, this, this, this is going on with it right away. Yeah. So like with a group like that, there's some pretty intermittent success happening over there right now. Um, you can see the ones that are actually doing well with that nice lighter green color that's popping out and then ones that really are not coming through. And so you've got a lot of intermittent, but some plants are, some plants are, um, you know, more 60, 40 than others. Plants like this, this is almost, yeah, you're almost at a hundred here. And so, uh, it's, it's pretty easy to see. Um, there we go. Here's the one can't be totally perfect. So one, one pot that basically the cutting just didn't get totally stuck in and he's still, still throwing a root out. He'll be fine. So we'll just kind of stick them like that and we'll catch up with them a little bit later. Awesome. Yeah. So a lot of, a lot of different stuff in here. Here's another group of plants that obviously has some difficulty. Um, not all plants are perfect. Um, this one specifically, we've had some pest issues with it in the past. And so again, observational cues are really key to maintaining healthy, healthy crops, you know. So, um. You, I mean you grow thousands upon thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of succulents. You've seen probably every mistake that could be made, right? And made. And you've made them. Myself. Right. So what would you say are like five perhaps misconceptions or mistakes that people will make when it comes to succulent care? Um, so, uh, starting is placement of the plant. Um, ill placement of these plants can be pretty detrimental right off the bat. Um, you know, indoor situations can be very challenging. And so finding that right light level for these plants is very important. Um, and I think that more light is always better, but total and complete unrelenting sun is not always the best either. Right. Which people will think is, cause they say throw it in the dirt. Throw it straight out in the sun. Yeah, exactly. So that brings us to the second part is never watering these plants. Yeah. Full sun, no water. Gets you a lot of color, but it also gets you a very short lived plant. Okay. Um, in the end, watering these plants pretty generally and pretty, pretty consistently, um, gives you a lot more color out of these plants and a lot more even growth. These ones are just starting out, but it can actually encourage a lot of root growth to come out of the plants. So while a lot of people feel like they need to throw a cutting onto dry soil and never water it until it shows signs of growth, that's not always the best way to go about it. And so watering these plants in after they've shown a little bit of root growth is very important. Fertilizer can be super helpful in bringing these plants up to a really healthy growing status. Um, you don't want to over fertilize these plants, but they do appreciate a general fertilizer, um, really at any point in time during the growing season. Okay. Um, uh, let's see. Um, as far as soil mixes goes, uh, a lot of people choose to put these things in basically like sand and, and lava rock. Yeah. And honestly, while that is good for a lot of these plants, um, succulents really do appreciate what we would call in the horticulture industry, immaculate drainage. But that doesn't mean that the soil that you're using has to be devoid of all compost or organic materials. A good general soil mix is what I like to recommend to people. And even still maybe taking a general potting mix and a cactus mix and just 50-50 mixing those things. I've been found to be my best mix. Yeah. And when you're going back to the horticulture sort of immaculate drainage, what does that mean to the layman? Basically, um, a soil that will let water come in and then leave. And it's not holding too much. It's not holding too much water. Yeah. Um, basically you don't want it, immaculate drainage, both it pertains both to the soil and to the pot that the plant is in. Yeah. Um, a pot with no drainage, you need to be very careful about how much water you're actually putting in there because the water then is not going to leave. Okay. Um, succulents appreciated a certain amount of water and this goes along with one of the misconceptions about them being totally and utterly drought tolerant plants. It's not that they are never in contact with water. It's that the water that they do come in contact with, they then are able to store through all of these super modified systems to then keep for when they don't have the water. So it's not the thing at a constant rate like most plants. Yeah, exactly. So, um, and then, um, one of my favorite things that I hear all the time about succulent plants that always makes me kind of laugh is that people proclaim, I didn't know they flowered. Yeah. And so I always have to kind of keep myself from sounding like the snarky botanist type person that says they're a flowering plant. They're not an angiosperm, they're a gemnosperm. So all of these plants are going to flower. Right. Unlike pine trees, which, you know, let their pollen loose into the wind. All of these plants are all, all flowering plants and all have a very beautiful flower that comes. Um, a lot of people can be, I don't know, kind of skeptical about whether or not the flowers are worth looking at. And I always find them to be super beautiful and really, really nice. And a nice surprise, I think. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. You'd be surprised how many people have no idea that these plants would ever flower. And it's, it's always kind of shocking to me. Um, yeah. And, uh, just how versatile that they are. I mean, a lot of these plants, yeah, are from so many different regions of the world. Um, they can tolerate a lot of different climactic conditions and, um, you know, explore, move some of them around to the side of the house where maybe there's not as much sunlight and you'll see a lot more full lush growth out of them. Colors may change a little bit, but for the most part, these plants can be fairly successful just about anywhere that you put them. Cool. Yeah. Awesome. That's it guys, from the master himself, some succulent tips. Until next time, good luck in the garden and keep on growing.