Misting is an “act” of gentle watering, at least when compared to direct watering. Sprinkling some water on the plant, the leaves, the stem, but also the ground, with a sprinkler or spray bottle, or any other fitting tool-that’s what misting is all about. But do succulents like it? And is it necessary? I will try to answer the questions on the following lines.
To start with, misting is beneficial to the majority of succulent varieties. Actually, you can gently mist your succulents in about 2-4 days interval, or simple 1-2 times per week. If you live in arid and dry climate, or have your succulents outdoors where they get a lot of sunlight, you can mist them every 3-4 days. Just be sure that you mist only the surface soil of your succulent, instead of soaking it wet, which may result in over-watering and subsequent issues.
For those in colder places, you can mist your succulents once a week. Just give them enough sunlight and day-interval for them to sip all the water. Misting helps greatly in propagation and pruning of succulents. It maintains the moisture of the plant and gives your succulent an easy recovery and growth, so when you want to take a leaf off (for propagation purposes), the process is smooth and the plant does not suffer.
Misting succulents before pruning them
When it comes to pruning, you can actually mist first your succulent before you proceed to cut the parts, especially if your succulent has leaves, like echeveria, aeonium, and kalanchoe. Misting the soil will provide them enough water to strengthen their stems or core, and pruning should not cause them trauma, or a hard time, just because the soil was too dry during pruning or cutting.
During propagation, it is important to remember that misting is a vital process especially in creating a recovery soil. You must prepare a good soil for your succulents’ parts and maintain its moisture, in order to make sure the plants can successfully propagate and reproduce.
A good recovery soil is moistened or can be misted for at least 1-3 times a week depending on the dryness and amount of sunlight your recovery pot received. If your recovery soil with propagated parts is in direct sunlight, you can mist it 2-3 times a week with short interval. If the recovery pot is in shade and in colder places, 1-2 times per week would do.
Clay and plastic pot are good for succulents you mist
Propagating succulents is a sensitive process. It is important to have a regular watering schedule to maintain the moisture of the plant. In propagating succulents, you can have a large shallow pot with drainage holes that serves as your “recovery pot”. Pots made up of plastic or clay, compare to metallic containers, are a better choice.
Clay and plastic pots are good at maintaining the right temperature for the plant and give it a balanced amount of water and heat. Metallic pots will trap excess heat keeping the temperature a little unbalanced for the plant causing it is a more rapid water loss that may lead your plant to under watering and wrinkling.
Mist one or two times per week after replanting a succulent
When replanting young succulents, prepare your soil exactly as the soil in your recovery pot. You can mist it for at least 1-2 times per week. But be cautious for it is too fragile, and such a young succulent can die, especially if you over-water it. It may rot or form molds that will surely affect the growth of your plant.
When replanting mature succulents, there is no need to exert delicate care because they are less fragile. You can actually water or mist them once a week or every other week.
Related: How to Prepare Soil for Succulent?
Misting plays a role in succulent fertilization
Misting and watering also plays a big role in fertilizing succulents. It maintains the quality of the soil, the compactness of the arrangement and its roots, and it improves the color and speeds up the growth of your succulent.
For indoor succulents, you can fertilize them once a year. Just be sure that you give them enough sunlight and water to cater to the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium induced to the soil by the fertilizers. For outdoor succulents, you can give them fertilizer twice a year (one in fall and one in spring or once every 6 months).
Misting spreads evenly the application of fertilizers especially the direct-application or dissolved fertilizer. You can also spray or sprinkle the soil of your arrangement, and then mist it with water. Some growers prefer the manure tea fertilizers, because aside from being hundred percent organic, it is safer and easy to use when compared to other fertilizers.
Misting plays little role in the life of mature succulents
Mature succulents have already developed their capacity to hold water in their structure, their leaves, stems, and roots. Logically they do not need misting or frequent watering. It is best for their soil to stay dry for a couple of weeks or even months before watering again. Excessive water will make them unstable and weak.
Misting plays a role in early stages of cacti and succulent development. Once they are grown, it plays a little role, though it won’t harm your plants to mist them once every other week, for example. At the end of the day, rain also falls in semi-desert areas, the native lands of succulent plants. So they get their “misting” there, and are accustomed to it.
Growing succulents needs time, dedication, effort, resources, knowledge, passion, and discipline. I hope this article helps you a bit with the knowledge part :). If you like it, do not forget to check also other popular posts on the blog: