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Posted 1Y ago by @ComicFicus

Cleo isn’t faring too well

I just repotted her. I’m not sure what’s wrong. When I got her she was full and 3 separate stems and doing great. This is my only one struggling. At first I thought it was being overwatered so I backed off. Then I thought it was being underwatered cause there was no change. She just keeps eating all of her leaves. I was able to start a couple leaves in a prop tray just in case I lose her. But I don’t know how to help her.
4” pot with drainage
Last watered 1 year ago
It has just been repotted. It's stressed. Give the plant a lot (6+ up to 11) hours a day of bright indirect light. Freshly repotted plants don't like direct light right away. Water only when the top 2" of the soil is dry. The soil is regular not for succulents, so you must water very sparingly. Do not change the soil now, because Cleo will be more stressed and you may lose it. Be patient , take care of your plant, and wait. After about 2 weeks your Cleo will stop dropping leaves.
@SvelteKingfern she’s stressed now, but prior to today she shouldn’t have been. I repotted it when I got her end of September. It gets 12 hours a day like all my other ones under a grow light. She did great for about 2 weeks then just started eating all her leaves. I left it in that pot and tried watering a couple days sooner, it just kept dropping leaves. I tried watering a couple days longer, still kept dropping leaves. I use a bamboo skewer to help check dryness. And I poke the dirt 3-4 times around to make sure before watering. I just now after almost 3 months finally repotted and the only stem left of the 3 is this one. And I always acclimate them after repotting. So I keep them out of the light for a few days. I’ve been patient for 3 months and she just keeps dropping leaves. 😒
You're doing everything right. The only thing, how long is the pot?

The diameter is 11.4 cm; this sounds right, but if the pot is long, the water may stay there for too long.
When your saying eating it’s leaves are they still plump and turning yellow then dropping of it are the looking shriveled up before dropping off?
@SvelteKingfern the info on here isn’t accurate. It was about 4inches across and about 4inches deep. Now I have it in a starter pot while I nurse it.
@Gordo both. They’re squishy and translucent/yellow, then shrivel and fall off. If they make it that long. Sometimes they just fall off before shriveling up but are still the translucent squishy.
@ComicFicus that’s a sign of overwatering. Over watering doesn’t always mean that you’re giving too much water. It means that the soil is holding too much water around the roots. Is it in a really well draining soil mix suitable for succulents or is it in a heavy coir based potting mix, that seems to be very hard when you touch it. sometimes when you water plant it may look dry on the surface but on the bottom part that you can’t see, it is really quite wet. He mentioned when you were putting a skewer in the soil to test to see if it was needing watering or not, was there still soil attached to the skewer?
@Gordo I never water any of them unless the skewer is clean. And I stick it all the way down in my slightly taller pots, which this was one of them. This is the only one I’m having this issue with and I have over 30 total. I immediately assumed it was overwatering when I first noticed it and stopped watering it for several weeks but it still kept doing this. Hopefully this new mini pot will be better though. I can watch it more closely in the tinier pot and hopefully it’ll bounce back now. Even though I’m very OCD about my checking practices, I’m sure there still could have been some moisture in there. So I’m just going to leave it in this pot for a while. The new dirt was a little bit damp when I moved it though so hopefully that won’t hurt it too much more.

All of my plants are in a 50/50 cactus/perlite mix. I know perlite isn’t the greatest but it’s what I had already so I’m trying to use up the bag before I move to a different grit.
Is sounds like you have done everything right and have everything set up right so it could have just been the plant. I hope it recovers as I’m sure it will πŸŒ΅πŸ’š
@Gordo thank you!
There are plants that just don't make it. Like @Gordo said above.
@SvelteKingfern thank you! I appreciate both of your help! I hope she can bounce back after this change. If not I was able to get 2 leaves to propagate when I first got her. So it won’t be a complete loss.
No worries, good luck.