Indoor Succulents: Laying the Groundwork for Success

1. Help! My Indoor Succulents are Dying!: [MUSIC] Hi, I'm Kat from Succulent Geeks. Welcome to my class on indoor succulents, laying the groundwork for success. This class is perfect for anyone who wants to get started right, as well as anyone who's had trouble keeping indoor succulents alive. I'll teach you how to evaluate your environment, choose the proper pots and soil, and even give you some suggestions on beginner friendly indoor succulents. You'll use these skills to choose and transplant your first succulent or rescue a succulent you already own that's been struggling. If you're a beginner, you're in the right place and if you're a black thumb in need of succulent salvation, I can help you too. I am a former succulent serial killer myself. I've made every mistake you can make with indoor succulents, but through trial and error and research, I've turned my black thumb green. Today I have dozens of happy, thriving succulents. During the pandemic, I even started an indoor succulents accessory business so I could share my hard-won knowledge with others. Succulent success can be yours. When we're through, you'll be able to buy new succulents with the confidence that you'll be able to keep them alive. [MUSIC] 2. The Steps to Indoor Succulent Success: An Overview: [MUSIC] For the hands-on part of this class, I'll walk you through my steps for succulent success. Getting these steps right is crucial for the survival of your succulent. Step 1, evaluating the ideal location in your home for a succulent. Step 2, picking the optimal succulent for that location in your home. Step 3, find the right pots and soil. Step 4, choosing the best specimen from your local nursery or online. This step will cover my tips and tricks on how to choose the healthiest plant at the nursery, as well as assessing any shipped plants once they arrive. Step 5, preparing and transplanting your succulent, the succulent geeks way. Step 6, watering properly to avoid root rot and edema. By the end of this project, you'll be the proud and confident owner of your specially chosen and newly transplanted succulent. [MUSIC] 3. The Dirt on Indoor Succulents: Why They're Trickier Than You Think: Hey there. Welcome to Lesson 3, the dirt on indoors succulents. Why they're trickier than you think. You've probably heard that succulents are low maintenance and easy to care for. They are, outdoors. Indoors succulent growing is a different matter and here's why. Succulents were originally desert dwellers adapted to thriving in sun scorched, arid conditions with frequent droughts. In order to survive, succulents hoarded water whenever they got it and stored it in their adorable, chubby little leaves for later. Your house for your own comfort is probably as far away from desert conditions as it could possibly get. That's the problem. Succulents like it dry, bright and airy and your house is damper, darker and stuffier than they'd appreciate. Great for most other houseplants, but not these desert dwellers. A succulent is not a fern. Is keeping succulents indoors even possible then? Yes, it is, but it requires very specific and somewhat counterintuitive care compared to most plants. When I started caring for succulents, I knew nothing about this. When all of my succulents slowly started dying on me, I went to the Internet for answers. But most of the stuff I found was for outdoors succulent gardening and useless to me and some of the tips even made things worse. To save you the pain and frustration I went through, I'm going to teach you exactly what works for keeping succulents indoors, starting with how to achieve the perfect indoor environment for them in my next lesson, assessing your environment. See you there. [MUSIC] 4. Assessing Your Environment: [MUSIC] Hey. Welcome to Lesson 4, assessing your environment. The first step to indoor succulent success is choosing the best place in your home to keep them. Recapping from last lesson, succulents like a dry, bright and airy. Damp, dark and stuffy causes a bunch of problems, many of which lead to death. It's important to choose your succulents new home carefully. Let's start with the three key conditions to a great succulent environment. Number 1, lots of light. Succulents need at least 4-6 hours of direct sunlight or 10 hours of very bright artificial light each day in order to photosynthesize and to prevent stretching, also known as etiolation. But despite being desert plants, succulents can sunburn. Morning sun when the light is less intense is ideal. Number 2, good airflow. Good airflow helps to dry soil quickly and prevent things like root rot and edema. Open windows and spacious rooms provide great airflow for succulents. Three, low humidity. If your climate is very humid, like 50 percent or higher, succulents can show symptoms of over watering and be more susceptible to pests and fungus. It's important to minimize humidity as much as possible. Based on these components, the best place for a succulent would be the sill of a south-facing window in an open room with great airflow and maybe a little air conditioning if you live in a humid climate. But what if you don't have a south-facing window or a big room or A/C? Time to get creative. First, pick a spot in your house that checks most of the boxes. Next, assess which components this location lacks and you can augment in the following ways. Too little light. This is the easiest hurdle to jump. Succulents grow just as well under artificial lights as they do under the sun. You don't even have to get one specifically marked grow light. Any artificial light will do provided that it's very bright, as close to 2,000 lumens as you can get and that you can mount it 6-10 inches above your succulents. Pro tip, set the light on a timer, so you don't have to remember to turn it on and off every day. No airflow, no problem. Buying a little fan is an easy way to increase the airflow if you need to keep your succulents in a more enclosed space. Put the fan on a timer as well, so you can set it and forget it. Too humid. The aforementioned fan will also help control humidity, ensuring that any water particles in the air don't hang around in one space long enough to cause problems. Also, avoid putting your succulents in places like kitchens and bathrooms where sinks and showers can raise the humidity level. That's all you need to know to find the perfect place in your home for your succulents. Your homework for this lesson is to assess the places in your home based on the conditions I've talked about today, and pick one that satisfies as many of them as possible or it can be easily augmented to be more hospitable. In the next lesson, we'll discuss how to pick the perfect succulent variety to thrive in the location you chose. See you there. [MUSIC] 5. Picking the Best Succulent Variety for You: Hey, welcome to Lesson 5, picking the best succulent variety for you. Did you know that there are some succulent varieties that do better indoors than others? Along with choosing an appropriate place in your home for your succulents to live, picking a succulent that's already predisposed to doing better indoors makes your job a lot easier. I'll give a list of specific suggestions at the end of the lesson but here are some tips to recognizing indoor friendly succulents on-site. A good indoor succulent will most likely be green. Succulents come in all colors of the rainbow. That's part of their beauty and charm but those brightly colored red, pink, blue, and purple succulents you see on everyone's Instagram feeds will not be happy with lower light levels indoors and may grow stringy and tall without adequate light. If you don't even want to worry about it too relation and all green succulent will usually stay compact with less light. Fuzzy. Tone asked me why the fuzzier sucks, do better indoors. I'm not super sure myself but it's true that many of the velvet leaf varieties are much easier to care for indoors than their counterparts. They're cute, so fuzzy, and naked. What I mean by naked is without Farina. Farina is a white, waxy coating that covers many succulents and access succulent sunscreen. It makes sense that succulent with a lot of fair enough or better attuned to sunny outdoor environments than those without a. May do poorly when taken out of their natural environment whereas succulents without Farina will do just as well indoors. Look for a succulent with one or more of these traits for a better indoor experience. If you need help, remembering a good indoor succulent is like Kermit the Frog. Green, fuzzy, naked. On top of these tips, Some succulent genuses just do better indoors. Some of these include Haworthia, Gasteria, Crassula, Cotyledon, and Kalanchoe. If the succulents name starts with one of those, chances are good it'll thrive indoors and need less maintenance in the long run. It's not to say that succulents of other genuses won't do well indoors, but they'll require more work to keep happy. These next succulents are some that I've had personal experience with and I think they're both great for indoors and forgiving a beginner mistakes. Any of them would make a fantastic addition to your own. Haworthia fasciata, zebra plant, Gasteria, Little Warty, Kalanchoe humilis, Striped Kalanchoe, Corpuscularia Lehmannii, ice plant, Crassula ovata, baby Jade. Echeveria, Perle von Nurnberg, Kalanchoe tomentosa, Panda Plant. You can also search best indoor succulents on the Internet for more suggestions. One more succulent I'd like to highlight is grabbed a Peloton Paraguay, the ghost plant. I think it's one of the best plants for people who consider themselves black thumbs. Why? It's practically indestructible, over watered underwatered, even infested with mealybugs, this succulent is a survivor. The only caveat is that it has a very, very high light requirement to stay compact. You'll definitely need a super sunny window or grow lights to keep this guy happy. But if you're the type of person who inevitably kills every succulent you own, this might be your match. Now, that you've got an idea of what makes a good indoor succulent, it's time to move on to selecting the proper soil. See you in the next lesson. [MUSIC] 6. Selecting the Proper Soil: Have you seen those commercials urging you to buy an expensive mattress because you spend a third of your life in bed? Well, your succulents will spend 100 percent of their lives in the soil you choose for them, so choose wisely. Welcome to Lesson 6, selecting the proper soil. When you buy a succulent from a nursery or online, it's likely going to come in cheap potting soil. But potting soil isn't appropriate for indoor succulents because it holds on to moisture and restricts airflow. One of the first things you'll have to do with a new plant is transfer it into better soil. If we take a look, you can see how rich potting soil looks. Dark, fine-grained, and moist, almost like chocolate cake. But succulents are spartans, they don't want dessert, they'd prefer to store water in their leaves rather than in their soil. Succulents prefer a grittier mixed with less organic matter and more clay and minerals, something with a large particle size that allows water to drain out and air to flow in. In fact, we prefer to use the term substrate for most succulent soil because typical soil is full of living, dying, and decaying organic matter and substrate is primarily non-organic. You could actually make your own succulent soil by mixing coarse sand or other additives into potting soil to increase drainage and airflow but that's going to take a lot of experimentation, so I recommend just buying an established succulent substrate. My favorite is Bonsai Jack's gritty mix number 111, soil for succulent and cactus. It works consistently well for me in my humid climate and it looks gorgeous. Embrace that desert aesthetic. You won't even want a top dressing with this. Another mix that works well for me is super fly bonsai, succulent and cactus soil mix. It's a bit pricier but you can find it on Amazon. If Bonsai Jack dries out too fast, this may be a better fit. Next, we need something to put your soil in. [MUSIC] 7. Evaluating Pots: Still with me? Welcome to Lesson 7, Picking the Perfect Pot. [NOISE] Say that seven times fast. We're going to look at several pots and grade them for indoors succulents on four different criteria, roughly from most important to least important: drainage, size, airflow, aesthetics. The most common killer of indoor succulents is root rot and the most common cause of root rot is a pot with poor drainage. An empty pot should drain completely when you add water. If there's any water remaining, that's bad. Very bad. You want to choose a pot that leaves your succulent a little room to stretch and grow. There should be enough space on all sides so that the root ball doesn't touch. If you have to choose, slightly undersized is better than slightly oversized. A pot that's too large will retain excess moisture. Look for pots made of breathable material like wood or terracotta or specialty pots designed to promote airflow. The higher the humidity in your home, the more important airflow will be. In a high humidity environment, the soil at the bottom of your pot can stay damp for weeks after the top has dried. For me, aesthetics is last on the list, because functionality is more important. That said, if you find a pot you absolutely love, maybe you can improve its drainage and airflow with the addition of a few well-placed holes. Let's look at some pots. First we have this very pretty ceramic pot. But because it's glazed, it's not breathable. If you take a look inside here, even though it does have a drainage hole which you think would provide adequate drainage, because this center is raised, the water floods to the edges of the pot and pools in the legs here and in these divots, and just keeps the bottom of your pot soaking wet for a very long time. This just spells root rot for succulents and this is not good for indoors. Even worse, this glass jar has no breathability or drainage. These curved sides trap humidity and make this just not a good environment for succulents indoors. On the other end of the spectrum, this terracotta pot has excellent breathability because the air can go through the non-glazed clay on the outside. This is one of probably the best pots that you could use indoors. Next is my current favorite, this mesh pot. As you can see it's plastic [NOISE], which means that it's not that breathable of a material, but check this out, See all of those holes? It has holes all around the bottom and all up and down the terrace sides adding to the breathability and making this a really excellent pot for indoors. It actually saved a whole bunch of my succulents from root rot, so I can't talk about this enough, but it's a little hard to find. So if you're having trouble finding it, you can also opt for this plastic, stereotypical nursery pot. It's still got the non-breathable plastic sides, but has a lot of holes on the bottom. So it will do quite well, especially coupled with the soil that we talked about in our previous lesson. Finding the perfect pot is a balancing act that will depend on your climate, your particular plant, and your aesthetic sense. But remember, a live plant in a plain pot looks better than a dead plant in a cute pot. [MUSIC] 8. How to Buy the Best Succulent at the Nursery: [MUSIC] Hi everyone, welcome to lesson 8, how to buy the best succulent at the nursery. By this point, you should already know where you'll be keeping your succulents in your house, which varieties will make good indoor growers and the potting soil that will give you the best chance at keeping them alive. If you haven't yet, go and buy your chosen potting soil and when you have them, come back to this lesson. If you've already got all your stuff, it's time for the fun part. Buying your succulent. If you want to order your succulent online and have it shipped to you, jump on over to the next lesson. But if you'd rather go to a local nursery or a garden store, you're in the right place. There are several things to consider when trying to find the healthiest plant at the nursery. But instead of telling you, I think it'd be easier to show you. You know what that means? Field trip time. [MUSIC] Hey, we're at Lowe's garden center, we're just going to go walk in and see if we can find some good succulents. Let's take a look at some of the ones that I think would be great indoors. I'll give you some tips and tricks on how to scan the group and see which one would be the best and also some things to avoid if you see it. Here we have some great examples of what I would look for going to a Big Box store or a nursery. This is a Kalanchoe tomentosa, already it meets one of our requirements, being fuzzy and very cute. This would be a very good just indoor succulent already. What else I like about this is as you can see, the soil is really dry, which means that this plant, which looks healthy up top, will also most likely be healthy on the bottom. There's no sitting water probably, or if there is, the water is probably on the bottom half of the pot where hopefully the roots are not sitting. This would be a great find for you if you saw this at a Big Box store. Next one I want to talk about is this Kalanchoe here, this Kalanchoe humilis also one of our recommended plants, just because it does really great indoors, has the green and naked leaves, which are great indicators of an indoor succulent. But if you also notice, this one is a little sunburned. This is what the damage is that you see right on this leaf here. While it would be great to look for the perfect succulent in the perfect condition, sunburned leaves will eventually grow out. If you're really set on getting a succulent but it has a little bit of sunburn, if you're patient go ahead and buy it, if everything else looks good. If the soil is dry and you think it has no pests or anything else, because that blemish will eventually grow out. Here's another great indoor plant. This is Gasteria 'Little Warty' Just really good for indoors. Requires a little less light and I think it's just very unique in its shape and its look. But what would make me not want to get this particular one is if you look inside the pot here, the soil is really dumb. It's not soaking, but it's so wet that I would just be a little afraid of how long this plant has been sitting in water. We're not allowed to take the plant out of the pot to check the roots, so we can't tell what's going on down here. Root rot could already be setting in. There could be root mealybugs because they like damp places like this. Because this pot is plastic, it doesn't allow the soil to breathe and so this water could have been in there for a very long time. That's just not good for a succulent. It may look healthy now, but when you take it home, it may give you some problems. I would say steer clear and wait until your store has succulents with drier soil. Let's see if there are any other. How about this full sun, six-plus hours warning? [LAUGHTER] This is interesting because it's on top of one of the trays that I think has the best indoor succulents that may not need as much sun. But I digress, when you see this sign, I think they might have just put it in the succulent section. Most succulents need six-plus hours of sun, just in general, but they are happier with that amount of sun. Even Gaterias which are better indoors will be happy with more sun rather than less sun or more light rather than less light. Just keep in mind though some of these succulents actually do need six-plus hours of sun. This is one of the only colorful succulents that actually does really well indoors. This is an Echeveria Pearle Von Nurnberg. It's one of the succulents that I suggested in our previous lesson. It just does really well indoors. I don't know why, it's just a little bit more chill with a little less light. It will need a sunnier window sill or grow light to supplement its growth. However, it won't do well, in just under a fluorescent office light. You will need something to increase its light exposure. But if you have a nice sunny windowsill, this one would be a beautiful succulent to have. If you look in here, a lot of Big Box Stores when they water, they just spray all of the succulents. One of the no-nos is actually getting water on the leaves, we'll talk about that a bit more in our lesson about watering. But what can happen, and what I'm glad to not see in this succulent is that there's no rot, there's no leaf rot setting in. [BACKGROUND] But if those water droplets stay where they are for a long period of time, it could start to rot the center of the leaves closest to the stem and they'll start to fall off. That's not good for a succulent. If you see that, don't buy that succulent, you will not be happy and you'll be left with a bald succulent at the end. But this one would be fine just blow the water droplets out, there [LAUGHTER] before you take it home. Here we go, I want to talk about this guy for a second. This looks super appealing. The succulents are so big, they're so beautiful, they look so healthy. This one is even flowering for you, which is amazing. Check that out. But I would recommend you don't pick up an arrangement like this unless you're going to keep it outside. If you want something for indoors the problem with these are that they're normally planted in peat, which you can't see because of this beautiful top dressing. Let me move some of these stones for you. See how wet that is, is just very damp peat. With the top dressing on, it actually stops the soil from drying fast. This is going to remain wet for a very, very long time, especially since this is so deep. Even though this looks like Terracotta, this is plastic, so it doesn't breathe at all which means that these succulents will be sitting in damp soil for days, maybe over a week. That's bad, very bad. This will most likely die on you if you take into a house and keep it indoors. Unless you're willing to re-pot all of these into better pots and you're not that afraid of root rot that could be setting in, this is a bad that. So cute, so nice, but this is glazed ceramic, which means it doesn't breathe at all. If you take a look at the bottom here, it is concave, which means that the water will end up pulling towards the edges of the pot and just stay in the bottom, making the soil really damp. Very nice, but death trap, unless you're going to re-pot these into a different pot, don't do it. This plant definitely looks cute with the little flower here. But on closer inspection, this is a fake flower hot glued to the succulent. Not only is it a little damaging to your succulent because you're just paying more for a fake flower that's glued on. Better to buy a, all-natural cactus than a pricier one with a fake augmentation. We're at Home Depot's garden center, let's go see if there's any succulents. I just want to talk about this succulent for a little bit. Not only is it probably not appropriate for indoors because of this coloration here. This is a sunblush, it probably will need a lot of sun. But if you look at this, this is just rotten leaf here. If you look in the middle of this as well, you see that bloated, bloated brown leaf. This is a sign of overwatering, and so you really don't probably want to pick this one up. This may cause you problems down the road and you don't need those. Our sound messed up at this point, but here we are at Koolau Farmers. [MUSIC] As you can see, the soil isn't too damp, which is much better for us rather than having sopping wet soil. If you take a look at the bottom here, you can see some of its roots right here just sticking up. They're white. White is good. You want white roots. Brown roots means that there's root rot setting in and if they're mushy, that's just no-go, the plant is not doing very well. But if you see white roots, it's always a sign of good health. Here's one more great indoor succulent, this is a Kalanchoe tomentosa. The particular variety is called Chocolate soldier because as you see here, it has this beautiful brown and reddish coloration. Just reminds you of rich warm chocolate, which is very, very attractive, in my opinion. Very good indoor grower. Not fussy, very easy to take care of. Also great because the soil is dry or at least drier than at the Big Box Stores, this will be a perfect addition to an indoor succulent garden. [MUSIC] That's all there is to choosing a great indoors succulent. If you have a garden store or a nursery in your area, your homework is to buy a succulent for yourself, just like I did. Once you find one, take a selfie with your plant then post it to projects, then head straight over to Lesson 10, transplant that succulent. Do not pass code. Do not collect $200. You'll want to get your succulent out of the pot to inspect its root system as soon as you get home. [MUSIC] 9. How to Buy the Best Succulent Online: [MUSIC] what do you do if you don't have a nursery or a big box store nearby? In today's lesson, how to buy the best succulent online. I'll teach you how to buy one from an online store. Buying a succulent online is so convenient, I can give you greater access to varieties your local shops might not stock. But there are a few caveats. Due to their adaptability, I'd say succulents are more suited to being shifted than tropical or other plants. But it can still be a traumatic experience for them. I mean would you like to be stuck in a dark box, jostled around by the mailman for three days? A bad packing job might mean your succulent wound may damage. If your seller mailed them right after watering day well damp soil and a dark box does not make for a healthy succ. Because of that, it's important to pick a reputable seller so you can avoid unhealthy or damaged plants, scams, and other shadiness, these are the qualities that make for a great online succulent store. A clear refund policy. Shipping live plants can be a risky business both for a buyer and seller. You will want to shop with clear refund policies and instructions. Most good sellers will give you a few days after their arrival of your succulents to inspect and notify them of any problems and should offer refunds for plants that arrive damaged or sickly. Fantastic reviews. Make sure to check the reviews of any shop to see how other customers fared before committing. This can give you a good idea of how well the shop packs their succulents for shipping and if they arrive healthy. If available, go one step further and check the reviews for the particular species of succulent that you're wanting to get to ensure that that species travels well, some are fragile and just can't handle transportation. Transparency about care shipping schedules and packing practices. Succulent sellers want to make sure you know, they're doing their best to provide you the best succulents. Try to find a shop that explains their shipping schedules and sends you shipping and delivery confirmation or allows you to track your package. This allows you to plan approximate delivery at a time that works best for you as you'll have to unpack your succulents as soon as possible after they arrive. Info about nursery care and packing practices are a bonus. You can use these traits to assess any online shop you come across. But if you want my direct recommendation, Mountain Crest Gardens is the way to go. On top of meeting all of my criteria, they have a large variety of succulents across all genuses and species for you to choose from. Great customer service if something unexpected happens. Shipment delays. I've bought from them on several occasions and have been satisfied every time. But let's walk through exactly how you'd go about buying the perfect indoor succulent from an online shop. I just googled Mountain Crest Gardens and right under their main link we have an indoor succulent link that will take you straight to the page with the best indoor grows. As you can see, several of the genuses that I mentioned in Lesson 5 are already on this front page. Here's Haworthia, Crassula down here there's Cotyledon, Kalanchoe. To help narrow down your search you can use the filters on the left-hand column. You can search by color though, as I said in Lesson 5, most indoors succs will be green. You can also use this hard-to-kill filter if like me, you're a succulent serial killer and want a plant that's less fuzzy and we'll put up with any mistakes you make. One of the best indoor succulents is Haworthia fasciata. Let's take a look at that one real quick. Such a stunning succulent. If you scroll down to the product details, the middle paragraph will tell you all you need to know about the succulents, care needs, and growth habits. If you see excellent house plant, even for beginners in bold, you know this succ will be nice to you. If you'd like to see other succs in a particular genus, you can use the top-right search bar. In this case, I'm going to search for Haworthia. Type that in and the page will populate with all the succulents that share that name. But for today, let's pretend you didn't have a particular succ in mind and we're just perusing the main indoors succulents page. I'm going to choose three succulents to purchase so you guys can know what to expect when your succulent package arrives at your house. For this lesson, I'm going to choose Haworthia reinwardtii, Kalanchoe tomentosa Chocolate Soldier, and a wildcard Cremneria expatriata. The reason I call this one a wildcard is because it has a good amount of red on the head here, if you remember our Kermit criteria, great indoor succs are green, fuzzy, or naked. This one fulfills the green part, but it does have flaming red tips, no fuzz, and a little bit of fun, which is that white waxy coating. All indicators that this is a sun, succulent than might not do great with lower light levels indoors. If I were a beginner, I would not take a chance on this succulent for those reasons. However, I'm really curious as to why this is in the indoors section of Mountain Crest. Perhaps it's a great succ for indoor growers with super sunny windows or grow lights. I'm going to take a chance and hope curiosity doesn't kill me. We have our succs plus one random extra succulent due to their get one free deal that's going on right now. Let's see how they ship. Look what just arrived. Happy plant mail. Let's take a look inside. The first thing in the box is a little care booklet that they send with every package. It usually has a coupon in the back for you to use on your next purchase. As you can see, they pack their succulents very well. There's tons of shredded paper at the top to keep your succs from moving. More delicate specimens are lined with white card stock to protect them during shipping. All of the succulents arrived in excellent shape. Even the mystery succulent, which unfortunately will not be a good indoor succulent since it's blue and it has a pink sun blush, but I love it anyway. Good job, Mountain Crest for another excellent packing job. That's all there is to it. Your homework is to purchase your indoor succulent from a reputable online seller. Once your succulent arrives, be sure to jump straight into Lesson 10, transplant that succulent. See you there. [MUSIC] 10. Moving Day: Transplant that Succulent!: Welcome to Lesson 10, Transplant that Succulent. Now that you've got your new suck baby, it's time to move on to the main event, transplanting it into its permanent home. It's important to complete steps 1 and 2 as soon as possible after bringing your succulent home from the nursery or after it arrives in the mail to ensure that it's not waiting in wet soil for transplant. Let's get started. Make sure to have the following items prepared. Cover your workspace with newspaper or paper towel because this is going to get a bit messy. Let's pop that succulent out of its nursery pot. You can help stuck soil and roots detach from the sides of the pot by squeezing. Carefully tip your succulent out of the pot. Gently tickle as much of the old soil off the roots as possible. Move slowly as succulent roots can be thin and very delicate. Try your best not to snap any, but if you do break some off, don't worry, it's not the end of the world. If there are any stubborn clumps, lightly squeeze to break them up. [MUSIC] Keep going until the roots are mostly clean like this. This step involves rinsing the roots of your succulent and spraying for pests with isopropyl alcohol. Some say not to rinse your succulents roots as it could increase the potential of root rot. I agree that the potential exists, but the threat of root mealybugs is worse. If you follow these instructions, you should greatly reduce the chances of the roots absorbing too much water. Run the roots of your succulent under running water. You can attempt to loosen up a bit more stubborn soil, but don't overdo it. It's better to leave small amounts of soil than break a root at this point. Spray the entire succulent plus the roots with 30 percent isopropyl alcohol and leave it on for 30 seconds. Make sure to get in all the nooks and crannies of your succulent 's eaves. This will kill most creepy crawlies and their eggs, but it can also damage the succulents roots. So make sure you only leave it on for 30 seconds. Once the time is up, rinse roots thoroughly under running water. You don't have to rinse the succulent itself. Tap roots dry with a paper towel and throw that paper towel away. It could have traces of mealybugs and mealybugs eggs, and you don't want to transfer that back onto your succulent. Then lay the succulent down and carefully spread the roots back out with your fingers. If you live in a dry climate, you can most likely get away with leaving them to air dry in a warm, dry place. But if you live in a humid climate like mine, or if you want to make sure you absolutely avoid any chance of root rot, get a hairdryer and blow dry the plant on the cool setting. But be very careful because the roots are susceptible to heat. If your hairdryer doesn't have a cool setting, set it to the lowest temperature possible and hold it further away. Use your hand to test the temperature. If your hand starts getting toasty, you're too close. Leave your succulents in a dark but dry place to chill out for three days after its spa treatment. During these three days, prep your soil by spreading it out on some paper towel or newspaper to allow any moisture to evaporate. After three days, it's time to move your succulent into its new pot. Cover your work area with newspaper or a paper towel. Pour soil until it fills a quarter to a third of the pot. Hold your succulent above the pot with its roots dangling in, or use a tool to balance your succulent in the pot. Slowly fill soil over and around the roots until the pot is about three-quarters full. Let go of your succulent or remove your balancing tool. The pot should be full enough for the succulent to be able to balance on its own. Finish filling until the soil covers the roots completely and your succulent is securely seated in the pot. Transplant complete, but don't water it. The transplanting process can cause minor damage to the root system, which is inconsequential if the soil is dry, but can allow bacteria to attack the root system if your soil is even a little wet. For safety, don't water for at least a week after transplanting. Place your newly potted succulent in a dry place with indirect light for a couple of days to let it recover from the shock of the move. Over the next week, slowly increase its light exposure by an hour every couple of days until it's receiving the full amount of light your location provides. Congratulations, your new suck baby is on its way to thriving under your care. But the most important element for succulent survival is coming up. See you in the next lesson. [MUSIC] 11. Best Watering Practices: How to Avoid the #1 Killer of Succulents: Stop. Drop that watering can don't even think the word water until we're done with this lesson. I'm going to show you proper watering technique and how to avoid overwatering, the number one killer of succulents. Because everything needs water to survive, when people see a succulent dying, they think, no, did I not water you enough? But succulents are desert plants adapted for long periods of drought and depend on less frequent watering. We need to mimic those conditions, which means only watering when your succulent says it's thirsty, the soil in the pot is completely dry. How do you know if your succulent is thirsty? You can look for these three signs. Number 1, the leaves are wrinkling. You may notice the leaves on your succulent wrinkling or tripling. It's important to note that it's normal for the bottom leaves on your succulent to be tripling while the rest of the leaves look healthy. This is not necessarily a sign of thirst. Thirsty wrinkling on a succulent will affect the leaves more uniformly, sometimes all over the plant, not just the bottom one or two leaves. Usually, only the new growth in the very center of your succulent will be unaffected by this type of wrinkling. Number 2, the leaves are deflated. If you have a succulent with the stereotypical puffy leaves such as this Moonstone, you may notice the leaves start to get skinny. This is a sign that it's needing a drink. Even sacs with less plump leaves will get noticeably skinnier if they're running out of water. Number 3, the leaves are flexible. If you gently poke at a well-watered succulent leaves, you'll notice that they're very stiff and don't bend easily. If you exerted more pressure, the leaf would most likely snap off of the plant. A thirsty sac will have leaves that bend and fold without risk of detachment from the stem. You can think of your succulent leaves as a water balloon. The more water in the balloon, the more it retains its shape. The less water, the more it will flop around. How do you know if your soil is dry? I mean, bone dry all the way to the bottom of the pot. If you took our advice and use substrate instead of traditional potting media, you won't be able to use a moisture meter because of the large particle size. Instead, you'll have to wiggle your pinky into the pot and go by feel. Can't you just experiment to find a consistent watering schedule? Not really because your succulent is a living creature that experiences periods of activity and rest. When it's actively growing, it'll get thirsty more often. If you live in a place with temperature and humidity changes, those will affect the rate at which your soil dries. Be an understanding plant parent by listening to your succulent and respecting its needs. Now that we know when to water, let's move on to how to water, which is just as important as frequency. Follow these tips to become a succulent watering pro. Don't dunk the baby. It's important to only pour water over the soil. Don't pour water over the whole succulent as droplets can pull in the nooks and crannies of leaves causing edema and rot. Water deeply. I know earlier I said less is more, but that was in terms of frequency. Succulents prefer a thorough soak up their soil until water comes out of the drainage holes at the bottom of the pot. Drenching the entire pot encourages a healthier, larger root system. Water until the pot is heavy. Because greedy substrate is full of inorganic materials, it may take a couple of pours to ensure the water has soaked into the clay particles. As such, I would keep watering until you feel the weight of the pot has noticeably increased in your hand. Pro-tip. A slender nose watering can will help you avoid the leaves of your succulent and watering over a jar or [inaudible] allows you to pour the excess water back into your can to use again, reducing water waste. If you've just transplanted your succulent, give it a week or two to show signs of thirst. But be sure to wait at least one week to avoid shocking your plant when it's already stressed from the move. Finally, if you're ever unsure whether to water your succulent, err on the side of under-watering. An underwatered succulent is easier to fix than an over-watered succulent. [MUSIC] 12. Succulent Success: Congratulations. You've successfully completed the course. Take a moment to bask in the comprehensiveness of your accomplishments. By taking the time to learn which succulents do best indoors, proper watering technique, pot and soil selection, you've got your new plant off to a great start and sidestepped 90 percent of potential problems. Now, here's a post-class challenge for you. Let's make a digital garden right here in the project section. Be sure to post your beautiful new suc baby thriving in your home. I'd definitely love to see them and they'd be such an encouragement for others currently struggling or getting their start with indoor succulents. If you want to learn even more about succulents, advanced topics like propagation, pests, or moving on to more challenging species, let us know in the discussions tab below, and feel free to visit us at succulentgeeks.com. Wishing you all succulent success. [MUSIC]