Yes it does. The right amount of “extreme conditions” (direct sun, heat, cool temps) will bring out stress colors. Obviously without acclimation these conditions can hurt or kill the plant, but when the plant slowly adapts to the most frigid days of the cold season or all-day full direct sun in summer, these conditions bring out the most beautiful colors especially in succulents.

I’m a total sucker for stress colors. It’s the same dopamine sensation as getting a color-changing item like a toy or cup, but you have to work harder and wait longer for the color change in succs haha.

Cool! I love the little bubbly leaves! Hope you will post an update to show off the growth :)

I want that bottom left! Crassula of some kind? Do you know the ID? These all look so supple!

Some jade bushes near my place in the Bay Area always have giant branches smashed like this, covered in dog pee too. I found a monster branch recently that I cleaned many times with dawn, then stuck it in some gritty mix and soil and now have a fat jade. One man’s trash!

Grow lights are kind of a pain in the ass, to be fair. I think these heads look pretty good for a winter! Healthy and still have some color. I wish you quick successful rooting!

Thank you! I’m manifesting this haha. I wish you ideal growing conditions as well!

I like ugly plants too! One of the many casualties of Reddit’s demise is the lithops subreddit. I suggest checking it out while you can because it is a wealth of knowledge!

Interesting!

They’re so derpy and sweet! I scrolled and posted a lot recently on Reddit (wah wah) on the mourning derps and stupid dove nest subreddits (hilarious) because I got a little dove nest in a plant pot on my own porch this spring! The mom actually just had another set of eggs! I have learned a lot about these damn birds.

I really hope you get to see this one grow and get to see the parents, too. Our last set of fledglings spend a lot of their “teenage” days on our balcony railing instead of in the nest and the mom kept on coming back to feed wherever they stood, until eventually they were coaxed to start really flying. Maybe your baby’s parents will swoop down and feed. Or like someone else said the fledgling may just adapt and figure it out - surely it will get hungry enough to try!

I’m officially a bird person thanks to mourning doves!

Had to give away like 3/4 of my collection because I moved to a new place with no sunlight. I keep a really bright custom IKEA grow cabinet I built but it wasn’t the right situation for a lot of my succulents including the pickle plant. If I ever have more outdoor sunlight one day this will be one of the first I re-acquire :)

I love Buddha’s temples!

Happy lizard catching some shade :)

Lookin good!

Great username lmao. Nice macro!

That’s a baby mourning dove! There are usually two babies so the sibling is likely up in the nest. The parent could feed it on the ground if it feels safe to do so, but I’m not sure if the parents would know how to find it or would feel safe.

TX voter turnout in general and by young people is on the lower end of all of the US states, although young voter turnout is not amazing anywhere.

I spent 10 years of my adult life in Texas, as a young adult avidly into government at all levels no less, and I struggled to cast votes a number of times due pretty much entirely to registration issues. Separately, in Nov 2020, while out of state for work during the presidential election, my partner and I both could not get approved for mail-in ballots and we each had to fly in JUST to vote. Maddening. I’m sure that plenty of people do not have the conviction/resources to buy a last minute flight from their responsibilities just to go vote in a designated building in TX. And we all know it doesn’t have to be like that because plenty of states let people vote from wherever via mail without issue.

Given, I have ADHD and my registration obstacles sometimes were attributed to stupid ADHD mistakes (not understanding my registration hadn’t updated counties with my State ID address change until I was at the poll on Election Day, for example - I would’ve needed to catch this mistake 30 days in advance of Election Day to correct it, or travel across the state to my previous county of residence), but I also know plenty of people who’ve missed their voting chance because they changed last names (marriage/divorce) and documentation wasn’t all updated concurrently, because of limited poll hours/locations especially for hourly workers, because of random voter roll purges, because of confusion around where to vote/register as a college student away from home, etc etc. You can imagine how these woes alone would dampen young people turnout, gerrymandering and jadedness notwithstanding. It is completely intentional by the controlling party in the legislature.

Looks so good. Mine has never taken off. What substrate do you use?

I have three major beginner tips as a now 3 year succulent hobbyist:

1. Plenty of sun, outdoors if at all possible. Succulents are very hard to keep thriving indoors even if you happen to have a very sunny window with panels that don’t filter too much UV and infrared light. The grow light situation is also not easy to figure out or to rig up, and those little Amazon octopus-arm lights will definitely not cut it for healthy succulents. Move them into whatever your max sunlight situation is, but be sure to acclimate/harden off. This part is really annoying for the uninitiated, but you gotta do it or your previously-indoor succulents will burn up. Ask me how I know this 🥲 You will eventually get a feel for which plants are getting too much sunlight or too little sunlight. Too much, and you start to notice within each plant the difference between stress colors and starting to close up/disform to avoid anymore sun. Too little, and you start to see loss of vibrant color and stretching between leaves (etiolation). Personally I find if I can’t give a succulent enough light to grow in a compact form with some gentle-medium sun stress, they just don’t seem to thrive as well. And the only succulents I’ve ever successfully raised indoors took heaps of extremely bright grow lights.

2. Water only once the leaves in the middle-to-bottom (older) sections of the plant are no longer turgid. When the soil is wet, squeeze a few leaves at different growth sections of the plant over the course of a few days to learn what it feels like when it is jam packed with water - turgidity. When watering, water thoroughly. My plants are in very well draining soil (more on that in top 3) so I let my plants sit in a bowl of water for 30-60 minutes when it’s time to water, and sometimes hours unintentionally. As long as my substrate is extremely well draining, a nice soak only when the plant is getting quite thirsty works very well. One challenge you can run into when you learn to water based on signs of thirst is that you might miss signs of rot. It is important to stick your finger into the substrate (the plant shouldn’t be in too big of a pot for its size so do your best to check on the side, or stick a chopstick in!) and check for moisture retention. If it’s wet, don’t water, and if the plant is acting thirsty when there’s been water in the substrate for more than a day, you might be dealing with root rot and this might signal your soil is retaining water too long. Blending soil checks with watering based on signs of thirst is key.

2.5. This is a bonus watering item you honestly don’t have to do but I find makes a huge difference - fertilize! Since I bottom water my plants, I learn growing seasons for my succulents (IDing takes forever but super worth it) and fertilize during those, no fertilizer during dormant months. Imo, succulents go from looking awesome to spectacular when you get the fertilizer right along with everything else, especially the sun.

3. Repot from packed nursery soil (or the stuff labeled “succulent soil”) into a 90+% gritty mix in a correctly-sized terracotta pot with a drainage hole. You can get fancy with this and I have seen others get great results, but personally I just use my own mix of perlite, bonsai jack or similar, and smaller-sized pumice + 10% succulent soil because I’m not made of money. Clean the roots of your succulents or simply “chop and prop,” and then plant into very well draining soil in terracotta. Start with 85-95% gritty mixes and you can work your way back down to something more retentive over time as your experience grows. Generally succulents hate sitting in waterlogged substrate for more than a day. The only tough side of this is very neglectful plant parents can eventually lose props to drying up, but I find this to be way harder to do than overwatering a plant in substrate that is too water retentive.

I think these tips really took succulent growing from a death spiral to a challenging but rewarding hobby haha.

How interesting! Is the top part grafted on?

Oof, I didn’t give this thought when I signed in. I luckily didn’t reuse my password here but that’s a great reminder, and good to know my exposure…