Ratty, older Aliciae

[kwende]

I was wondering if others experienced this as well, or if this was just me.

I've got quite a little collection of aliciae as they tend to turn into weeds in their pots, forming offshoots and spawning little ones all over the place. As the mother plant gets older, though, it tends to start looking rattier and producing less dew (while the young ones right beside it are producing copious amounts of dew). I was wondering if this is the result of mother nature or me. Here is a photo illustrating what I'm talking about:


IMG_3595 by kwende.rush1, on Flickr

 

[Safety Shears]

The more energy the mother puts into reproducing the rattier it will look. When the mother plant is actively growing itself it will look it's best. With weeds like Aliciae i tend to pick one or two old ladies to keep around and a pot of young ones to keep the succession and clip, trim, and trash anything else.

 

[kwende]

Thanks. That's kind of what I figured. It doesn't bother me so much and I sort of enjoy the look of the clumps anyway, so I'm not too concerned about it. I just wanted to double check my assumptions.

 

[Not a Number]

They do that when the media starts breaking down. If it's been two years or more since you repotted time for a change.

Before repotting plants were doing stuff like this:

See the really crappy looking one in lower right

Here they are about a month after repotting

 

[kwende]

Cool. Just out of curiosity, what is your preferred medium makeup for these guys? Thanks for the info.