Autumn Succulent Checklist

These seasonal succulent must-do's are for southern and coastal CA, from the Bay Area south. If you live beyond, please visit my site's Succulent Care By Season and Region page. 

Blue Senecio mandraliscae and aeoniums, from my video: How to Fill Gaps in Your Succulent Garden

In Autumn...

Fertilize winter growers: These include aeoniums, aloes, cotyledons, crassulas (jade plants), gasterias, graptopetalums, haworthias, kalanchoes, sansevierias, warm-climate sedums, and senecios. See How to Fertilize Succulents on my site.

It's tidy-up time. Don't let dead branches and messy overgrowth persist into spring. Trim so new growth goes where you want it and won't be in the way.

Groom echeverias. Remove old flower stalks and dry leaves under rosettes. Behead rosettes with long trunks. See on my site: Refresh Your Echeveria Garden and How to Behead and Replant Echeverias.

Spray mealy bugs with 70% Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol.

Spread weed preventer (pre-emergent herbicide). This nontoxic, granulated powder minimizes seed germination. Ideally before the first seasonal rain, sprinkle granules where weeds tend to sprout: bare soil in sunny areas.

Scrub cochineal scale off paddle cactus (Opuntia sp.) Remove the fluffy white bumps with Safer soap. Here's how.

See how I press my grandson into service removing scale from paddle cactus, in the video.Check your garden's run-off. Create channels that divert rain from succulents in low spots. If they sit where water collects, they may rot.

Fertilize in-ground succulents with Ironite. Ideal for newly planted gardens, it boosts spring growth. Take care it doesn't stain hardscape.

Treat agaves for snout weevil. This essential preventative needs doing in spring and fall. Don't assume your agaves don't need it; sadly, the weevil WILL find them. How and what to use now that California banned the most effective insecticide.

Hose large succulents to remove fallen leaves, dirt, and dust that inhibit photosynthesis. Btw, Michelle Slatalla of The Wall Street Journal recently asked me to recommend a garden hose---of all things---for her lifestyle column. Here's my hand's-down, kink-free favorite.

Ants push soil up from below.

Check for ants in outdoor potted succulents, especially haworthias, gasterias and aloes. One tell-tale sign is soil in the crowns, pushed up from below. What to do.

Wait to plant cuttings and new nursery plants until after the weather cools and the the winds die down.

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