Care tips, Succulents
Monocarpic Succulents- You`re Not Killing Them
Feb
Your favorite succulent finally bloomed and just died afterward? Don’t worry, its not your fault. What you have is a monocarpic succulent. This type of succulent has a unique life cycle.
Monocarpic succulents bloom only once. This means that as soon as the single flower has come and go, succulent will dry out. At this point, fruit or seeds are set and ready to produce a new plant, so a parent plant can stop growing and eventually die. This life cycle is pretty common among succulents. Most monocarpic succulents produce as many new plants as they can before they bloom. So, when they pop out flowers, there are many new plants that can replace them.
Which Succulents Are Monocarpic?
Agave and Sempervivum are possibly the most common monocarpic succulents out there. They die as soon as they bloom. In some cases, it’s not affecting the whole plant. In the case of Joshua Tree, just stem dies after flowering and that doesn’t affect the rest of the succulent. Also, with a large genus of succulents, like Agave, it doesn’t mean that all of the species are monocarpic. One more popular succulent that has this life spawn is Paddle Plant. Most of the Aeonium hybrids are also monocarpic.
It’s important for you to know that not every monocarpic succulent dies fast. Some of the plants take months or even years to dry out, like Agave.
Care Tips
If you have a monocarpic succulent, don’t worry. You can still give them a long and healthy life. The amount of care you give to the plant when you see the flower appear is crucial for its life spawn. You can harvest pups and make its life longer in that way. Another way is to save seeds.
To keep a parent plant healthy and to make sure it has enough energy to keep living, you should continue the type of care that meets your succulent specific needs. Eventually, a parent plant will die and you can detach it. Make sure to leave any pups in the soil. Also, you want a parent succulent to be completely dry and brittle before you detach it. That means a new plant will get all of the energy it needs from the parent plant. You can than repott pups if you want or you can leave them when they are.