When you receive a box of succulents you should open it at once. Not that you won’t! You will be eager to see the contents. The plants will be in immediate need of air and light. Be careful that the light is not too strong for a few days. Avoid putting them in sunshine.
Remember that the plants are succulent, have evolved to resist evaporation from leaves or bodies and will not wilt like ordinary plants. Light and air are more urgent immediate considerations than water.
Put the plants in a warm, bright place for a day or two and you can, if you wish, pot them up at once in slightly moist potting compost A light spraying now and then may help if the weather is hot and dry but avoid this in cold or damp weather.
Let indications of fresh growth guide when to begin normal watering as well as weather conditions and the size and type of plant. Remember that cuttings without roots will not take water up without roots.
For cacti cuttings without roots, larger cacti have more reserves of their own to draw on and will not likely make roots as soon as young, small ones. It is wise to plant these rootless larger plants in extremely porous gritty compost which will dry out within a few hours of watering.
Or you can put a little water in the pot saucer now and again which will be taken up into the soil in the lower half of the pot so that when roots form they go down looking for that moisture. In the meantime they are not sitting in soaking wet soil and tending to rot.
For plants with roots, just pot up in moist soil and watch for signs of life before you start a regular watering program.
Move the plants or cuttings gradually into the light they need, some eventually into full sunshine. If you don’t know if the plants need full sunshine, keep them in a very bright place out of full sunshine until you find out what light each plant needs.
Source: theamateursdigest.com
