With their smooth, glossy, sparkling look, Haworthia—especially the Obtuza group—have always been fan favorites. But despite that dream of crystal-clear, “jewel” leaves, sometimes what ends up growing is a shriveled, wrinkly little plant… Why?! How do you get them looking so plump and shiny? Is it the variety? Can anyone please tell me?! Help!

That’s how I felt for years.

But actually, it wasn’t a lack of advice or help that was stopping me. All I was missing was plain old “trial and error.”

This post is about how I just so happened to grow a really beautiful plant while trying out lots of different setups—an "accidental" discovery, not a step-by-step “how-to” guide.

But that kind of “lucky accident” is something you can set up in your own home! This time, I’ll show you how to create those happy accidents through trial and error.

The theme is “How to make your Haworthia glossy and gorgeous,” but you can use this same trick to make your Echeveria plump or your Agave rugged and strong—really, for any succulent or plant you like.

Tips from others don’t always work in your conditions

It’s totally fine to ask how to care for succulents. Like, “How do you keep Haworthia plump and shiny?” Actually, the more questions you ask, the better! But the real question is: once you hear someone’s answer, what do you do with that info?

The expert giving advice doesn’t know your growing conditions. So, their answer tends to be pretty general—"Just keep the sun exposure low and maintain the humidity," that sort of thing.

Sure, if you bring photos or explain your situation in detail, their advice gets more specific. Still, there’s always a chance it might be right—or wrong. Even if the advice is generally correct, it’s hard to know ‘how much is too much?’ When someone says, “A little less light,” how much less is that? Even if you water and expose your plants exactly like a pro, your house, soil, pots, weather, and climate could all be different.

Most pros grow in greenhouses. Most amateurs grow inside their house or garden.

Once, when I asked a grower about soil and pots, they told me “Any cheap kind is fine since the greenhouse conditions make all the difference.”

What you really need is “trial and error”—a.k.a. comparison experiments

Why don’t you get the “perfect answer” when you ask the pros? It’s kind of like asking someone, ‘Do you know where my nail clippers are?’ when you’ve lost them in your own house.

It’s like, “How would I know?!” A kind person might suggest, “You should keep them in a drawer within reach from your living room.”

If you ask, “Where do you think I should keep my nail clippers?” or “Where do you keep yours?” you could get great answers from a pro. These sorts of questions are what they’re best at answering.

What do you do when your nail clippers are missing? You just hunt everywhere they might be. That is “trial and error.” You try one likely place, and if it isn't there, move on to the next. If that doesn’t work, try somewhere else…

When it comes to growing plants, a single round of trial and error takes time. “Try one way, and if it fails, move to the next” can take ages (and the seasons might change between your first and second tries). So, run a bunch of trial-and-error experiments all at once. This is called a "comparison experiment." Set up a growing environment for each variable you want to test and observe what happens. Sometimes, plants will thrive in a spot you’d never even considered. That’s the kind of ‘happy accident’ we’re aiming for. The more environments you try, the better your odds of finding success by chance.

How to set up different growing environments

Let’s say you’re currently keeping your Haworthia outdoors in the shade of a tree, watering once a week.

Now you start wondering, “Should it get more sun, or less?” So, try out both a “bright spot” and a “shady spot.” For example, a place that gets sun almost all day, and a place under the eaves that never gets direct light.

Say you’re also unsure about watering: more, or less? In that case, split those sun/shade environments into three groups: one gets watered daily, one weekly, and one just once a month.

That gives you 3 x 3 = 9 different environments. Ideally, you’d use nine plants of the same variety, same size, in matching pots and soil, and put each in a different setup.

After a while, whichever one grows best—that’s your ideal environment for that plant in your home.

If you’re thinking, “So, every new variable adds even more environments?”—good insight! That’s true. In science, those ‘worries’ are called ‘variables.’ The more variables you have, the more setups you need, so scientists try to minimize variables when experimenting. Fix all but the most important variables, test those, then move on to new ones once you’ve learned enough.

The hardest part is probably coming up with 9 matching plants. It’s nine times the cost, and you’ll need to accept that 8 out of 9 might not make it. Consider that ‘tuition’—and even if some suffer, you can sometimes nurse them back in better conditions, or raise the “perfect” ones to sell later if you want.

My Actual Setups

Here are the setups I ended up with at home this time. Honestly, I wanted to do comparison experiments with more than just Haworthia, so things got a bit haphazard and less “scientific grid” than above.

A. Indoors, LED Best Position

Not necessarily the “best spot for the plant,” but the easiest spot for me to manage—plenty of space, easy to adjust the LED, and visible enough that I can quickly fix mistakes. This spot is also probably the top choice for growing Haworthia, too.

B. Indoors, Next to the Best Position, Outside the Water Tray

Almost the same as before, but the pot sits outside the self-watering tray—so it gets almost no water.

C. Indoors, Best Position but No LED

Right next to the best spot, I set up a tray with no added lights—just what trickles in from the window, which is almost none.

D. Indoors, Darkest Corner with LED Directly Overhead

This is the stuffiest corner where I usually keep extra plants. Honestly, only Haworthia could survive here, so I made it their exclusive zone. It’s tight, so some get blasted with an LED at nearly point-blank range, while…

E. Indoors, Same Corner, Next to the LED in Complete Shade

…others are in the darkest part of the room where the light doesn’t reach at all. It’s probably the dimmest spot in the house.

F. South-Facing Bay Window

A sun-baked windowsill. This spot gets even stronger light than LEDs. Ideally, I should have kept the same watering routine as the other tests, but since I had other plants there and was worried about heat damage, I cut the watering in half.

G. Bottom Shelf of an Outdoor Wire Basket

This wasn’t for the experiment originally, but as it was there, I included it for comparison. It’s the kind of spot often recommended as ideal for Haworthia.

H. Kitchen, Misting When Noticed

I left a plant in the kitchen, giving it a spritz when I happened to see it. Even Sansevieria (Snake Plant) gets a little leggy with just this amount of light.

I. Bright Window, Misted Daily

I’m not diligent about daily misting, so I asked a detail-oriented friend to do it for me, watering only by misting every day.

Results

So, what happened?

In short, the blue sections “stretched/etiolated,” while the orange and pink spots had the most risk of leaf crisping. The pink spots especially: even with enough water, crispiness struck here—something new to watch out for.

Looking Good

Sunburn

Crispy

Etiolated/Stretched

Conclusion

Here are the two takeaways from the experiment.

Crispy leaves: It's either lack of water, or too much sun

I used to think crispy, shriveled Haworthia = simply not enough water. But too much sun can also do it! I used to keep watering and misting every time a plant got crispy, but no matter how much water, if the light is too strong, it won’t help. On the flip side, even with less water, Haworthia stayed plump in shadier, slightly breezy spots.

If your plant isn’t plumping up despite watering, try boldly moving it to a shadier spot.

Low light doesn’t always cause stretching

I used to think Haworthia would stretch out if the sun was weak, but that’s not always true. Even in places so dark you’d doubt if Pothos or ferns could survive, some Haworthia got beautifully plump and shiny. I haven’t figured out exactly what conditions cause this yet, but if I can nail down a method, then even the darkest indoor spots—like a desk—could work!

Summary

By the way, "Don’t keep all your succulents in one place—set up spots with different sun exposures” is a basic succulent care tip, even before any talk of comparison experiments.

Like I said at the start, this approach isn’t just for making Haworthia glossy—you can use it to make Echeveria plump, Agave beefy, or for all sorts of plants. Splitting the same species into different environments takes more time and money, but nothing beats hands-on experience for learning. Especially since “how they grow in your home” is something only you can figure out.

So, I hope you’ll master comparison experiments as a tool to discover what works in your environment!