Summer—the toughest season of all for succulents—has arrived! Every day, social media is filled with reports of problems, and at my home too, a few succulents are inevitably saying goodbye. Precisely because I’ve been through this with my own plants, there are things I want to share. And first among them: it’s not just heat that causes trouble for succulents in summer.
This column is a log of various real-life succulent disasters I’ve witnessed firsthand. Since each trouble has a different cause, there’s no one-size-fits-all fix. By learning about these "causes" and "solutions," I hope you’ll pick up a few tips for managing your own succulents too.
Do note that this is a record of possible causes—sometimes, I haven’t yet confirmed what solution really works. I plan to update this article as I get more experience.
In most cases, the primary cause of jelly-like rot (a squishy, watery translucence in leaves) is bad air circulation.
How can you tell? When rot sets in, the leaves absorb excessive water and become tight and bloated. Often, only certain leaves become jelly-like—but those will be evenly translucent. Another clue is that surrounding leaves fall off easily when touched. (If the rot has reached the core or the whole plant is turning black, it’s often too late to save.)
The fix is to improve air circulation—and not just during the day, but at night, too. It’s easy to see why you need it for heat in the day, but at night, succulents need airflow for respiration. Indoors, running a fan 24/7 is a must. Outdoors, place a fan if possible, but if not, try spacing your plants out or using shelves, so they don’t get overcrowded.
Actually, unless the jelly-like rot has reached the plant’s core and is completely beyond saving, it often recovers well if you just remove the damaged leaves and improve airflow. In my (well-practiced) household, jelly-like rot is a common event and not something I stress about anymore.
For more, check out this column:
Another common reason succulents rot in summer is heat damage. As the name suggests, this is caused by excessively high temperatures. Are your succulents getting hit by direct midsummer sunlight?
How to tell: Only part of a leaf looks truly "burned"—like it’s been singed. That said, sometimes it looks almost identical to rot from poor airflow, but you can usually tell which by looking at the environment. Also, succulents covered in white powder or fuzz are less likely to burn, while plants with shiny green leaves are more prone to it.
Echeveria usually bounce back if you pick off damaged leaves, but cacti and caudiciforms are usually a lost cause if they get burned even once. So, extra caution is needed!
Move the plant to a spot with slightly less intense sunlight, or use shade netting. Just be very careful not to worsen air circulation, or make the sun too weak. Also, remember that as days grow longer, places that were shady before may suddenly get sun a week or two later, so check regularly.
Since this trouble’s causes and fixes are straightforward, the difficulty/urgency is not particularly high.
If you’re thinking: "It’s summer! The heat is the big threat! Gotta give them shade!"—then now comes the opposite risk: succulents suffering from insufficient light. That’s the tricky trade-off about summer care.
How to spot sun-starved plants: their leaves become spindly, a condition called etiolation. Sometimes outer leaves start curving backward, which is an early warning. If the plant looks obviously stretched, the problem is clear, but sometimes leaves suddenly change color or their bases become crispy and drop off, making it hard to realize sunlight is the underlying culprit.
Light is "food" for plants. Just as people get sick from chronic poor nutrition, so do plants when they don’t get enough sun. Nutrient deficiency symptoms start to appear—sometimes rot or disease that you might blame on something else is actually due to insufficient light.
If your plant is declining from being in deep shade, you’ll need to gradually expose it to stronger light. However, we just learned that direct summer sun brings a high risk of heat damage, so it’s also a good idea to keep the plant in the same place but use a high-brightness LED for supplemental lighting. This is a safer approach.
It's surprisingly hard to recognize sun deficiency, but if left alone, the plant becomes steadily weaker and recovery gets impossible. That makes this problem especially serious. Alongside the next issue (underwatering), "cutting propagation for summer survival" can be a fundamental solution too.
"So, jelly-rot means you watered too much, right? You shouldn’t water at all in summer, right?" Actually—that’s a myth. A surprising number of summer succulent troubles are actually caused by *not enough* water.
Leaf wilting is the obvious sign, but the tricky thing is that before that, you often get sudden jelly-rot or dried-up patches. If you see leaves suddenly dying or bases turning crispy on a sun-hardy plant in good light (not in deep shade), suspect underwatering. The leaves may go soft and limp before jelly-rot appears. Also, disease often appears hand-in-hand with nutrient deficiency from underwatering.
Fixing underwatering in summer is the hardest solution of all. If the plant is just a bit thirsty, you can revive it quickly by letting the roots absorb water (bottom-watering is recommended). However, if it’s gotten weak, it can barely take up water anymore, making recovery much harder.
If things are really bad, go for a strong recovery: bring indoors, bottom-water, use LED and a fan on full blast to help it bounce back.
If you’re aiming for a gentle transition to dormancy instead, give just enough light surface watering and move the plant to light shade (such as where it’ll get some morning sun) so it doesn’t suffer from low light. Until the growth tip looks healthy again, don’t let the soil go dry for long.
"Are my leaves shriveled from thirst?" Before watering, peek at the underside of the leaves! Especially on thin-leaved Echeveria like Neon Breakers. It could be scale insects invading.
The fix is simple: blast off the bugs, then spray with insecticide—repeat every week for a few rounds. It's an easy solution, but if you skip it, the plant will quietly wither away, so never ignore it! Also, since you can easily mistake this for underwatering, it’s a trouble that can become fatal before you realize it.
For more information, read the previous column here:
Another common sight following rot from things like underwatering, poor airflow, or lack of light, is black spots on the leaves. Often these are caused by a bacterial infection known as "black spot disease". Anthracnose is caused by fungus and is similar, and there are a number of other lookalike diseases as well.
While I list symptoms and disease names here, I am not a specialist—so treat these descriptions as "maybe it’s this disease?" The symptoms and disease names may not strictly correspond. Please keep that in mind.
Personally, when it comes to Echeveria and similar succulents, I rarely treat for black spot as it often comes on top of other issues, and fixing those usually lets the plant recover naturally (the affected leaves don’t heal, but new growth is healthy, and things look good again).
Agave, on the other hand, are much more vulnerable—once you spot black spot, the outcome is usually fatal. I’ve had one survive after uprooting, trimming all roots, and letting it dry out until a new bud emerged. Prevention is key to avoid reaching this point.
Regular preventative sprays with Benlate or Benika X Fine are likely effective, but as I haven't personally tested this, I'm leaving it as a note to myself for now.
The truth is, giving succulents enough water in summer won’t necessarily cause jelly-rot. If you create the right environment, your plants can thrive even with heavy watering and full summer sun. Some are strong against sunlight or drought, others fragile—and some never recover once they dry out. When you learn the quirks of each and build an environment that fits them, you’re on your way to a truly unstoppable succulent collection!
Of course, I still lose lots every year when things don’t go perfectly. But I’m determined not to repeat last year's mistakes. No doubt new challenges will come this season too. I’ll keep updating this article as I gain new experience.
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