Succulent Stretching? [How To Fix Before It’s Too Late]

A very common problem many beginners face is their succulent becomes stretched out more so than when they first got it.

They wonder if there was something originally wrong with their plant or maybe something happened in the process of delivery but this is usually never the case.

What you are experiencing is actually known as succulent etiolation which means the succulent is stretching out towards the light which causes your succulent to grow taller or more leggy than usual.

So let’s take a look at how you can identify and fix a succulent stretching so you can get back to growing a happy and healthy succulent!

What causes succulents to stretch

When it comes to a succulent stretching, the main thing that causes this is lack of light provided to your plant.

When succulents do not receive enough light on a consistent basis they will begin to stretch toward the nearest source of light.

This means the overall shape of the succulent will be bent in the direction of the nearest light source, hence why not all stretched succulents will look the same.

You will notice that your plant becomes taller than you expected, more leggy than usual and that super compact rosette form of an Echeveria for example will become wide and plain stretched out.

Not only that but most succulents will lose their vibrant colors and become a plain green in most cases instead of those epic colors you can expect when the succulent becomes stressed from sunlight.

It’s just not cool.

So in a lot of cases, growing succulents indoors will be the main culprit of your plant not getting enough light especially if your window layout isn’t the best.

With that said this can most certainly also occur outdoors if you’re not growing in a sunny enough location on a consistent basis.

So now you know why your succulent is stretched out and can keep this in mind going forward.

Is it too late to save my succulent?

In most cases once the damage is done there will be a point of no return for your succulent as most people don’t notice or even know why their succulent has stretched out.

This means that the succulent has been etiolating for some time and can’t be reversed.

The succulent will never be able to look the way it once did and also won’t be as healthy as it could have been but will stay alive for a while as long as it still receives some light.

With that being said, if you monitor your plant on a daily basis and just start noticing the succulent starting to stretch then you can most certainly save this succulent since you caught it early in the process.

All you really have to do in this case is place your succulent in a spot indoors or outdoors where a ton of sunlight will be provided.

By giving your plant the sunlight it needs you can save the plant before it is too far gone and fix most if not all of the stretching if done very early after seeing the Etiolation.

So what if my succulent is past the point of no return?

How to save your stretched succulent

Since in most cases your succulent can’t be saved after etiolation has taken it’s toll, you will need to completely propagate the stem to provide new and proper growth.

This propagation method is very similar to what you would be doing normally if you’re familiar with propagating succulents from stems then you won’t have much trouble.

So first you will want to cut off the top of the stem with some clean sharp scissors as you will be using this stem cutting for transplant and propagation.

You will need to leave at least 2 or 3 inches of stem at the base so you can plant the stem directly into some fresh soil.

Some may argue that you absolutely have to keep some leaves at the base of the stem for this to work but it is completely optional as stem’s by themselves will work just fine.

Those leaves will fall off most of the time anyway but if you want the process to work faster you can keep some by the base of the stem it’s really up to you.

So now that you have the top of the stem cut off you have a few options.

You can either wait about 4 days or so for the stem cut to dry and heal before planting or you can go ahead and plant right away.

If you decide to plant the stem before the cut is dry you will need to make sure you are not watering for at least 4 or 5 days as you don’t want the stem cut to rot.

So I would just wait a few days for the stem cut to dry before planting.

When you’re ready to plant you can place the stem cut 2 inches deep into it’s own soil or container and water fully.

From here just provide some indirect light and only water the soil again when it is completely dry like you would with most succulents anyway.

Make sure you are using succulent and cactus soil that is high quality and provides awesome drainage so you can provide the best growing environment for your newly planted succulent.

If done correctly you will most certainly see some new roots forming within 2 weeks but sometimes sooner.

Should I start using a grow light?

This is really up to you and how your current lighting situation is.

If you just made a mistake and didn’t put your succulent in a well lit area and know better now then you won’t need one if growing succulents outdoors or by a super sunny window.

However, depending on your window layout or if you can’t grow outdoors then you should most certainly get a high quality indoor grow light for your succulent to get the light it deserves.

This way you will never have to worry about saving a stretched succulent again as your plant will easily be able to get enough light no matter what.

Pour Conclure

So there you have it.

By following these simple steps you will easily be able to fix stretched succulents and take the right coarse of action to save your plant.

If that sounds good to you then go save your succulent and enjoy the process!