Why are there Black Spots on my Succulents' leaves?

Q: There are black spots on the tips of the leaves of my succulents. How should I deal with them? Should I cut off the leaves?

When black spots appear on the top of the succulent leaves, it may be sunburn or black spot disease. Prevention is better than a cure.

As we all know, most succulents like to grow in a cool and comfortable climate, so it is inevitable to encounter various small problems in the summer with high temperatures. When black spots or spots appear on the leaves of succulents, it is a signal that the plant is not very healthy right now. We must find out the cause and carry out targeted maintenance for the plants.

Causes of dark spots on succulent leaves

Generally speaking, there are two types of black spots on the leaves: sunburn or black spot disease, so let's analyze these two situations:

Sunburn

When watering succulents in summer, be sure to avoid placing them under strong, direct sunlight at noon. Water them in the morning or at night when the weather is cooler; otherwise, the succulents will be easily sunburned in a dehydrated state.

Precautions (shading and ventilation are important) :

In hot summer, appropriate succulent shading is needed. Generally speaking, the 6-needle shading net has the best effect, and the effect of a black shading net is much higher than that of green and blue. In addition, ventilation is the most important thing in summer. A well-ventilated environment can inhibit the growth of bacteria, let water volatilize faster (avoid causing a stuffy and humid climate), reduce the surface temperature, and add many other benefits.

Black Spot/Rot Disease 

The appearance of dark, usually round, patches on the leaves, which then shrivel and fall off at the slightest touch, indicates Black Spot Disease. Gradually, all leaves develop dark patches until they reach a point of growth, and the whole plant dies. The process is usually slow and tends to infect other succulents before it dies, so if you notice this, isolate it early.

When succulent plants start to develop black spots and those spots start to spread over and over again, that's actually the black spots that are common in many plants.

It may be less common than in the origin of succulents because black spot is a serious disease widely distributed worldwide outside arid areas. It mostly occurs in wet seasons, and rain is the main condition of disease prevalence. In years with early and heavy rainfall, the disease occurs early and severely—the greater the relative humidity of the air, the more conducive to disease occurrence. Also, low-lying water, poor ventilation, intensive planting, insufficient light, improper fertilizer and water, and weak plants are conducive to the disease.

Solutions:

When succulent plants have black spots, we don't know how to solve them. In addition to improving our own conservation methods, we can also spray it with diluted Carbendazim, which will restore it to health in about a week.

Of course, in order to get the best result with the least amount of effort, you need to conduct an investigation one by one according to the status and variant of your plants.

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