Actually, it is possible. For the soil to be, or to have been, too wet for succulents, especially your succulents which look to be echeveria, a desert-type cactus.
Always bear in mind that what we think must be the case---that a plant must be perishing for want of water, for example---ain't necessarily so. We tend to think this because so many houseplants are tropicals with different habitat and culture requirements than those of desert cacti.
Almost two years ago (yes, really), a too-small pot of top-heavy aloe vera---another desert-dweller---was literally bumped from the top of a short bookcase, and it spilled: plant, soil, crocking material everywhere. The crocking was picked up one bit at a time, and set aside to be cleaned so it could be used in another pot (maybe even for that now-homeless aloe.) The soil was vacuumed up. The aloe broke into three plants when it fell. I didn't have that many pots (clay ones, by the way: desert succulents don't need plastic) among the "gardening supplies" in the house: just the original one the plant had been in, and one extra, so two aloe veras got potted up. That third one, I set aside two years ago, intending to take care of it.
That aloe vera (which, I ought to explain, is a group of leaves all attached at a base rather than just a section of leaf broken off in the fall) is still lying on its side on a piece of paper toweling on top of the bookshelf which used to be home to the pot I accidentally knocked to the floor two years ago. The unpotted aloe is fine. It won't stay like that forever, of course. It will require potting up in a pot proportionately broader than it is deep, and with plenty of heavy crock to keep it as stable as possible, because it can't continue living forever without a place to put down roots, literally, or without water. But two years? (Honest: it's been waiting for its new home for two years.)
Regarding the size of container necessary, let me tell you about the sempervivums ("hens-and-chicks") which were overrunning the small plastic or rubber dishpan being used as a home for them (it had plenty of drainage holes, put into its bottom intentionally.) The plants weren't even remotely discouraged: they had been making their weird flower stalks, and reproducing, and things had become so crowded plants were standing on stems or roots above other plants, some of which were above original plants. By the time I was tired of them, my sister-in-law was lusting for loads and loads of hens-and-chicks so I dumped them---literally, just tossed the plants out of their container---into her flower bed; told her, "Just set them down where you want them, and they'll do the rest." She did, and they did. Most desert cacti do very well with containers providing less than one inch of space between the actual base of the cactus (not the bottom leaves, but where the "stem" or neck goes into the soil to meet with the root system), all the way around.
Y'know, I recall having recommended "The Apartment Gardener" by Stan and Florence Dworkin (copyright 1974, probably OOP today but can be found on Amazon-dot-com) to you back in December of 2010. At the time, you were asking about a failing basil plant given to you by your BF's mother. Were you able to snag a copy for yourself? "The Apartment Gardener" is a terrific bible for indoor gardening, even if you're in a house and not an apartment. Worth hunting for, and worth every penny plus shipping.
Always bear in mind that what we think must be the case---that a plant must be perishing for want of water, for example---ain't necessarily so. We tend to think this because so many houseplants are tropicals with different habitat and culture requirements than those of desert cacti.
Almost two years ago (yes, really), a too-small pot of top-heavy aloe vera---another desert-dweller---was literally bumped from the top of a short bookcase, and it spilled: plant, soil, crocking material everywhere.
The crocking was picked up one bit at a time, and set aside to be cleaned so it could be used in another pot (maybe even for that now-homeless aloe.) The soil was vacuumed up.
The aloe broke into three plants when it fell. I didn't have that many pots (clay ones, by the way: desert succulents don't need plastic) among the "gardening supplies" in the house: just the original one the plant had been in, and one extra, so two aloe veras got potted up. That third one, I set aside two years ago, intending to take care of it.
That aloe vera (which, I ought to explain, is a group of leaves all attached at a base rather than just a section of leaf broken off in the fall) is still lying on its side on a piece of paper toweling on top of the bookshelf which used to be home to the pot I accidentally knocked to the floor two years ago.
The unpotted aloe is fine.
It won't stay like that forever, of course. It will require potting up in a pot proportionately broader than it is deep, and with plenty of heavy crock to keep it as stable as possible, because it can't continue living forever without a place to put down roots, literally, or without water.
But two years? (Honest: it's been waiting for its new home for two years.)
Regarding the size of container necessary, let me tell you about the sempervivums ("hens-and-chicks") which were overrunning the small plastic or rubber dishpan being used as a home for them (it had plenty of drainage holes, put into its bottom intentionally.)
The plants weren't even remotely discouraged: they had been making their weird flower stalks, and reproducing, and things had become so crowded plants were standing on stems or roots above other plants, some of which were above original plants. By the time I was tired of them, my sister-in-law was lusting for loads and loads of hens-and-chicks so I dumped them---literally, just tossed the plants out of their container---into her flower bed; told her, "Just set them down where you want them, and they'll do the rest."
She did, and they did.
Most desert cacti do very well with containers providing less than one inch of space between the actual base of the cactus (not the bottom leaves, but where the "stem" or neck goes into the soil to meet with the root system), all the way around.
Y'know, I recall having recommended "The Apartment Gardener" by Stan and Florence Dworkin (copyright 1974, probably OOP today but can be found on Amazon-dot-com) to you back in December of 2010. At the time, you were asking about a failing basil plant given to you by your BF's mother.
Were you able to snag a copy for yourself? "The Apartment Gardener" is a terrific bible for indoor gardening, even if you're in a house and not an apartment. Worth hunting for, and worth every penny plus shipping.
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