What does a dead succulent look like?
A rotting succulent will appear to have black leaves starting from the bottom of the succulents plant and stems that will either look brown or black and mushy.
As the plant start losing its water storage, the bottom leaves start to dry out first. Some plants will also start dropping dried up leaves to conserve water and energy for survival. Leaves feel soft and flat–When touched, the leaves will feel soft and flat. The leaves will lose their plumpness and firmness.
Place the Succulent in Water
To help rehydrate the succulent and encourage it to grow new roots, place the succulent in a small container filled with water. The leaves should sit above the surface while the bottom of the stem and any remaining roots should be below the water.
This is much easier than it sounds! Just cut off the top of your plant, trim away any black spots, give the cutting three to five days to dry out, then propagate it in new soil. On the cuttings below, you can see how I cut off every part of the stem that was soggy or blackened.
If it's dead, the branch will bend easily and the insides look dry. For a succulent with no branch, you can try to scratch the stem. If the succulent is alive, it will be green and feel moist underneath.
If your succulent gets too hot, its leaves will start dropping off. It's a normal response to the stress caused by heat and drought. Isn't that weird? It seems strange, but it won't actually hurt your plant, and it's not something to worry over too much.
They can go up to 1-3 months of no watering. Indoor succulents will have less exposure to the elements outdoors - wind and sunlight outdoors tend to dry out the soil faster than it does indoors. In cooler climates, generally fall and winter, the soil stays moist for longer periods of time.
Signs Your Succulent Has Been Overwatered
The first sign of overwatering to watch for is discoloration and change in the leaves' form. You'll notice the leaves becoming translucent, soft, and squishy, and unlike those that have been under-watered, they will be dropped by the plant rather than recovered.
Water therapy is the process of setting a succulent in water for an extended period of time, about 24-48 hours. Typically this is done when a succulent is "bare root" not while it's potted.
One of the first signals that a succulent entering dormancy will exhibit is that it stops growing—completely. If they have fleshy leaves, like in the case of my Senecio, they'll simply become, yellow or brown and drop or hang limply off the sides of the plant stem. In some varieties, rosettes will contract.
How do you know when the soil is dried out of a succulent?
Feel the weight of the pot
It should be quite a bit lighter than after you watered it. Wait another day or two and then feel it again. If it doesn't seem lighter than a day or two before, you're good to water again! The soil should be completely dry.