[Xabia Jim]

I wet my masonry with a hose before stucco work, but I'm using a cement sand mix stucco at about 1:4 ratio.

My last stucco was the easiest, as I finally made the mixture wet enough to just trowel on. Back side, seemed like 4 hours vs front side at 1/2 hour. A couple of hours later, I went over it with a sponge to get a nice even finish. You can make whatever texture you want though!

I think as long as your dry stack blocks are not going to move, the stucco will actually strengthen the mass.