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Cacti Thread

bpiela said:
Hybrid Mode,
 
Any instructions/recommendations for bringing in the cacti for over the winter?
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     Oh crap. I totally forgot to give you guys directions on how to over winter your plants!  :clap:  Oh well, I don't think it's too late to do things right.
     The first step to inducing dormancy in cacti is to stop watering and let the soil dry out completely. Keep them growing outside, just bring them in when it's supposed to rain and put them back out when it clears up. The goal is to convince the plants that they are coming into the dry/cool season of their native habitat. Dry soil, cooling temps and (eventually) increasing shade will tell them to slow down.
     These are pretty hardy cacti. Not as cold tolerant as an Opuntia, but they can easily tolerate temps down to 32F and have been reported to shrug off snow and temps as low as 25F. (I wouldn't push it too far though.)
     What I usually do is to start bringing them in just during significant rain events to start. Then as they dry out, I slowly shift into only putting them outside during sunny warm days - allowing them more and more time in the relative darkness of indoor life. If you start to notice pale, yellow-green growth at the meristems after having been indoors for a few days or a week, put them back outside for a few days of bright sunshine to green it back up and prevent further etiolation. Even if you can just get it outside for an afternoon of sunshine and warmish temps your plant will appreciate it. After a few cycles of this, your plants should get the hint and stop growing.
     If you're really strapped for time and freezing temps are fast approaching, just make sure that your plants' soil is completely dry. (Wet soil with no sunlight can promote root rot.) It's not the end of the world if your plant isn't entirely dormant when you bring it in. The result will just be thin, etiolated growth. If this is a problem, the weird growth can just be cut off later in winter. In a few weeks, the cut will dry and callus over. And in spring when you start giving your cactus sunshine and water again, it will just sprout a new stem to replace its lost meristem.
     Once your cacti are dormant they are essentially inert. Just put them wherever you have room and/or want a pretty cactus to look at and remind you of warmer times. :cool: Although, if you weren't able to achieve complete dormancy, putting them in a sunny spot can help ward off etiolation.
 
Since we are allowed to post Epiphytes... These photos were from 2015. This spring it did fairly well and put out 15 or so flowers. Kind of a boring plant to grow and decided to chuck it in the garbage shortly after it bloomed. I did take a cutting and rooted it,but I ended up stepping on it on the garage floor a couple months ago.
 
 
 
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     Anybody's cacti have new pups sprouting? I pruned back my big T. bridgesii plant a few months ago and have noticed about a half dozen little green bumps popping out from under the cuts. I'll post some pics later today.
 
     The fist four pics are buds on my big bridgesii plant. Pardon the blurriness. There's not much room on my balcony for all my plants, let alone room for some 6'5" lummox trying to contort himself to take pics.
 
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     This one is T. macrogonus - starting from a cut I made a few years ago.
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     Now that my plants are back in the sun and getting water and fish emulsion to eat, those buds should really start stretching soon. It's amazing how fast they suck up water when they're coming out of dormancy. All the tips of my bridgesii get really soft and wrinkly over winter, but they puff right up over night after I give them their first big drink of the season. Soon they'll be greened up and looking like they never came inside last fall!
 
I picked up a couple of succulents at Home Depot for an area that is pretty inhospitable to most greenery.


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I also got some cactus seed... The packet says it takes months for germination.. MONTHS?! Criminy! Anything I can do to speed this up a bit?


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