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So in Sept. I'm moving from NY to NJ. It's just about a 2 hour drive so I'm planning on transporting them all in the car. It may take more than one trip but I'm not trusting the "pod" to move them.

I'm thinking of stuffing toilet paper all around their bases and then taping that down to keep everything from jostling out of the pots and then carefully placing everyone upright into boxes with plenty of packing peanuts poured on top. Some I'll wrap a very flexible cardboard around their pots and pour the peanuts in their little temporary tubes.
There's a few that I'll need to un-pot and lie down due to their size, but I can't possibly fathom un-potting over 100 cactus. I'll have no time to repot everything until next spring.

Does it sound like I have a good plan? Any suggestions from folks who've had to move their cacti before?
Thanks a lot for any help,
Jeff

I moved from central to southern California a couple years ago and had to move about 50 or 60 plants ranging from large rose bushes to tiny Lithops. It was a 5hr. drive. Not my idea of fun, but I had very little in the way of spilled pots and broken branches. The big plants went in a Uhaul, everything else went in my hatchback. In planning this the two main situations you need to prepare for are sudden stops and making turns. The highway is the easy part unless you have to screech on your brakes. In all likelihood if your plants are going to fall over it will happen just after you leave or just before you arrive as those are the times you will be making turns. Try to make them slow and wide if possible.

If you have tall columnar cacti that could get broken stems from bouncing around you may need to do the packing peanut thing, but for most of them I don't think it is necessary. Boxes are great if you have space for them. The most important thing is to pack the pots so there is no wiggle room. Maybe you will need to use a couple sheets of newspaper, but for the most part if you are careful about packing you can get the pots arranged in such a way that they hold tight on their own. Don't feel confined to just using boxes. Cars have nooks and crannies that should be exploited. Put newspaper or plastic on the floor behind your seats and load it up. The shape of that area in most cars works like a box and you can fit more plants in that way. Just make sure you don't run the seat back after doing that! Cupholders will also secure a few pots just fine. I look at something like this as a big jigsaw puzzle. Put some thought into it and you'll see lots of ways to keep packing in the plants. Don't water them for a few days before hand as well. Saves on a mess and is easy to do with succulents.

Good luck!

ironically enough, I have found transporting cacti, the TURN into my driveway is the worst spot...

I think an important part of moving around plants is to prevent too much movement. If the pots can tip, slide, skew or jostle about then they're going to cause some damage to your plants. Your plan founds pretty good to me, good luck for your journey!!

Peterthecactusguy wrote:ironically enough, I have found transporting cacti, the TURN into my driveway is the worst spot...

Mine too!

Sounds like you have a good plan to me too.
Just do your best to keep them from moving around to much in route, pack them tightly but not so tightly they can come in contact with each other.

Good luck.

Thanks very much everyone for the replies and all the tips.
I'm still nervous about the whole thing but I'll spend as much time as I can delicately preparing everyone for the big move.
Also have 8 cats who I have to move as well. Apparently I can't say no to cat's or cacti when they wanna move in.