Heat mat for adult cacti

[verbal]

Hi, are any of you using a heating mat on your adult cacti? With the lights on my cactus are sitting in a room with an ambient temperature of 75 F and a radiant temp of 85F. Lights off the ambient sits around 72 degrees farenheit. These are mostly adult ariocarpus, astros, tbm, some crests and also aloes. There's rooting hibiscus in the room but I would keep them off the mats. Humidity is around 45.

Do you think I could get away with using a heating mat on these adult and juvenile cactus? The mats are capable of raising root temps by 10 - 20 degrees. I'm hesitant to make such a drastic change in temps without some 3rd party advise. Please advise!

[7george]

I would not force my cacti to grow in winter. Even my natural regime is ~ 9 months cool plus 3 months kind of summer. I'd rather scrap those heat-lovers I acquired by mistake.

Cheers,

[DaveW]

Some succulents do not flower well unless they get a proper winter rest. Few plants outside the tropics grow all year round. The problem about growing cacti indoors these days is houses are now a bit too warm for them in winter due to central heating and humans liking heat. In the past you could put them in a spare room since not all the house was heated in the open fire days and bedrooms often had frost on the single glazed windows in winter.

http://www.cactus-art.biz/note-book/Dic ... r_rest.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.succseed.com/cultivation.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However the more tropical cacti would suit your conditions, such as Discocactus, Melocactus etc:-

http://www.discocactus.nl/Engels/Cultiv ... eneral.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[esp_imaging]

It sounds like your winter temperatures are already as high as my summer temps often reach.
For cacti that are happy with a cool/cold winter rest I wouldn't add more heat.

[iann]

Might be worth it for some tropicals, seedlings, or rooting cuttings. It depends on whether you can also supply sufficient light. Overheating cacti in dim conditions will not give good results.

[verbal]

Thank you for the replies everyone! Just to be clear, these are the species and temps I am working with. Suggesting different species doesn't help in this particular case. I'm familiar with over wintering but I'm unfortunately unable to provide a suitable climate this year. I agree I'm unlikely to see flowers next season but I disagree I'll be unable to keep these species alive in this environment. If that was even being inferred.

This year (2016) I'll build an outdoor greenhouse which will hopefully provide a better overwintering climate. I've already set the money aside I'm just waiting until I can decide on what I want in a design. At the least, the greenhouse will allow me to shield the plants from the BRUTAL humidity and rain during winter. Looking at the temps in North Mexico/West Texas, this week days are hitting mid 80F and some nights are mid 30F. I don't know how anyone is providing that kind of temperature swing outside of native regions for a proper overwintering.

I've got ~1200 watts of light in a 5'x5' with temps bouncing from an ambient 71 F at night to an ambient ~77 F and radiant of ~86 F in the day. Relative Humidity is mid to low 40s. Seedlings are under 70% shade cloth on a 107w 4'x2' seedling heat mat. I've got a second identical heat mat turned off but sitting under the adult plants. I'm curious if others in my situation would turn on the second mat to add heat to the roots of the adult plants? Do you suggest I withhold water from the plants and let them sit at this temp range or should I push them through the dormant season by providing heat to the roots and water? Possibly just provide the additional heat but no water?

Thanks all, I appreciate and respect each of your opinions.

Here are some pictures. I'm extremely happy with my indoor greenhouse setup! There are also some Ariocarpus and Turbinicarpus hydro peres grafts in the back left corner but they're out of view in these photos.

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