September repotting

[Spikylover]

I found a very cheap cactus shop and bought around 30 of them . Of course they're all in pure peat. Im thinking the roots need a week to dry before repotting and a week maybe to recover. And there's gonna be some root loss for sure since it's pure peat. We're talking about mid september now and im gonna start hibernating cacti in october (although it can still be very warm here so maybe november?)
Would you recommend this late repotting? Or i should just leave them be till the next spring?

Many thanks.

Rachel.

[DaveW]

You can theoretically repot cacti at any time of the year into dry soil. However in the dormant season you do not usually water until the next growing season. Therefore you would have to decide whether you would normally water them again before winter since your season seems to extend later than in the UK, or just take them through dry until next year. If they are dry and have stopped growing, being potted in peat or anything else will not matter until watering early next year.

The problem with peat is once it was allowed to dry out it is difficult to wet again. Obviously you can grow cacti successfully in peat or the original growers would not use it, but once allowed to dry out it is usually difficult to re-wet and safer to grow the plants in a more normal well drained soil which can be dried out and re-wetted more easily.