Over the last four years I've lost more cacti in the summer than in our blistering-cold winters. This week I have removed 40 cacti from my garden and placed them in posts, some with 5 to a pot. These are smaller cacti, of course.
I used 50% crushed limestone and 50% of a previously mixed, lean soil from an old cacti plot. That old soil was a mix of pumice (a wonder mineral) sand and fine clay with a small measure of mini-gravel pieces. I first soaked the cacti in a container of B-1, water, indoor plant fertilizer (sparingly) fungicide and insecticide. On one plant, the roots were covered with ant larvae. All of the plants almost immediately responded with greening of the stems. They also took on water from the new soil and perked up.
So, does that mean I am becoming a pot-farmer, no, not that kind of pot, but a container farmer? Yes. I see no end to our sweltering summers. It was 105 F a few days ago. With our clear skies, the UV rays are very damaging, even on my older cacti.
The only benefit I've seen from our warmer summers of late-but with a five year drought- is many cacti seeding germinating.
I do have several varieties of Echinocereus doing well under the hot sun. Most are clustering or clumping varieties from Texas and NM. But many clustering Echinocereus from Utah are hit hard by the temps and UV rays. I have uprooted many of those or covered them with whatever material I could find. Those are doing well.
The Escobaria from NM are doing well in this heat. The Escobaria from Utah are not. Oh, humor aside cannabis is now legal in NV. It will be interesting how my garden evolves if I find seeds.
That's all I have from Sparks Nevada. censussearcher@gmail.com
Hot as heck at 4500 feet
Re: Hot as heck at 4500 feet
Can't you rig up a frame with shade cloth over them? They used to grow cacti in lath houses years ago in the US where they did not need greenhouses to provide some shade in summer.
http://www.interiordesigninspiration.ne ... ath-house/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Of course its not just a frame and nailing laths on, you have to make sure the laths are arranged so the sun passes across them providing flickering shade and not so it tracks along the spaces between them still burning any plant below.
Not all cacti like limestone and alkaline mixes, particularly S. American cacti, but you may be OK with N. American ones.
http://www.interiordesigninspiration.ne ... ath-house/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Of course its not just a frame and nailing laths on, you have to make sure the laths are arranged so the sun passes across them providing flickering shade and not so it tracks along the spaces between them still burning any plant below.
Not all cacti like limestone and alkaline mixes, particularly S. American cacti, but you may be OK with N. American ones.