g'day folks,been quite a while since I logged on (but I have been keeping an eye on the site). the reason being we have moved to my sons block & I decided to try & be totally self sufficient in vegies & fruit, so the cacti took a backseat.
after two seasons of disasters re the vegies & fruit we discovered that we had been watering with salt water from the bore.
now you may be asking what this has to do with cactus & succulents; well it's like this, all the cactus & succulents have been watered with the same water & have survived & in some cases have positively thrived.
question is, why, surely the should have died too.
the good point is I can now concentrate on them & to hell with the vegies.
salt water
Succulents are often adapted to water with high levels of dissolved salts, it just comes automatically with other adaptations to dry environments. Some take it to extremes and are called halophytes. Some are more tolerant than others. Cacti are not amongst the most salt tolerant succulents and eventually they'll suffer, depending on the type and quantity of salts in the water.
--ian