Winter Damage Report 2010/2011

[DesertZone]

Post all your winter damaged plant pics. I know it was very cold winter in Texas, NM, and SE Arizona.
Please post what city and how cold. Thanks

[Peterthecactusguy]

Sheesh it was 16.7 degrees in Central AZ

I will collect some pics tomorrow and post them. I did have a few loses.

[daiv]

I actually have one winter damaged plant that I can post. Although my damage occurred way back at the beginning of November. I move my O. santa-rita in last because it is a glochid factory. Well I was slow in moving it in and it got a bit too cold for it. I know it could handle some freezing, but it was low 20's and it took a hit. Not dead, just damaged.

[Peterthecactusguy]

Winter damage 2011..

frozen Aloe vera.

Damaged A.americana

Dead A. tetragonus

Dying saguaro, despite all the wind and cold it still is standing sadly to date. It was leaning for awhile and now it's rotting

ADOT cactus that fell either got frozen or blown over, I am not sure which to be honest.

And finally the rescued from the flood E. engelmannii is dropping, I don't know if its from the cold or not, but it's still slightly dropping.

[DesertZone]

Sheesh it was 16.7 degrees in Central AZ

I wonder how my saguaros are doing in SE Arizona, my nieghbors said they got down to 0. I guess I will find out next time I go down there.

Thanks for the pics, good info on how plants look after a cold spell.

[Peterthecactusguy]

yup. I don't know. I hiked up into some areas North of town, I mean you got around 10 miles north of me and the saguaros can't survive, it gets too cold for them, and so far it seems that most of them are doing ok. The dying saguaro was set into motion before the cold, it was one of the moved ones.

As for the other plants most of my Opuntia are fine, and the others are just shriveled up and will look better in a few weeks or a month or so. When I saw how cold it got, I was worried because supposedly saguaros are only good to around 10F. Lower then that and they freeze and the cells rupture.

[DesertZone]

Peter, what cactus do you have that surpeised you?
What ones made it with flying colors?

[Peterthecactusguy]

really the only ones that I have that were outside during the cold snap were E. grusonii, which is fine, and E. spachiana which lost the one trunk, probably due to wind. Most of the rest in my yard are Saguaros (to 10F so they all were good) and a bunch of Opuntia many of which were used to the cold.

So far it seems like all my outdoor cacti, except the ones that I mentioned that died are going to be fine.

[Johnts71]

I will take some pictures tomorrow

if it turns black but doesnt run down the cacti, does this mean it can be saved? this is happening to my saguaro!

also my Echinopsis terscheckii took some damage as well...its not black but its yellow at the top.

we basically had record lows! For 81 hours it was below 32...which is rare and unusual for San Antonio. We also got snow.

I didnt want to cover anything...whatever dies I will get rid of and plant more of what didnt.

Cacti I lost were
Echinopsis pachanoi
Cereus repandus f. monstrose cristate

its kinda a wait and see for the saguaro and the Echinopsis terscheckii

[Peterthecactusguy]

I don't think a saguaro being black is ever a good thing. A few of mine had black spots on them where fungus attacked the plant but it scared under the surface. (I know this cause I scarped one of them off with a stick)

Pics might help us decide if anything is savable or not.
I dont even think I can save the arms on that saguaro if it should fall they are a sickly yellowish color.

[Johnts71]

kinda hard to see but its a little black at the top...i poked it with a long stick and the skin is still hard, not mushy



this one isnt mushy either



this one got chopped off last year and now the new growth is gone

[DesertZone]

john, how cold did it get in San Antonio?

[iann]

Nasty! The advantages of a really cold climate is that we have your plants under cover. I still lose some each winter though

[Johnts71]

john, how cold did it get in San Antonio?

it was in the 20's for about 81 hours straight

[Johnts71]

Nasty! The advantages of a really cold climate is that we have your plants under cover. I still lose some each winter though

it just doesnt get cold like this but even covering up doesnt help. I will just buy more of what didnt get hurt..golden barrells are perfectly fine.