What's the best day for a cold-climate-cactus grower?

[daiv]

The day that you move your plants out of the cold/dark basement storage into the sun and warmth! Today was that day for me and I'm happy to report no losses this winter!

I mis-placed my camera somewhere in the house. As soon as I find it I'll get some pics.

[daiv]

OK well to find camera, just look for the teenage girl that wanted to look at Prom pictures.

So here are most of them - a few were off to the side:

cactus_out01_overview.jpg (467.34 KiB) Viewed 1269 times

Again, no losses, but some etiolation. This Copiapoa seems to especially not stop growing. You can see the constriction where it did the same thing last year. At this rate, it will look like the Michelin man with spines.

cactus_out01_cop_etio.jpg (446.75 KiB) Viewed 1269 times

another with less etiolation. Seems Echinocereus have more of a tendency to etiolate and so do Echinopsis.

cactus_out03_.etio.jpg (553.43 KiB) Viewed 1269 times

It was really like cleaning out an old cellar - had to dust off the cobwebs and everything!

cactus_out04_saguaro.jpg (553.16 KiB) Viewed 1269 times

[Saxicola]

Congrats! I hope no one gets sunburn. I got the impression that you used to live in SoCal, is that correct? If so, it must have been rough having to adjust to C&S growing in Minnesota!

[*Barracuda_52*]

Great to see you got yours out Daiv mine are soon to fallow, still have few things to do around the GHs and also watching for night temps to drop again we always get that 1st or second week May, but will have all the cacti and succulents out in the GH by end of next week. The tropicals will wait alittle longer. I had a couple with etiolation, i will snap pics of mine once there all out and in the GH. The not so fun part of loading them all onto the trailer and then getting them in the right place in the GH oh joy joy LOL!! Not luging them up the stairway this spring gona just use Cassies livingroom slidder patio doors can just back the trailer right up to the door and use the quad to pull it around to the GH.

[Peterthecactusguy]

Daiv glad to see you could move your plants out finally. I gotta figure out what I am doing with mine this winter

[majcka]

Daiv! Are you sure that is a saguaro??? It looks a bit like C.senilis.


Upss! I looked at it again. Not senilis. That's a spider work.

[Arjen]

let the games begin! have a good season daiv!

[Harriet]

Have you had an unusually long cold period, or is the end of April usual for you? It has stayed "cool" here for longer than expected... I'm enjoying the heck out of it, but I think the plants are confused!

[hoteidoc]

Harriet - For the (@least upstate NY) Northeast, fairly typical. Last year got Really spoiled, 'cause after 10 days straight of rain in early April, super-warmup came that stayed. March fooled me (& almost all plants) into believing a repeat was in the works.
Daiv - My plant migration is a "process" of over a month working off the "10-day" forecast, starting with the cool & moisture tolerant going out 1st & just working down the line. By Memorial Day all that are going are out. Leaves just starting on 2 Walnut trees that give great broken shade to deck, so go thru sun-training there & then real sun-lovers go out around house & garage. 1st stuff - mostly columnars (Oreo's, San Pedro's) & non-CH Opuntia's. Cat's will love more space, but then they're out in good weather, too.
Peter

[daiv]

Harriet,
Here are the "move out" dates:

2008 - May 11 (sort of doesn't count since I built the greenhouse that spring)
2009 - May 2
2010 - April 11
2011 - May 3
2012 - April 30

So this year is pretty typical really. The thing that makes it seem so wrong this year is that in March we had two weeks of weather that was like Early May (right now). I even moved my epi-cactus out on the line for that time, but had to bring them back in. Then April was really pretty typical overall. It's just that the warm spell in March really made us feel like winter was over and then we plenty of freezing and even snow after that. In other words, the weather engaged in some psychological warfare this spring!

[*Barracuda_52*]

Thats how it goes Daiv some yrs they can go out earlier some yrs they stay in longer, checked the weather again, im moving out cacti later today, going to get out as many as i can over the next 2 days water them real well and into the GH they go temps at night dont seem to bad, im still going to hold off on the tropicals till i know the night temps stay warmer. Some of the pre bonsia trees can go out to the tropicals GH. Alot of work to do for the next few weeks..
We just seem to have colder temps than you do at times Daiv..

[iann]

Frost forecast for the weekend I love it when the winter is over, but I'm not loving it at the moment ...

[Harriet]

The last freezes are over down here by mid March, and it doesn't get really cold enough to worry about until late November at the earliest, or early in January at the latest. No dormant cacti for me!

I don't think my old arthritic bones could handle the cold you and Tracey endure! And what strange weather seems to be hitting Britain!

[majcka]

Frost forecast for the weekend I love it when the winter is over, but I'm not loving it at the moment ...

Where do you order that stupid forecast? If it get you in a better mood I can lend you out forecast. It's not that ugly.

[iann]

I don't think my old arthritic bones could handle the cold you and Tracey endure! And what strange weather seems to be hitting Britain!

The cold in northern America can certainly be shocking but I'll take some snow and some sun over a British winter any time. The New York locals used to laugh at me because I'd be going out in shirt sleeves in January using my English logic of "the sun is shining so it must be warm"

The strange weather here was inevitable really. Announcing a drought and banning hosepipes is a sure way to annoy the rain gods, and they haven't let up since. Almost to the day that the hosepipe bans started (further south and east, not here) it started raining, we've now had the wettest April on record in England overall, and there are floods in quite a few places.