Wintering cacti to encourage flower growth questions.

[EliWhitney3140]

Hello all of you Xerophiles, I wanted to seek some wisdom from the seasoned growers. A very big mission of mine is to produce seed, lots of seed. I want to be dialed in with growing seedlings, but obviously if you don't have seeds then there are no seedlings. I want to be self sufficient and hopefully be able to share seeds with many others. I would like to take some/ any pressure I can off of the habitat cactus we all love.

My favorite cacti are the slow growers, Copiapoas, Lophophora, Eriosyce. I realize that my favorite cacti are having some of the highest risk of poaching and I want to be smart about where I source the cactus I love.

So my real question is about wintering the species. I am having real trouble finding a good amount of information about wintering these specific species and it seems that you hear a lot of conflicting information. I want to give my cactus a real dormancy to encourage flower growth and any advice on that would be great. I pretty much stop watering completely for winter months (I do keep reading that Copiapoas growing season is in the fall and winter in habitat and appreciate water in that time). It seems that Cacti still want a lot of light but need a significant drop in temperatures. Temperature is really my biggest question for these species. It seems that Copiapoa can handle pretty cold temps and that Lophophora can as well, although not quite as cold. So I was thinking about setting up a grow station in my Garage this winter.

I would love to hear any of your personal setups or experience with putting your cacti in winter dormancy. What to look out for, concerns, advice, etc. I am a little worried about stagnant air. I suppose a good fan to increase air flow would be beneficial.

Anyways, I would appreciate any and all advice for you all. I really want to grow the healthiest "hard grown" cacti I can, and hopefully also take some pressure off of the habitat, even if it is just from myself.

[DaveW]

If you are simply aiming to provide the garden trade or less discerning hobbyists with attractive plants akin to hybrid rose bushes or decorative house plants, there is no problem. But it you are trying to provide collectors with the equivalent of collected habitat plants and retain their genetic purity it is more of a problem.

If you want to produce true seed and not risk open pollinated hybrids you will need at least two plants of each species known not to be hybrids themselves. Then isolate them from the general collection before the flowers open, hand pollinate them, then not put them back again into the general collection until a fruit has formed and do that for every individual species. Some plants are self fertile, but as nature abhors non sexual reproduction they will outcross with anything compatible in the collection if possible, unless precautions are taken such as keeping insects out of the greenhouse for instance. In habitat, unlike our collections, usually every compatible plant around them is the same species and not any distantly related species that could still cross.

As said, do your know your mother plants are not hybrids themselves, being produced from either hand pollinated seed from originally collected plants, or seed collected from habitat? Producing seed from commercial hybrids will only produce more complex hybrids. Also many of the species we have in cultivation are simply clones of the most marketable individuals rather than representative samples of the species in habitat.

I was reading a botanists comments about in situ cultivation being genetic reserve for plants dying out in habitat. However he complained that random hybridising by nurserymen or ammeters saving their own seed and not taking sufficient precautions against cross pollination in their open collections was producing numbers of dubious hybrids. These were being passed on under the names of the mother plants, but were now worthless for restocking habitats.

https://academic.oup.com/botlinnean/art ... login=true

David Hunt told me of some enthusiasts doing more harm than good since they were worried about the locals taking so many Schlumbergera's from habitat for traditional holiday decoration therefore decided to restock the area. However instead of taking a few plants from that particular area and breeding from them to produce genetically similar individuals, they just went into the local market and bought plants there that could have been commercially produced hybrids and introduced those, therefore polluting the habitat gene pool. Introducing "replacements" from different areas is not always good conservation since they are not always generically identical to the existing population.

In the UK our winters are cool enough anyway for most cacti that prefer a dormant period, so it is just a case of withholding water over winter. Of course this does not suit the more tropical cacti like Melocactus etc.

[7george]

I would love to hear any of your personal setups or experience with putting your cacti in winter dormancy.

Well, if you wintering cacti outdoors, there is not many options to implement, everything depends on your climate. Maybe just provide some winter shelter to avoid moisture in coldest time around the plants. And this is more like survival tips. Blooming will depend on last season care, mostly proper feeding of your plants. If you have potted ones moving those to sunny spots will help for early blooming likely.

If growing or bringing your plants indoors there is much more options and the collector has to be creative. Dave already said about not watering the plants during the winter months and if your climate is colder, dry period should start from October or from the moving pots indoors. This will affect mostly early bloomers and in lesser degree summer bloomers. In order not to be tempted to water those you shouldn't better free up from the soil plants due to transplanting right away. In this condition these take less space and can be placed easily at brighter spots or places where is colder. Will be no moisture left in the soil that you'll have to worry about. Also inspect temperature conditions in your house, apartment or a greenhouse. There is always colder areas along the walls, at windowsills or lower on the floor. If you have an unheated room or basement use it, but don't forget about providing some light and regular ventilation. Some even move part of the collection to another residency if conditions there are more suitable.

Quite often as in my case spots with good light or sunshine are limited. In this case I put early/winter bloomers there and after the bloom place others summer-bloomers to their spots moving first ones outdoors if hardy or just aside to other spot.
Also fall time, better keep plants outdoors maximum possible time to experience low temps (0 - 5 C) that will be impossible to create inside a heated house even in coldest days or nights.

Do a research and decide which plants need to be chilled for better blooming. Excluding tropicals is obvious. Most Mexicans also don't need any cold to flower, especially these from low warm areas.

[greenknight]

On the question of stagnant air, I really don't think it matters when the cacti are dormant. Getting them dried out before the wet season arrives, bringing very high humidity, is the main concern in a climate like ours.

[EliWhitney3140]

I greatly appreciate all of your advice.

I guess I should say I am all about hard grown plants. Not watering cacti is no problem for me and I know Copiapoa and Lophophora can handle that anyways.

I do have a good sized greenhouse but I am concerned it might be a little too cold during the height of winter to leave them outside. I think I want to set them up in the basement/garage with growlights.

[4d3d3d3]

I would love to hear any of your personal setups or experience with putting your cacti in winter dormancy.

Well, if you wintering cacti outdoors, there is not many options to implement, everything depends on your climate. Maybe just provide some winter shelter to avoid moisture in coldest time around the plants. And this is more like survival tips. Blooming will depend on last season care, mostly proper feeding of your plants. If you have potted ones moving those to sunny spots will help for early blooming likely.

If growing or bringing your plants indoors there is much more options and the collector has to be creative. Dave already said about not watering the plants during the winter months and if your climate is colder, dry period should start from October or from the moving pots indoors. This will affect mostly early bloomers and in lesser degree summer bloomers. In order not to be tempted to water those you shouldn't better free up from the soil plants due to transplanting right away. In this condition these take less space and can be placed easily at brighter spots or places where is colder. Will be no moisture left in the soil that you'll have to worry about. Also inspect temperature conditions in your house, apartment or a greenhouse. There is always colder areas along the walls, at windowsills or lower on the floor. If you have an unheated room or basement use it, but don't forget about providing some light and regular ventilation. Some even move part of the collection to another residency if conditions there are more suitable.

Quite often as in my case spots with good light or sunshine are limited. In this case I put early/winter bloomers there and after the bloom place others summer-bloomers to their spots moving first ones outdoors if hardy or just aside to other spot.
Also fall time, better keep plants outdoors maximum possible time to experience low temps (0 - 5 C) that will be impossible to create inside a heated house even in coldest days or nights.

Do a research and decide which plants need to be chilled for better blooming. Excluding tropicals is obvious. Most Mexicans also don't need any cold to flower, especially these from low warm areas.

Sorry I'm having trouble understanding, does this mean to store the plants over the winter bareroot/unpotted?

[7george]

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Sorry I'm having trouble understanding, does this mean to store the plants over the winter bareroot/unpotted?

Yes, if you like it. Many do that if cacti are stored in a cool place without much sunlight. Most cacti are not watered anyway in cold climates during the winter. Make sense if these have to be re-potted anyway or wintering space is limited.

[4d3d3d3]

That's a good idea, thanks for the suggestion. I have a lot of cacti that I'm gonna need to repot next year, if I unpot them now before winter dormancy and store them bare root I'd save a lot of space.