CactiGuide.com

Hello!
So I recently got some E. sneedi offsets and I decided to plant them in a plastic pot as soon as possible for it to root, before finding it a nice clay pot that it will live in. Today I found a 8.5 cm clay pot and decided to dig up the cutting as I was surprised with how fast 5 roots developed! I believe the cutting is some 3 cm tall.

So my question is: how do I overwinter it this year? I know these are hardy and that's partly the reason I like them. I'm in zone 7 and can provide it with south facing wall with complete protection from rain and snow. But will the roots develop well until late September/October for it to be able to handle the winter and frosts until April? Or should I provide it with some higher temperature for this year?

I know I'm kinda early thinking about this, but I don't wanna kill it!

I am pretty sure it will be fine, with or without roots.
And if it doesn't work out, you can have a cutting from my plant!

Thank you, that's good to hear!
Cold hardy cacti are new to me, I'm still learning.
I also got Opuntia fragilis, which developed roots like this Escobarias, but within 20 hours in soil (I realized the soil was way too bad for them and changed in the day after first potting, I know I need to calm down with it), I was so amazed!

I live in a high mountain desert climate in the western US. Very hot and dry summers with cold, snowy winters. The opuntia fragilis is native here and survives the heat of summers and freezing snowy winters as do a number of other species including some Escobaria. This cactus website sells only hardy specimens and they sell 3-4 hardy Escobaria among them. The cactus can also overwinter indoors by the window.

https://www.intermountaincactus.com/2018-price-list

I'm only providing the website as a resource list to see what cactus are cold hardy which might appeal to you.

That is interesting!
I just got into cold hardy cacti and I am fascinated by what they can stand.
I've been looking at some habitat photos on iNaturalist app, beautiful clumps of Escobaria!

metsolt wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 8:46 pm That is interesting!
I just got into cold hardy cacti and I am fascinated by what they can stand.

That I can understand. But then again, every average leafy tree, for example an oak tree, can survive the same cold. Including the winter rains. That makes it less impressive.

Although I don't know if an oak tree can survive an entire dry winter, or even an harsh summer climate.

Honestly, I am fascinated even by trees' ability to survive winters that sometimes reach -20°C or lower here. Of course, some die, but most thrive.

When it comes to cacti, I got more into them just last year. Until then, a cactus was a desert plant to me and not much else. And I had a whole lot to discover to prove myself wrong! I didn't even think there are cacti living in Canada.

Here's the BONAP map for the Esco. Vivip. natural range. I'm in Utah. Lots of hot ,lots of cold.

The Big Yellow area represents extreme desert ...Death Valley.

Definitely not a picky species!
Were those yellow states not included in the research or are these really concentrated areas? I think I heard that some live in Washington state and Lake Michigan.

The light green indicates healthy populations of the species. The green represents the species is present. The yellow indicates rare occurrence in that county . Those two large yellow areas are directly related to Death Valley, Cali.

The brown indicates no presence in that state. However it's very possible that whatever group of humans submitting the data could have missed a specimen in a brown area. The Washington state is 3 times the size of Bosnia Herzegovina . 184,000 K2 versus 51,000 k2....so really big areas to find a cactus.

The only easy time to spot these small cacti is during the spring when they're in bloom.

In my state, the open range grazing policy for cattle severely impacts ALL cactus habitats as well as every other plant and animal species. Imagine over the decades millions upon millions of 700 kilo footprints the size of a plate smashing every square centimeter of earth for as far as you can see. Not all at once mind you but over time. Only the large rocks survive.

I confused brown and yellow somehow. I didn't notice there was an actual yellow involved.

I understand that capitalism exists, but what about endangered species status, that I'm sure many species in that marked area have? Wouldn't that conflict with open range grazing policy? Or is it gonna be that whatever, if anything, survived in 50 years, they're gonna cram it in a tiny national park or a protected zone, "saving" it?

The best outdoors is vivipara by all means.
There's restriction to buy plants outside EU, may cause bad problems at customs.
Don't water cacti immidiately after planting.

There I was, worrying it would not have time to root until dormancy and now I notice 5 offsets coming out already.
I did not expect this!

The one on the right is clearly visible and there are some more on the left side. They're still tiny, of course.

I though I could update this thread. The plant is growing well, it's its second winter. The last winter it got down to -7°C and this winter it was -6°C a few times already. I hope it flowers next spring since I hear offsets usually flower the second year.

Nice progress!
Maybe the cold will stimulate flowers. My potted plant stays for many years with 100 offsets but no flowers seen so far.