Hello Joe, this information is gold!, it sheds a lot of light into how to care for our cacti, it made me realize I need to have a closer look at the regions my cacti are from to better understand what they need,thank you, excellent video.
Hello David, many thanks for your very encouraging feedback, and really great to hear that you have found the video and infos useful 👍😊🌵 Indeed I have found that by separating out my cacti and succulents into the two groups described (i.e. a "cooler winter" group, and a "warmer winter" one) I was able to greatly reduce the number of painful (...and often expensive) losses over the winter periods. Plus, by reducing the unnecessary stress on the plants in this way, I was also rewarded much more often with their wonderful flowers! Wishing you lot's of successes with your own collection and plants, take care, happy growing! 🌵👍😊🌱🌻🌸
Thanks George, I'm very happy that you found the information useful and enjoyed the video! Thanks so much for watching and commenting, much appreciated!!🙏👍🌵🌵💚😊
Hi there! Thank you very much for watching and for your awesome comment, I'm very happy that you found the video informative and the topic well explained, great feedback, very much appreciated! Hope you are having a wonderful day, take care and best wishes!
Hey Emily, a warm welcome to my channel, and thank you so much for your kind comments! I am sure I will be learning from all of your experience too! You have an awesome collection of plants and a truly wonderful channel yourself! Have an awesome week ahead and sending you lot's of cactus & succulent greetings from Germany!😊👍🌵🌵🌼🌺💚😎
Hi Sebastian, thank you very much for watching and for commenting, very happy you liked the video! Best wishes, have a wonderful day and happy growing!!! 👍🌵
Hi Mick, welcome to my channel! Many thanks indeed for watching and for your wonderful feedback! Really great and very encouraging for me that you found the video useful, thanks! Hope you are having a wonderful day, best wishes and happy growing!!🌵🌵🌵🌸😍
Hi Thomas! Thanks so much for your awesome feedback, I'm really happy that you enjoyed the video and found it informative! Thanks for watching and commenting, and happy growing indeed!! 🙏👍🙌😊🌵🪴🌵🌺🌼🌸🌵😎☀️
Hi Ellen, thanks very much for watching, and also wonderful that you enjoyed watching the video (haha, indeed with some Chinese subtitles ...hopefully they were ok to understand!?). Best regards, have a great day! 👍🌵🪴🌵🌺🌼🌸🏵
Just came across your channel and since it is winter again and I live in the Northeastern part of the USA I thought I’d give you a try. I have grown cacti and succulents for many years in different dwellings but I’m limited with cacti now in my current apartment. There are two bright windowsills where they can have cool temperatures in late fall to early spring. The rest of the year they go out on my west facing balcony. Years ago I read an article by a young cacti enthusiast that said to water twice in October, once a month from November through February and twice in March. That’s to get them through their dormant period. This advice has always worked for me and they even flower in spring or summer if they are mature enough for their species.
Hi Jane, thank you and a warm welcome to my channel, really appreciate your interest! Many thanks also for watching the video and for your awesome comments! So interesting for me to read about your setup and it sounds like you have excellent routines in place that are serving your cacti really very well! There is hardly a better endorsement of all your care and efforts than to have your cacti flowering for you every year over and over again! Congratulations for that! I also love the advice you received from the fellow cactus enthusiast, thanks so much for sharing! Once again thank you, welcome, and hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead!
Very good info!👍🏼👍🏼 I live in Lake Chelan, WA. USA. USDA zone 7a. I have to put my cactus and succulents indoors, because winters here are so cold, and we have lots of snow. By the way, thanks to morrisparkintheozarks that shared with us your RU-vid channel. Thank so much for the video!💚💚💚💚🌵🪴
Many thanks! I'm very happy that you enjoyed the video and also found it informative! Sounds like we both have somewhat similar growing requirements and climates. I too have to keep all of my cacti indoors, in my greenhouse, in the winters. Unfortunately our temperatures can go down to minus 20C during winter nights, so (...with very few truly cold hardy exceptions) definitely no cacti outside for me, haha! Brilliant that you visited my channel after seeing Clyde Morris' video, thank you very much and welcome! I hope that you enjoy the videos and infos here too! Wishing a great weekend and happy growing!
Very informative video. You covered a lot of very important points for these plants during the winter. I always dread the winter time, although the plants I overwintered in the greenhouse have been very generous with their blooms so far, much more so than ones I overwintered indoors. Look forward to watching your other videos and I’ve subscribed also 😊 Happy growing and thank you for sharing your knowledge with us 👍🏻🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
Hi Daz, many thanks for your valuable feedback and also for subscribing to my channel, really appreciated! I hope you will also enjoy some of the other videos here, and slso please do keep your feedback and suggestions coming. I always really enjoy watching your videos, and as a RU-vid channel novice I am always also keen to learn from experienced pro's like yourself 👍🌝🌵🌼 Indeed, happy growing! Cheers, Joe
I live in New Mexico which is a desert southwest state. We have cactus that grow wild here. It’s funny but you can literally see some go to sleep through the winter. They lay down flat and then stand up again in the spring. The prickly pear cactus do this.
Hahaha, indeed I have read about that, thanks Laura, so interesting and amazing isn't it! Yeah a lot of people think that cacti just keep growing year-round since they live in deserts - but they are unaware that also deserts have their seasonal climates! But living in New Mexico you will know a lot more about that than me, growing my cacti in a greenhouse in Bavaria, Germany, lol! Thanks for watching and commenting and especially also for sharing your info and amazing story about the sleeping prickly pear cacti! Very best wishes, take care and happy growing!
Informative video on a subject that many people have trouble with. As you know, my problem deals more with keeping my plants cooler, not warmer, as well as light intensity. I am trying to come up with a better plan for the coming winter. Thanks for your time with this.
Hi Bill, thanks so much for watching & commenting and I'm very glad that you found the video informative, thank you! Indeed, I have huge sympathies for your challenges, and finding a suitable place for our cacti & other succulents during the winter dormancy is not at all a trivial task. I have reponded to you directly with some thoughts that might address the specific circumstance you are working with, hopefully some of these can be of use. Over the years, I have found that there is no such thing really as THE universally "ideal" growing location - it is all also about some trial and error and adapting our collections to some degree to the circumstances and e.g. overwintering locations that we individually have. I have e.g. found that some plants, that I would really love to grow, just do not seem to like the growing environment that I have available - and so, after some (...often painful) losses I have now had to just accept that I need to focus on the genera/species that DO really grow and flower very well in "my climate / location". The amazing thing is that a huge number of cacti & succulents are luckily very forgiving and adaptive themselves, and require relatively less maintenance than so many other plant types! Hope you are having a wonderful day, best wishes and take care, happy growing!!👍🌵🪴🌵🌺🌸🏵😎
Lots of great points made Joe!!! I'm one that kinda breaks some of the rules. I have a large collection, and almost impossible to separate. So every one is in the greenhouse. With the exception of a few smaller plants indoors. Euphorbias, stepliads and cactus all together. What helps me maintain all this rule breaking is my wood stove. It puts out very dry heat .I also keep it very dry inside. Believe it or not I had a stove malfunction shut my stove down, and it got down to 20° F!!! I did lose a few, but most came through!!! I was in quite a panic restarting the stove!!! But got it all back going again!! Some plants were just killed down to the roots (sansaveria with flat leaves, ficus benjamina) but regrew when spring came. My toughest of course were our native species, opuntia humifusa. And a non native , opuntia macrohiza. These have withstood to - 10° F!!! Have been covered in ice & snow!! And in the spring, explode into bloom!! Love these tough guys!! Another would be Coryphantha ( escoberia) vivipara, except here in the Ozarks I believe it would be too wet to be outside. On the plains the are covered in snow and it can reach - 40°F during the coldest part of winter or during a blizzard. So I will keep them in the greenhouse for dryness sake. My greenhouse I try to keep around 50 to 60° F , but can get down to 40° F . That is what I call redlining. And I have to come up with a little extra from bucket heaters ( metal buckets with hot coles from the wood stove) , this is a bit dangerous, since I have to make sure they don't catch anything on fire. Or electric heater, which pushes up our bill. So yes I fight a little to keep all this during the winter. But now for most folks I realize the humidity where they live or maybe yourself have this high humidity much like Lyn & Hans do in Ireland. So have to be a lot more careful. Great video joe!!!! A lot of info that people really need to know, or will be very sad by spring!! Keep up the great videos joe!!! From Morris Park in the Ozarks, out to Bavaria, Germany, have a wonderful day, Peace, Love, Plants!!!✌💖🌵🌷🌳🌻🌴🌿🏵🌲😃👍
Hi Clyde, thanks so much for all your really super interesting comments and infos!! So good to hear all these details from yourself, gives me a fantastic idea of how you are keeping your cacti & succulent collection during the winters, thanks so much for sharing! Indeed, as you said, one of the challenges that I have, like Lyn and Hans in ireland, is the relatively high humidity during the winter months in the greenhouse. I am really super, super happy that you enjoyed the video and thank you so much for your kind words and compliments, truly appreciated! Sending you very best cactus and succulent greetings from my little greenhouse in Bavaria out to Morris Park in the Ozarks - and indeed sending you too Peace, Love and Plants!! Have a great day Clyde!!
Solid video about winter care. Well done. I would like more information on how you maintain your 5-10 degree greenhouse temperature. I see you have lined the greenhouse with bubble wrap for insulation. Thanks
Hi Anthony, thanks so much for your awesome feedback, much appreciated!! Welcome to my channel and thanks so much for watching and commenting - also, for your great questions and suggestion!! I am indeed putting together a video on my greenhouse, it's maintenance, etc, and will hopefully be able to answer many more related questions, so please do stay tuned to my channel! In the mean time, some quick answers to address your immediate questions: indeed I insulate my greenhouse during the winter months with bubble wrap lining. I maintain the temperature at a steady temperature through a thermostat that regulates the temperature of my electrical heater fan (bought that from a company that manufactures heaters for greenhouses). As I say, more infos to come soon. Hope you are having a wonderful day, best wishes and happy growing!!🌵😃👍
Thanks Ruby, glad you liked it, and thanks also for subscribing to this new channel - i will cover more, hopefully equally interesting topics soon, that are not, or less, covered elsewhere. Please stay tuned, happy growing! :-)
Thanks for your growing experience Joe. I keep most of my cacti in a small greenhouse with the light grey shade cloth. Our Australian summer sun can be extremely harsh, very high UV. Currently experiencing a lot of good growth and flowers. Fortunately on NSW coast a 7 degrees C morning would be about the coldest I get. Some winter days can remain sunny and warm, and still reach 22 C and higher. I will have to water a little more often in winter after the pots dry out for this reason. Thanks again Joe.
Many thanks Andy, for watching and your awesome comments! Very interesting to read about how you grow your cacti and the winter temps and conditions that you have, living in Australia. Thanks so much for sharing! Those winter temps really make me very jealous, haha!! Thanks once again and very best wishes, take care and have a great day!! 👍😊🌵🌵🌱🌺🏵💚😎
@@cactusjoe For me it is more about sun protection and protection from heavy rain with cool temps. It can get cold without travelling to far inland. It can be 1 degree C morning at Maitland NSW and when i get home it is about 7 degrees C at it coldest. Snowy mountains, Perisher Valley etc is about it for our snow in Australia.
@@andyroo3022 thanks so much, that's very interesting to read for me, and indeed I can imagine that sun protection and protecting the plants from heavy rain during low temps is absolutely key for you when growing cacti. That only becomes a factor for me during the spring, when we start getting stronger sun again, but no where near as strong and UV-intense here as you have it in Australia! The only city that I have been able to visit so far in Australia has been Perth, and that was around October when the weather was gorgeous, I spent a whole day at the botanical gardens and just loved all the spring blooms! Hope you're having a wonderful day, take care and happy growing!!
@@andyroo3022 many thanks Andy, indeed it is an amazing place! I was fortunate enough to have lived in Singapore for several years and went down to the greenhouses of Gardens by the Bay quite frequently!! It it possibly the only cactus greenhouse in the world (certainly of that size, lol) that actually needs a massive (...solar powered, as I understand) air con running around the clock to cool and dry the air inside of it, rather than warm it up!! Thanks for mentioning it, I suppose you too have visited it? Have a great day, take care and happy growing!!
Hello Rose, many thanks for watching and for tuning in to my channel, I'm very happy that you liked the video and care tips on this video - more to come as my channel is still quite yound. Thank you so much for supporting! Thanks for watching and take care, have a very nice day! Kind regards, Joe
I needed to hear all of that information. Thank you for the simple way you explain this...I will come back and watch this video again when it is time to take my plants inside. They live in an unheated room during the winter.
Thank you, Cheryl, super happy that you found the video useful! Many thanks for watching and for commenting! Feel free to ask any questions that you may have related to the winter break, when you start bringing your collection indoors! Keeping them in an unheated room during the winter is indeed excellent!! Thanks again for joining my channel and also for watching and commenting on all the videos! Have a great day and happy growing!! Best wishes, Joe.
Sure, will take a look at that, thanks. Once day time temps fall below approx 10-15C for a week or two and days get shorter, that triggers that most desert cacti stop growing, i.e. go into dormancy. That's when you need to stop watering and just keep in a cool place.
@@solarwinds-no, not a silly question at all! Indeed, if they are flowering, then they will not be dormant. And i assume they are still in relatively mild / warmish temperatures, correct? That is not a problem, try to give them a bright location, so they do not start to get abnormally thinning upward growing and light green stems. Hope this info helps and makes sense. (etiolatation)
Many thanks Max, for your subscription and also the very encouraging feedback. I will be posting more infos, hopefully all also useful and interesting to you and other enthusiasts, on this channel soon.
I have a summer question. Thank you for this great info. I moved to Central California. I get great, direct, morning sun. I also get a lot of afternoon sun, and that is my concern. We get into 90° f, often into 100s. I keep shade cloth over succulents, your std faire, and the cactus. The reg succulents get about six hours of sun before shade moves in, so I like that. Cactus get hit by about nine hours of full sun. I see you use the plastic panels. Are those suggested over the shade clothes? Time sneaks up in me and I need to figure out how to have best environment for my plants. Any direction would be appreciated. Thank you
Hi Steve, thanks for your great feedback, very happy you found the info in the video useful!! Thanks also for your question! Just so that I am properly able to give you some advice on this, when you are saying plastic panels, do you mean the glasshouse glazing/cover? (Which is acrylic glass, 100% UV transmissible, unlike polyplastics, which are very often used for greenhouses). I would always recommend putting the shading material on top of the glass/plastic, so outside. Hope this answers your question? Have a great day, happy growing!!😊👍🌵🌱🌵🌺🌼💚😎
I’m watching your video now and my question is, will my succulents survive in my greenhouse without heater? I think that is what you’re saying. Except sempervivum.
Hi Eliza, if the outside temperatures in your location are likely to go below 4-5 degrees C anynon-hardy, sensitive cacti and other succulents you have are at risk. You should bring them into a frost-free and dry location. This may indeed require a heater. Hope this clarifies and helps, good luck and happy growing!
#Mari443Garrett1 hahaha LOL, I am blushing, thank you so much for your wonderful compliment! Glad you enjoyed my video 😀👍 Hope you are having a wonderful day, best wishes, take care and happy growing!!
Cactus workshop for free. Thank you very much. I have like hundreds of questions, but i will watch all other masterclasses first :) Just 1 question if you dont mind, in what temp you stop watering and start watering, i live in Istanbul and here we have lowest -7C (19.4F) highest 33 (92F) i somehow managed to keep my cactus alive with some protection even with frost last winter with “0” watering, it was an extra cold winter btw generally milder in istanbul. This year i am more prepared with greenhouse (ish) all my cacti are “cool loving”
@mywaterbottles thanks so much for watching and for your great comments and questions, very much appreciated! I'm very happy that you enjoyed the video!! I usually stop watering when day time temperatures start dropping below 15 degrees C (a rough guide) and also I start again when temps start climbing again above 20 degr C in my greenhouse in spring time. Wow, amazing to read that you are growing your cacti outside - yes indeed, when they are completely dry and rain protected many "cool loving" species can take pretty low temps, especially if not for a very long time! Thanks again for watching and commenting, very best wishes from Bavaria in southern Germany to you in Istanbul, such a wonderful and historical city with a very modern buzz!! Have a great day, and happy growing!!
Well.. My mammillaria... Hanna old lady is blooming now (January). I gave my opuntia a drink. I gave my blue torch a drink.. Its 68d indoors.. Is that ok?? So far they're ok.. No rot.
Hi Michelle, that is ok if you are keeping them at these relatively warm temperatures. Very careful, occasional light watering will be ok with these species of cacti, e.g. Blue Torch, as they are fine with these temps and occasional light drink in winter. As long as the soil dries again rel quickly. No soggy soils in pots for a week or so. That increases risk of rot. You just have to try and see what makes most sense with your own setup. The cooler the ambient temps of the plants, the drier they can be kept. Best wishes, Joe
I have a Blu Torch. I want to repot it but it's winter season. It hasn't grow an inch. I bought it on Valentine's day of 2022..it's been almost a year..it hasn't grown. I'm not watering it either. It's indoors..in a cool place but still in a window. Any tips?? My mammalaria old lady is blooming..it's Dec 2022.
Hi Michelle, thanks very much for watching and for commenting on the Winter care video. Excellent to hear that your Mammillaria Old lady Cactus is blooming, yes they can be in flower even this time of the year when they are growing indoors by a window. It is indeed very good that you are not watering your Blue Torch Cactus, I would keep it very dry this time of the year and wait with the repotting until the Spring (substrate needs to be completely dry when you repot). Btw, it is not unusual for these cacti to not be growing very fast. Once you have repotted it in Spring, wait about a week or two so that any damages on the roots can heal off properly and then slowly start watering. Try adding some cactus fertilizer along with your 3rd or 4th watering after dormancy. Good luck and have a great day!
Hi Steven, thanks for watching and commenting. Yes indeed, that was a mouse that took a bite out of my juicy Coryphantha there, haha!! Enjoy your day, happy growing!!
@@cactusjoe Thanks, that is handy to know, the conservatory is used a bit store room too, the cacti are at the door side with loads light, i know we did have a mouse issue in the wall a while ago, will have to keep an eye out. unless they poisoned themselves, not seen any more damage since and damage is slowly healing. for sure i keep an eye out tho :)
Hi there @Tren.pace1654 thanks for your question. Without knowing your exact setup and types of cacti that you are growing in that window, it is not that easy to answer your question. However what I would say is that if you can keep the place you are growing your cacti in the south-facing window relatively cool and unheated (but above freezing obviously) then that would be much prefered over a warm, heated and south-facing situation. The latter would not be a very suitable for most cacti! In any case, you will probably have to give the plants a little bit of water every now and then if the window is very sunny. What types of cacti are you growing in that window, may I ask?
@@Trenpace yes, excellent, those are all very suitable for a southfacing window in Winter, with cooler temps if at all possible and a drop of water every now and then in the sunnier, warmer periods. A nice collection of cacti that you have there!!👍😊🌵🌵💚😎
@@Trenpace oh, i see ...well if you have any place at all in your house that has slightly lower temperatures than a fully heated room, even if it is east or west facing, then a few weeks (say 3-4) in a location like that, to trigger dormancy, would be ok too, better than nothing. Taking cacti even for such a rel short period out of their warmer, heated location will do wonders to help stimulate flowers in the following growing season, and to help their overall health and appearance. Hope this helps at all, best wishes with your cacti!
Personally, I do not believe there is such a thing as easy plants or hard plants to grow. If you live in the right climate, then said plant is easy to grow. If you do not, then it's hard.
Hahaha, I wish you were right and that it would be that easy, everything just simply dependent on the climate! Of course there are a few more factors at play to succesfully grow a plant (or not...), lol 😊👍