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Succulents and cold: how to care for cactus in winter and the minimum temperatures tolerated

Do cacti resist frost? In winter, do succulent plants have to be kept indoors or can they stay outside? And what are the minimum winter temperatures they can tolerate? Even among experienced growers, the minimum temperatures of cacti and succulents are still debated today. I tackle the topic starting, as always, from my personal experience, which is my only way to have accurate data, found in the field, related to my system and my growing conditions, here in North of Italy. Let’s say right away that during winter I keep most of my plants in the greenhouse. It is a large greenhouse of 60 square meters and with a height, at the top, of 4 meters. These dimensions guarantee a satisfying volume of air, which in turn prevents moisture stagnation, the first real enemy of cacti and succulent plants in winter.

Let’s see, in the following article, the various factors that influence the resistance of cacti and succulents to cold. At the end of the article, you will also find a schedule with the minimum temperatures tolerated by the various families of succulents. (…)

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Substrate, loam, soil mix: which is the best soil for cactus and succulent plants?

I may look like a mordant, but I want to clear the field of misunderstandings and false myths: the right soil for cacti does not exist. There are many types of soil (or composts, substrates, mixtures, the question does not change) and there are genera that prefer certain substances and others that require more. Established this and removed one of the first Faq (Frequently Asked Questions) by cacti enthusiasts to the first arms – “Which is the best soil for my cactus?” – it can be said on the contrary that on the one hand there are the characteristics that a good soil for cactus must necessarily have; on the other hand the needs of the single plants. The question was simple and the related answer was given by italian cacti expert Giuseppe Lodi, who, after observing “the butts of roots of certain imports” and having noticed how these were encrusted with clay loam, suggested a base soil absolutely natural and versatile: “You can start from a mixture of common clay loam (field or garden), coarse sand and leaf soil, in equal parts. Of these three components none of them can be enough, alone” (Giuseppe Lodi, “Le mie piante grasse” – Edagricole).

Except perhaps for the difficult availability of the loam of leaves (be careful to go for the woods and get bags of decomposed foliage: there are fines for collections of this kind), the recipe provided by the Italian pioneer in the cultivation of cacti and succulents was more than sensible, as well as experienced. Considering the difficulty of finding the loam of leaves (Lodi suggested leaves of beech or chestnut), that moreover must be well decomposed (and it may contain fungi and bacteria dangerous for the plants), this element can be replaced by good quality peat, sieved fine, without lumps and filaments. Too bad that over the years we have forgotten Lodi advice to focus everything on what for many is still the standard substrate of peat, lapillus and pumice in equal parts, standard enough to fit any kind and species of succulent.

In the following article now we see which is the best substrate for growing cacti and succulent plants based on my experience over the years with proofs and experiments on various mixtures. (…)

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How to sow cactus and succulent plants: from pollination to the first flower, the procedure

I confess: I do not have the skills nor the desire to build an artificial propagator. You can find detailed instructions and all the necessary information online, but I’ve never put myself there. This doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve good results even with traditional seeding. For over fifteen years, in fact, I have been sowing in spring with natural light and heat, using the classic “method of the bag”. I sow above all Cactaceae and, at the cost to being banal, I fully confirm what all plant lovers can tell you: it is from sowing that we can get the most satisfaction if we have this “disease” of cultivation. Moreover, it is only by the sowing that we can appreciate the different stages of development of a plant, follow its evolution from birth to flowering (a small-big event!), and get specimens able to adapt from the beginning to the conditions we can give them for the rest of life. For myself, another basilar aspect of sowing is that in this way I can have more specimens of the same species and genus, born in the same conditions, on which to test different growing regimes. In short, you start all, democratically, from the same point, then you see who arrives and how he arrives through different soils, different exposures, and so on. In short, different cultivation practices. So it’s clear that since the starting point is the same (the seed, which obviously must come from the same fruit) if the plants after a few years show significant differences between them, this will be mainly due to the different soil, the exposure, the irrigation and fertilization regimes used. And from this, empirically, useful lessons can be drawn.

Let’s explore the topic in the following article, describing sowing step by step. (…)

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Il fiore tra le spine

Due o tre cose che ho imparato su cactus e piante grasse

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