Piante grasse cactus spine

Tag: temperature

How much light do cactus need to grow well? The importance of sun and air and a summary table

Light is fundamental for every living being, starting with plants. This is obvious, but we cannot ignore it if we want to grow cacti and succulent plants in general. Plants, moreover, that often need many hours of light per day; in some cases direct or non-filtered light, in others not straight but equally intense daylight. In fact, there are succulent plants that, if placed in full sun, slow down growth, burn and even die. On the contrary, many succulent plants and many cacti, if they do not receive the right amount of direct light, will have stunted growth, with weak thorns and elongated stems.

In this article, we see what we need to know about the right exposure of cacti and succulent plants in general. Also, at the end of this article, you find a table summarizing the type of exposure needed by the main families of succulents. (…)

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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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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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