Fact or fiction: Cactus & succulents go dormant in the summer
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- Опубліковано 24 сер 2024
- We often hear or read that cactus & succulents go dormant in the summer. How true is this statement? How do we prove this statement? One way is to find out through first-hand experience.
In my limited experience in keeping plants over a few summers in Phoenix, Arizona, I have found that some but not all succulents go dormant in the summer. And our summers are extreme with weeks in a row with overnight lows above 80F. I have lost many Aloe and the colorful soft-leafed succulents like Echeveria and Crassula due to unintentional watering due to ignorance, or later on, accidentally watering while dormant, which is why I've been avoiding adding them to my plant family. On the other hand, Agaves have always fared well in the summer - I water them once a week and they do great. I have not found Ariocparpus nor Astrophytum to go dormant in the summer here. They dry out quickly, show signs of thirst and plump up after being watered deeply. Heck, some Astrophytum are still in bloom here!
I have also found Saguaro, Ferocactus, Melocactus, Matucana madisoniorum, Gymnocalycium, Trichocereus, Myrtillocactus, Thelocactus among others to do fine with regular waterings in the summer despite the heat.
Mammillaria I tend to water more conservatively during the summer and in general. I do this not necessarily because I think they go dormant. I do so because they seem to do exceptionally well at conserving water.
Now when it comes to Copiapoa, summer dormancy is still up in the air. This is my seedlings' first summer outdoors so it's too soon to say. I have a handful of mature plants that have survived our summers here so far. I have one Copiapoa esmeraldana that has survived several summers with me with regular watering. Perhaps some Copiapoa go dormant in the summer but maybe not ALL Copiapoa go dormant in the summer. But I cannot say any of this with any certainty - I need more summers under my belt before I can make any conclusions.
Do keep in mind that the plants I listed are very limited. I own only so many genera of plants and I cannot make any statements on any plants that I've never grown before. That's where the plant community is extremely important - a collective knowledge of experience.
What is your experience with plant summer dormancy? Which plants have you seen first-hand do well or poorly in the summer heat? Please leave a comment on your experience and include your climate conditions - this will be a huge help to me and anyone else reading the comments section.
Stay cool, my cactus friends!
Connect with me on Instagram: / cookiescacti
From what i understand, the dormancy in summer, are becouse of the CAM photosynthesis in the night. If the night temperature stay above 25-30c they dont enter "CAM" and they cant remove xtra moisture without CAM (In CAM photosynthesis, stomata open only at night when the plant is relatively cool) so they will rot instead. Difrent species will have difrent night temp maximum acording to natural habitat. So the day time temp is not critical only the night time temperature. How i understand it ^^ Best regards from Denmark 😘
Yes! This! I will pin your comment because this is the root-cause of this whole discussion which I didn't even mention in the video lol. One of the key points that stands out to me in your comment is that different species have different max temps, which I agree with. Do you happen to know if there are any scientific studies on this topic? Has anyone identified the actual max temps for some of these species?
@@cookiescacti I would guess it even comes down to genetics, But i always try and look for habbitat max and minimum temps in summer, that should be a good clue. But for a actual chart of max and minimum temps i have not found it yet ^^ But then again i dont read books, i only look on the internet :p Thank you and best regards 💕
I live in south eastern Oregon. We are getting Temps around 100 degrees. In my greenhouse, it's 110 and sometimes higher. I have a 50% shade cloth on top and some tree shade. I have 3 fans running! I was wondering about summer dormancy, but this year, I've decided to water anyway. Most everything is in Terra cotta with gritty soil. I figure that water won't last long. It evaporates so fast that , hopefully, the plants won't have a chance to rot. Thanks for your UA-cam videos! I never miss them. My love to Cookie.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Janis! I grew up in the Portland area and always forget that not all of the state is cool and rainy all the time lol. How are the plants doing so far this summer?
Also, I'm so glad you enjoy these videos! It encourages me to keep going!
If you water the test plant, and it looks like it has shown that it's happy after one day, water it the second day, and if it looks better, keep doing it.
Sometimes the water will keep the soil cooler during the heat so even though they are standing in moisture, it's cool moisture because it's wet. If it dries off, it will become hot and they won't like that. So there is a trade-off, and they would rather have the wet cool soil versus dry hot. Even if that means you have to water every day to keep the soil, cool. It goes against normal textbook training, but I learned this through experience from losing cactus.
Unfortunately I don't have the time to be watering plants every day. It's the whole reason why I'm keeping cactus and I avoid tropical plants or plants they need a lot of water.
If you can provide more shade, they need less water. So if they are on a back patio that has a covered roof you might be able to get by with hardly ever watering. But if they are in the front yard, they're gonna need water a lot during this heat in order to prosper. It needs to drain fast with no catch pan underneath it. Like I said, before the added water in a dry climate, like the Phoenix area will act like an evaporative cooler, and it will actually create a cooling effect and cool off the roots.
I live in Phoenix also. During high humidity I cut back on water. Otherwise, I water regularly during the summer. I also don’t water much in the winter. I did lose some fleshy succulents one summer, so I don’t keep those. As it gets hotter here, it’s getting harder to know what to do.
Thank you so much for sharing! Fleshy succulents were a quick "no" for me too.
If I went two weeks in new River, with no water, I would lose all of my plants. And the nurseries and the landscapers will tell you do not water as much as I do. But they are wrong. I have learned from experience.
My potted plants are watered every two weeks right now and they're all alive and well. Please elaborate on details of your setup.
I'm in southern Ontario, Canada. Our summers are very hot and humid; short and intense. Still have my succulents inside by a very sunny patio door. I move my alie outside and just noticed it's putting out 3 new pups. I also have my easter cactus outside and they're about to bloom again...big surprise
The blooms on Easter cactus are always quite the event! Thank you so much for sharing your experience from southern Ontario!
I live in Norway, and I have a cactus that I didn't water for over 6 months. I had the window open alot randomly at winter with -30 Celsius. It didn't get any physical damage or anything, really. It just looked a little dehydrated. It's currently my favorite plant and is getting the best of care now. It impressed me how a plant could handle that type of neglect and cold
Wowww! What kind of cactus is it? It's amazing that it can take such low temperatures!
They take the temperature in the shade, but if you were to get one of those temperature laser devices and check the temperature on the surface of your soil, I bet that it's pretty hot. When you add moisture to an environment, that is dry, like Phoenix, it creates a cooling effect like an evaporative cooler or swamp cooler. And that's what you want to do with your roots.
That's what I did in this videos, I used an IR thermometer to show the audience the soil and plant temperatures. Did you see that part? It's closer to the end of the video. Have you done the experiment measuring temperature with moisture added?
I live in Phoenix also. During high humidity I cut back on water. Otherwise, I water regularly during the summer. I also don’t water much in the winter. I did lose some fleshy succulents one summer, so I don’t keep those.
I loved the visit to Phoenix,AZ last year and dreamed of living there with cactus and succulents would be so lovely.
It was october and still i felt overheated in the afternoon at the desert meseum.
Watching this video, im sure I'll be melted before the cactus does. LOL
My copiapoas, such as humilis, esmeraldana, hypogea, with other cactus and succulents are enjoying short summer being hanged outside my apartment window in a bascket attached to the ac clip here in NYC until they need to come back indoor under the grow loghts for the colder weather.
I think echeverias likes more colder weather, especially when they gets colorful by cold stress during their sleepy winter season
Enjoying your videos. Keep up your great works !!!
It's the season of indoor activities again! My cameras (and me) keep overheating outside. I'm slowly, very conservatively testing the Copiapoa. I think the seedlings actually need some more water than misting here but I'm trying to figure it out through trial and (hopefully not too much) error. Omg, this summer is rough!
If you get too much of a greenhouse effect in this heat, that can also cause a problem, because the moisture has nowhere to go. I have had that happen when I have tried to hold the moisture in for one of my plants, and they will rot under those conditions. If they have a good airflow, they do better. Cactus and succulents like a dry arid condition. That means that they like a breeze.
Maybe a fan would help take down the humidity.
Air flow is always good. Any recommendations on good outdoor fans that won't bug my neighbors in terms of sound?
Home Depot used to have some nice job site fans that would move a lot of air but they weren't really noisy. They were kind of stainless steel looking with a cage around them, not the monster cattle fans, but a nice job site fan. I think Hampton Bay was making them for a while.
@@azwelke2638 perfect! Thank you!
When it's really hot in Phoenix, the water will evaporate really fast. So when you water your cactus, the water will not be there for very long. Less than a half an hour is my guess. And if you have good draining soil, there will be no problems with standing water. And even if there was a little standing water for an hour or two in the warm weather, I don't think it will be a problem.
That's why I say you can water every day despite what they say. Because it will dry up and be gone in a half an hour.
This is not true for me. I watered my seedlings deeply last weekend and could clearly see the soil was still wet over the next two days. So the important question is, what is the pot material? What is the soil material? What is the microclimate? For me, my seedlings are in plastic nursery pots planted in my soil mix of 75% pumice with 25% cactus soil. They are sitting in a 1020 tray under my shade structure with 70% shade cloth.
I'm growing outside in Sandy rocky soil in the native dirt, and my shade is either a tall rock or treetops, I do get a good amount of wind in my area, so I always have a breeze.
A lot of these will grow in the area like Florida. I think it rains there almost every day
Wow, that's crazy hot! 85F is a hot summer day here in Southern Germany. 🤣
Im from Berlin, this summer is killing me with all the rain and cloudy days 😂
LOLOLOL! I love this! My house thermostat is set to 83F, so even my indoor temp is not too far from your highs in Southern Germany!
That's so amusing that we have such different challenges in our climates! Can you send some of your rain and clouds our way?
All the advice that I gave you is for small plants and pots or small plants in the ground, getting started. Obviously large plants don't need much water at all after they get going. But taking a plant from another environment and bringing it into yours, especially in the Phoenix area, the plant is going to be in shock. But the good thing is, you can use water here because, it will cool them instead of create extra heat.
The dryness in Phoenix will evaporate the water fast, and it might feel humid to you or I, but if you look at the numbers, it's actually low compared to where people would have problems from overwatering.
Your plants will pup more and flower more as well.
This is the grow season, so when you add water, they really move in Phoenix area.
I'm in new River, but very similar temperature and climate to Phoenix area.
Just want to clarify that my statements in the video are not advice. They're anecdotal experience, just like the experience you're sharing in the comments. What works for one person may not work for another person. And when someone gives advice, they must include details. Broad overarching statements when it comes to plant care can be dangerous. There is no one-size-fits-all instructions in plant keeping.
I think you are correct about the micro environments. Whenever I buy plants, the recommendation they give me for watering is generally different than what works for me. I have done this a few times on different properties in the area, and when you are starting with an acre of land, that doesn't have much trees, you are basically in an open field. A lot more wind and a lot more sun. So the water goes away faster and the ground gets hotter. So you have to block the sun with rocks and keep the ground wet, because my ground will stay dry a foot deep no problem.
And mature trees that are in the area have roots that will extend out to 100 feet and they will get into your cactus roots.
I have had termites eat my cactus roots as well.
But I do find that a little extra water, at least at the beginning when you were setting up your micro environment really helps. Once you start to get more shade, you can back off on the water.
How do you deal with the critters? With more open land the animals seem to be even more difficult to manage than the elements!
I have a fence around my property, but I grow a lot of nopales. The rabbits will go after those first, and leave my rest of my cactus alone. I found this as a trick after losing a lot of cactus to the rabbits.
Sometimes I will even throw cuttings from the nopales on the ground just for the rabbits to eat. Especially around anything new that I plant.
When you grow on an acre or more, and it is raw land, the best thing to do is plant under trees that exist, and then start adding in new Mesquite trees for a micro environment, and then a lot of the education that they give is out the window when it comes to that type of growing because if you don't water, you will lose your cactus, some of them need to be watered every day when it's hot out. And you have to spray their body from the top down. That cools them off and gets the bugs and dust off them. And then a small amount of water around the roots and then do the next one. And I have tried it both ways. And you will lose a lot more cactus if you do not water like I said. You want to mimic a rainstorm, so you want to come with the water from the top down. I do use well water, so there are no chemicals in my water.
Boojum trees and ocotillos go dormant in the summer. I believe that the succulents and cactus go dormant in the winter in Arizona. I have had aloe brevofolia and they did better in the summer when I would leave my hose on them to trickle for a few days at a time. The extra moisture in Arizona acts like a swamp cooler, and it actually cools the environment and allows the cactus and succulents to grow again and go into CAM photosynthesis in the night.
If you get a towel wet and blow wind on it, or stand in front of a swamp cooler, you will understand how it works.
Thanks for sharing. That's interesting how different our experience is with aloe brevifolia. Most of my clump rotted last year due to watering when it was too hot.
I am on Wellwater with no chemicals, it's probably the same as rainwater. That might make a difference. I have a feeling that the chemicals in tapwater might also cause problems for cactus and aloe.
Just take one test plant and water it every day and see what happens. I don't think it will die in this heat. I would stop watering it every day by September, but I think you're good through July and August. Now if it gets a lot of shade, I would say every other day. If they are in the sun, try them every day and see what happens. That's what I did, I was losing a lot of cactus, listening to the nurseries and all of the growers, and they grow in an environment that has a lot of shade and moisture. At the nursery, they water some thing every day. So there's a lot more moisture at a nursery, than in your yard.
Can you elaborate why you're suggesting watering every day? What's the objective?
I am in New River Az and I water all summer. 98% of them like it. My aloe like lots of water in the heat.
My aloe have a harder time in the winter during frost.
But in the summer they will start to turn brown if they don't get enough water.
My nopales like water, so do my san pedros and prickly pears.
I am in an open field, so my yard gets a lot hotter very little shade. So they would not make it without some assistance. I also put rocks on the west side to block the evening Sun.
That is so interesting that you can continue watering your Aloe in the summer without issues! What species Aloe are these? I've had so much trouble with rot with Aloe when our nighttime lows are so high. However, some of the Aloe plants seem to be either much hardier or perhaps actually need the water over the summer, maybe it depends on the species?
Barbadensis miller is what I have right now. I'm considering getting more species, I am on a new piece of property so I am basically starting over. I started about two years ago on this one and I have been working on San Pedro's and any type of column cactus that flowers. I have flying saucers, first light, blue monstrose peruvian apple cactuse. Twisted cereus, lots of Huan Depots too. 😊
I have had some of my cactus get squishy when I don't block the evening Sun. It starts to look like they're almost boiling on the inside. Some of them I've actually had to move under a tree for the first year and then move them back into the open the second year.
The evening sun is the worst here! All of my potted plants are protected by shade cloth or a building or a tree. None of them ever touch the sun without protection. But I have some plants in the landscape that are in full sun, and even they are needing help now so I threw some shade cloth on them. I wish we could get some monsoon rains soon!
Your aloe might be dying from not getting water.
I know that everybody is worried about too much water, but cool water will cool them off during the extreme heat, and then they will be able to drink. I have left my hose on trickle for weeks at a time, and my aloe patch will grow really fast when I do that in the summer. I think I have done that with Barbadensis and diablo maybe tiger aloe
All of my aloe have stayed alive this summer so far because I'm being very conservative on watering. I'll spray the bodies down with water and maybe lightly on the soil, but no deep waterings. Last year I lost so many aloe because they got watered more deeply while it was hot. But my experiences are all anecdotal, they are not advice for other ppl. What I experience may not be true for others, and the same the other way around.
Hello, I watching from Singapore. It’s usually baking in the late afternoon. Most of my small collection is under grow light from 1pm onwards and sometimes evening supplement more lighting till about 11pm then I switch off till next morning. 2 of my echeveria and 1 bunny ear cactus stays outside my corridor round the clock to avoid etiolation as I cut many pads that is etiolated before when it grew crazy fast but doesn’t stay fat and round. Sometimes I also place my blue candle and blue torch on rotation afternoon sunbathing in the corridor area
Hello from Arizona! I really appreciate you sharing your experience here!
I'm in the southern part of UK, highest temps in our conservatory reach max 47°C / 117°F, I guess during those times the nighttime minumum is around 20°C / 68°F. In 40 years of growing cacti & succulents, I've never experienced any of them going dormant in summer.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience, Karsten! It is very interesting that you have never experienced summer dormancy. This is very good to know.
@@cookiescacti 👍
For me, the water seems to get rid of any bugs that are on them as well or around their soil. And it keeps them expanded so they don't have a gap between their body and the soil, so bugs cannot get down there. It keeps their vigor up, so they can Stay stronger all day long. I have been watering them at night with the best results and missing their body. Right now it seems my aloe could use more water than my cactus.
And like I said, I have been watering my cactus every day in this heat. Just a quick misting and so it pools up quick around the base and then that's it.
The aloe could use twice a day. Like I said, before, this goes against textbook teachings, but it works great. The more you can water in the Phoenix area during this heat, the better your plants will look, and the more flowers and more pups. With a watering system, things might be different. But I'm talking manual with a nozzle or your thumb.
I have even put rocks on the soil around them to keep the moisture down longer because the sun and heat will evaporate it so fast right now
And they do seem to recognize if I water all all the way around the rocks, not just on the side the cactus are on.
Misting their body not "missing"
Thanks for sharing
I used to have a membership at the botanical garden in Phoenix, if you go down there in the morning, you can talk to some people that have a lot of good experience and get some good answers for the questions that you have.
You might even be able to call them and talk to somebody that has a lot of experience with the ones you are questioning
I have a membership! Just too hot to go right now lol. I'm also a member of the CACSS here, so lots of resources and experience to gain from the other members. Are you part of the CACSS?
Thanks for this video. I live in Mesa, Arizona and am just getting started this year on a collection of potted cactus and succulents. This summer is so hot at night! My mangaves are getting watered about once a week and I'm hoping that's enough. Same with agaves. Arizona cactus sales had a helpful handout about watering guidelines but this summer is crazy and dry..Hoping for a monsoon rain soon.
We need rain so badly! I swear our summers are more difficult on the plants (and us) than the winters. I hope we don't skip another monsoon season this summer...
If I need to be honest, I've never seen any of my cacti going dormant in summer. On the contrary, the higher temperature is, the more I care to replenish water and make sure that my cacti have enough moisture in their soil.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. This is exactly the kind of individual experience I'm interested in. How high do the high and low temps get where you're at?
@@cookiescacti The highest temperature of the air that I'm facing this year is around 35°C during the day and 25°C at night (or 95°F/77°F). But I keep most of my cacti in mini-greenhouse, so even with a good ventilation, the temperature during the day easy goes into 40-45°C range (104-113°F). At the surface of the soil it can be even higher.
I used to explain more of that topic, but for whatever reason, any comment that I've been trying to put was automatically deleted by UA-cam, so no long explanation this time I guess.
That's so weird that UA-cam is deleting your comments. I wonder why.... Let me check if it's in the holding pen of "comments for review"
@@cookiescacti I think I've already explained my view point in the other comment, so don't need to modify anything. There are probably some trigger words that are censored. Theoretically, you can describe an aroused girl and weather conditions using the same terms, maybe that's the case 😂
@@SimaShangde 😂😂😂
I live in northwest Louisiana where summer high temps are generally 97-102 F and lows generally 79-84 F. We have high humidity too, unlike Arizona. The two genera that definitely hate our summers are Haworthias (easily lose roots) and Rebutias that either turn to mush or just slowly lose color and eventually life. Gymnocalyciums, Ariocarpus, Astrophytum, Echinopsis and Mammillaria seem to still appreciate summer watering. Euphorbias seem indifferent to changes in temp. and I treat them the same except drier in winter. Adeniums love the heat and can't get enough water so they get it daily in summer. Dorstenias are tricky with D. foetida needing water and D. gigas rotting with summer watering so it can even be different for different species within the same genus. Hope this helps.
Thank you for sharing your experience in northern Louisiana, Michael. Interestingly, our experiences don't seem to be too different despite the differences in our climates. Wow, your overnight lows are also quite high too. By the way, your Astro is still doing great. I squeeze it all the time for best guesses on watering needs. I hope it's fun seeing it in these videos!
@@cookiescacti Yes, I enjoy seeing all of your cacti including the one I gave you. I think you are missing out by not having at least a half dozen Echinopsis/Trichocereus in your collection. The flowers are stunning and worth cultivating.
@@michaelrabourn1966 I have a couple of echinopsis in my front yard. One gives beautiful huge white flowers. And the other gives pink flowers. I love going to AZ cactus sales when their many pots of trichs are in bloom. Such a spectacle.
@@cookiescacti Have you grown any Lobivia? They are smaller cousins to the Echinopsis/Trichocereus and have very nice flowers. I know from your videos that Copiapoas are a favorite but you should give some other genera a try.
Another thing to consider is that the nurseries and the landscapers want to sell cactus. They water their cactus every day, I see them doing it. But they will tell you to take it home and don't water for two weeks. That's ridiculous in the heat. Especially if they were just watering them more often than every two weeks and then you take them home and put them in a less controlled environment than the nursery, and then water less. That is a recipe to kill the cactus and they will get more sales that way.
Can you elaborate which nursery you saw watering cactus everyday?
Try watering them every night for a week one time. There is nothing to say that mother nature would not have a rainstorm every night for a week. And they will be able to take it. The cool water cools them off and then they are able to drink.
I am kind of embarrassed to say this, but I water my cactus almost every day. Sometimes every other day in the summer and they love it.
If I go more than three days in this extreme heat, they will start to die
Even the cactus without roots will take water in this heat. I don't know if they get it through the areiols or if they are just happy to be cooled off. I see that they will root faster as well if you add water right away after they are calloused and planted.
There is no need for my plants to be watered every night. Why would I do that? They have no need for that much water.
Can you elaborate on the statement that "cactus without roots will take water in this heat"? Do you mean through the epidermis? If so can you elaborate on the watering details please? Are you talking soaking the soil or spraying the plant body? There's a big difference between the two.
The objective isn't to give them water, it's to cool them off. They will drink a little during this, but that's why you want a good draining soil.
If you have a cutting and it's calloused up, most people will tell you to just plant it and do not water it. But in the extreme heat, I have had to water them and I don't know how they're drinking, but they are. And they will grow roots faster with the water. It needs to be good draining soil, but I have taken two plants and done both. Watered one and not watered the other, and the one with the water lived, and the other one died.
I have a 300 foot row of nopale cuttings from a neighbor. You can tell where my garden hose doesn't reach, because at the end of the 300 foot line they are not doing as good as they are at the front. That's because they don't get as much water back there. The last 75 feet or so, worth of plants have died because I cannot reach them with the hose. I have these cuttings about 1 foot apart, and they are about 3 foot tall cuttings.
The ones at the front that get the most water are now over 6 feet tall since last September, and the ones at the back are dead
Hi! I just discovered you. Im about to move back to Mesa. People thonl I jave too mamy plants but I feel better seeing yours. Lol My cacti have been inside in windows. Im thinking I shouldnt put them out til fall What do you think? Also did you start yours by seeds? Ive been growing succulents with seeds amd have decided succulents in general are not for me. Its too stressful killing them all the time. Lol Anyway nice to meet you! My name is Abra.
Hi Abra! I agree to wait until fall to put your plants outside. It's so darn hot here! I grow a lot of cactus from seed, but not a lot of non-cactus succulents. Only exception is Euphorbia obesa, which I've been growing more of lately from seeds off my own plants. I experience a lot of seedling death and it is very hard. Not going to lie, it can get pretty discouraging at times but I keep trying for some reason!
That forecast looks like Central California. lol. The difference is the lows were in around 68-70 here, which was a bit better.
I was worried about my cacti during the hottest week. It has cooled down a bit recently. I water them once a week in the early morning.
I don't know a thing about their dormancy. I read it's winter time.
Your overnight lows look so nice, lol! The summer dormancy supposedly applies for CAM metabolism based plants, plants that open their pores and metabolize at night when temps cool down. So when overnight lows stay high, the theory (?) is that they cannot open their stomata at night and do their CAM metabolism and therefore go dormant. I would definitely recommend doing some research on this topic as I am far from being an expert. I believe the theory but it's hard to say under what conditions and temperature the dormancy occurs. I don't think there are scientific studies to determine a true answer, at least none that I'm aware of. So sometimes the topic can be a bit controversial with some folks saying not to water succulents when temps are high, while others say they water throughout the summer without issues. But these are such blanket statements so we have to dig further into details.
@@cookiescacti Thanks for the info! I'll definitely look into CAM metabolism and how it affects my plants. It's interesting how different people have different experiences with watering during high temps. I'll do some more research to see what works best for my succulents. Appreciate your insights!
About 10 days ago, I stopped by Home Depot and found a bunch of fresh cacti from the nursery. I bought four large ones and repotted them, deciding not to water them until the soil was completely dry. They've been staying healthy. Today, I went back to Home Depot and noticed that about half a dozen cacti were sunburned and starting to die, probably due to daily watering. It was disappointing to see them not being cared for by someone knowledgeable about cacti.
@@ChopsticksDIYGarden I saw the same recently at my Home Depot too! I dropped by and saw so many plants were sunburned badly. Very sad! The plants at my HD were Altman plants and I think the Altman employees are supposed to take care of them (rather than the HD employees). It's kind of strange that they would let their inventory die or reach conditions that are not sellable anymore.
@@cookiescacti Today, I spotted a few healthy cacti in the batch and decided to pick up a Torch Cactus in an 8-inch pot with six large pups. I looked at the photo I took and noticed it's from Altman Plants in Vista, CA.
@@ChopsticksDIYGarden awesome get! So many Altman plants at the big box stores. I love treasure hunting at HD, Lowes, and Walmart!
How are your euphorbia doing in the heat
So far so good! All of my Euphorbia are outside except my obesa thought. The obesa seem to not like it outside here so they live under my grow lights inside the house.
How often you water Astrophytum in summer?
Around every 2 weeks in the summer this year. I squeeze them to see if they have give just to make sure. My Astros are planted in 75% pumice with 25% cactus soil, so very gritty and well draining.
3:55 That TBM is beautiful!
It's such a weird plant! But so cool because the growth is so unpredictable!
@@cookiescacti is it the long form or short form?
@@nottarealguy3954 I don't know! Is there a way to tell? (I'm guessing if it's long or short lol)
@@cookiescacti As far as I know yeah, I think short form tops out at 6" per branch? Looks pretty long to me idk why I asked😂
I guess it depends on what species and where you are....I'm fighting torrential rain and high humidity. Nothing seems to be drying out..terra cotta pots are sweating.. My crassula just don't like it....but others are thriving here in Connecticut..
Exactly! The devil is in the details. We have to be careful with one-size-fits-all statements. I can't even imagine all the rain and humidity your'e getting in Connecticut! I bet some of those plants are loving it!
It would make sense that summer rain cactus remain active.
Totally agree. They're built for the summer rains and depend on it.
Luckily I haven’t lost anything in pots here in phx this summer 😅 knock on wood
That is so great! How do you care for your potted succulents in the summer here?
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Hi !!Try to places your aloes in the shade like under the 🌳 ,or under your patio cover . Mine are under the trees I live in Redding California and my temperature normally in the summer are 115 dry heat. And my aloes are beautiful. I water them every week . Just try to do that and let me know . We have almost the same temperature in the summer . This summer we had a heat wave of 117 to 119 for three weeks .🥵🥵
Thank you for sharing your experience! By shade, do you mean full shade? How are your overnight low temps in Redding? The really challenging aspect of Phoenix isn't so much the high temps, it's that our overnight low temps are really high. Most of our nighttime temps are in the 90s, with lows in the upper 80s just hours before sunrise. And this stretch of hot nights lasts for weeks at a time. The temps are so rough on the plants, the Aloes absolutely hate it.
@@cookiescacti I have some under the trees and others on a wall of my house that faces north, where they only get light all day and about 30 minutes of sun before sunset. That sun is around 7:30 pm. When you make that change in a few days you will see the difference. I water them early in the morning before the sun comes up. My temperatures at night are sometimes in the 90s and 80s. I try to use succulent soil so it has good drainage. The weather here is very brutal, it is very hot and in winter we have temperatures in the 30s. Sometimes it snows. I had to use 90% shade cloth on all my cacti this summer because I saw that they were not blooming. In a week they began to recover and are already full of flowers.
@@Black_Rose5102 I appreciate the information! This is really helpful. Sounds like we're both struggling with the hot summers right now!
@@cookiescacti pretty much !🥵😫 keep me posted and good luck . 👍🏻
Have you recently changed comments setting? When I try to post anything longer, it gets automatically deleted.
I have not changed any settings. That is very strange! I wonder if UA-cam is doing something under the hood.
@@cookiescacti Anyway, my point is, that people allow their cactus substrate to go completely dry before each watering cycle and then flood it with huge amount of water, which is not a good solution regardless of plant genera you grow. Getting plant roots completely dry in high temperatures can cause rapid root lose (particularly those fine roots that do most of the absorption job), comparing to keeping substrate with some of the moisture left all the time. This is only my prediction, but people may induce dormancy (or rather root damage) on their wish by doing that.
@@SimaShangde this is a really good point! I've often wondered if in some cases the dormancy is induced by folks withholding water for a long time and not necessarily due to the season. This topic is so interesting because all the information seems more anecdotal than scientifically proven. "Cactus go dormant in the summer" is such a blanket one-size-fits-all statement that's sometimes true but sometimes completely false. It all depends.
@@cookiescacti That entire summer dormancy topic is a little bit of a stretch to me, maybe that's why it's hard to find anything scientific about it and that term is not even widely used in that context. Plants in nature do not water themself during drought, so that kind of "summer dormancy" is simply lack of water. I would rather say that, when a particular plant is exposed to temperatures higher than it's tolerance, it's just gets a stress response, or even gets physical damage if the the temperature high enough. When any scientific studies talk about cactus dormancy, it means either seeds dormancy, or dormancy caused by lack of water or low temperature (which makes biological activity to slow down drastically). Decreasing activity of CAM metabolism during night may be caused by high temperatures, especially in big cities, but I would not call it summer dormancy, but rather a stress response.
😃 I was wondering about that,tnx
It's a difficult subject with no overarching answer. A fun topic for sure!
Copiapoas go durmant in summer because it’s too hot in cultivation, in chile during the summer Atacama desert received clouds from the altiplanic winter( condensation from the amazonas )
@@RlxRlx1 how do you know this with certainty? Did you experienced Copiapoa summer dormancy first-hand?
@@cookiescacti because some of them stopped growing, so basically I am not watering when it’s too hot, so they can create some farina for the next growing cycle
@@RlxRlx1 you mention that "some of them have stopped growing". Does this mean that not all of them have stopped growing? If so, which species stopped growing? What climate do you live in?
The water does not come from Amazonas but the mists (camanchaca) from the Pacific Ocean
@@janecurrie6794 I am trying to say that the summer in the Atacama desert it’s not too hot because it receives clouds from the Amazonas causing a lot of rain in the mountains range of the Atacama desert.
Plants under shade might not go dormant? Definitely species specific
Also great video idea. Love the nuances to growing
I think the dormancy is more temperature based than UV intensity based, but I can imagine that it would be much more difficult for plants in the sun. All of my potted plants are under shade structures but my poor landscape plants! I threw shade cloth on them too.
I'm so glad you enjoyed this discussion! I think it's a fun topic to talk about because the experience and results from different individuals varies so widely. The answers are all "it depends" lol.
Your aloe look like they are getting too hot. My mom has the same aloe that I have, but she has them in In Anthem, and I have them in new river. It is too hot in Anthem for them and they need a lot more water in Anthem than mine. Need a new river. But they need a lot more water in the summer than what people think.
Yes, the temperature is the entire reason for this discussion. They're already in well shaded areas and that's the best I can do for them.