When summer gets too hot in Phoenix, AZ | Cactus & succulent struggles
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- Опубліковано 22 лип 2022
- Warning: There's a lot of sighing in this video lol.
It's that time of the summer in Arizona when it feels like endless days near or above 110F (43.3C). But the daytime highs aren't the worst of it - it's when long stretches of nighttime lows stay above 85F (29.4C) that the plants (and all living things in the desert) really hurt. This is when many soft-leaf succulents become annuals if kept outside, which I learned the hard way. This is when we face the most challenging question: "Is my plant thirsty or dormant?"
I'm still so new to the cactus and succulent game that I haven't found a good answer to that question. I've been playing it safe by either refraining from watering or following the guidelines that one of my local IG cactus friends suggested: water lightly, just like in the winter.
On a side note, I haven't been able to make videos as frequently as I'd like recently. The extreme heat is making it nearly impossible to spend extended amounts of time outside during the day, work has been really busy, and Cookie has been newly diagnosed with some health problems. I talk a bit about Cookie at the end of the video.
Connect with me on Instagram: / cookiescacti
I can totally relate to this video. I hate summer in the desert. My yard has shade cloths everywhere, too. But the air heat is something else. I wish we can have an air conditioning unit in our backyards. 😄
Gosh when those nights get too hot, you can see the effect right away 😩 And it seems I forget every year too! Overnight they go from happy plant to sad plant. At least you understand the struggle! I so wish I could have some swamp coolers running outside, but that's just a lost cause 😂
I couldn’t deal with those temperatures day in day out, and here we were in the UK complaining of just two days of hot weather 😂 Certainly more challenging growing conditions there. Hopefully all your plants will be ok, Jenny. Thank you for sharing with us, stay safe in the heat 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
This is always the toughest part of summer but we're finally getting some relief starting today and there should be some rain coming soon, yay! You have every right to complain about any amount of heat wave! At least our homes here are built for the heat and intense UV and everyone has A/C. Thank you so much for the support, Daz! 😻🌵💚
Thank you for this video! Those are some intense and challenging temperatures. Your being a fabulous plant and cat mom. I also get very anxious when it comes to health problems with my cat. Cookie is in good hands 🐈 ♥️
Awwww thank you so much for the wonderful, supportive comment! It is so hard when our fur babies get sick for sure. As for the weather, we finally got some relief today. Rain is coming and the temperatures have finally dropped to a level the plants can tolerate. I hope to see them perk up soon!
Hope that Cookie is well now that 6 months have gone by. Such a beautiful sweet kitty! ❤
I really appreciate the well wishes, Nancy. I really, really appreciate it. Cookie's health has been a constant roller coaster over the past year and, unfortunately, continues to slowly decline . It's been so stressful... She's still hanging in there but now we've added hyperthyroidism to her list of chronic issues and there's still something going on that hasn't quite been diagnosed yet. Fingers-crossed we figure it out soon...
Enjoyed the video, hope for the best on your cactus and on Cookie.
Thank you so much, George! Cookie says "meow" :)
Thanks for this video. I am facing the same dilemmas with my cacti here in the West Valley near Phoenix. It’s a learning experience, for sure! I’ve had a few casualties in the last month, but I’ve got some real troopers that can take the heat! I really relate to your alarm when you notice stress on one of your cactus babies! They are amazing, though, in what they can recover from. Sorry about your kitty and her health issues. She is a lucky cat to be so loved! I wish you all the best!
I had so many die on me last year! Especially the soft-leaf succulents - I had no idea they become annuals this time of year until I learned the hard way. I was chatting with an employee at Arizona Cactus Sales today and he gave an interesting tip - to mist the plants in the evening when the nighttime lows are too high. This will help cool down the plant without getting too much water to the root system to cause risk of rot. I'll have to try this out for myself. Which of your plants seem to take the heat well? I've been surprised with how well my Ariocarpus have taken the heat. Who knew! Thank you so much for your comment on Cookie😻💚
that's harsh. i tend to expect some normal yellowing due to heat-related stress at most once per season, but those temps for that long is incredibly jawdropping. take care and good luck, and my best wishes to cookie as well
This is always the hardest part of summer here. Last year I learned the hard way that soft-leaf succulents become annuals when the nighttime lows are too high 😭 Thank you so much for sending well-wishes to the plants and to Cookie. I sincerely appreciate it 💚
In the heat of the summer, the agave can handle more water than you might think. They actually like a nice drink every other day.
I agree. I think all the agave pulled through this summer. This summer was one of the worst ones yet 😪
This will be my second summer with my outside patio cactus. I definitely learned the hard way about extreme heat wave and dormancy and water. My prickly pear cactus snow immediately rotted after I watered them. Luckily I chopped and propped them and they have been re-growing inside all winter.
I remember when I learned the hard way that full sun in the rest of the country is not the same as full sun in Arizona. The silver lining here is how resilient prickly pear are - it's so great that you were able to rescue what you could!
During the summer heat, I like to water my cactus early in the morning when it's still dark out. Even if they are dormant. Because that will cool them off. And being that it's close to morning, they won't be sitting in water for very long because it will evaporate fast. I have had good luck with this. The other option is to stack rocks or bricks on the evening sun side of them, and that will give them shade for a good portion of the day
Thanks for sharing your experience! I've heard many folks recommend watering in the evenings in the summer to align with CAM metabolism. It's interesting that your practice is the opposite and has worked perfectly fine!
It might work even better in the evenings. I was under the understanding that anytime at night was good, but I wasn't thinking about the CAM metabolism. So it might work even better to water in the evenings. I was thinking the one benefit was that they wouldn't be standing in water for very long if you water in the morning while it's still dark.
I will try some of mine in the evening and see if it works better. But I haven't had any problems with the mornings.
I just found your channel, so I'm sorry for going back to old videos and commenting but I really do enjoy your videos. I live in central California so I deal with similar weather issues. This time I just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear about cookies condition. My kitty had kidney disease and pancreatitis. I had him on the same K/D food and SQ fluids. It's rough but I wish you and cookie all the best. It's just heartbreaking when they get sick.
Heather! It's me who should be thanking you for watching and commenting on my videos! I'm so glad you found my channel and found the content to be enjoyable, you made my night! Thank you so much for your words of well wishes for Cookie. We finally got her stabilized, she ended up developing hyperthyroidism on top of everything else. Now her thyroid is under control and I've got her on K/D and Hydra Care to help support her kidneys (which is basically a beverage for cats lol and she loves drinking it). We're not at the point of needing SQ fluids yet, but omg I hope we can manage her CKD at this stage for as long as possible. It is super stressful when our fur babies get sick. I'm just trying to enjoy the good days while we can...
What part of central California are you at? I went to school at UC Davis, so I spent many years in the Sacramento valley.
@@cookiescactiI definitely look forward to more videos to come! I'm so glad to hear you have Cookie stabilized now. Sorry to hear about the hyperthyroidism though, that unfortunately seems to be a fairly common thing amongst aging cats, which is hard enough to deal with on it's own. It's great she's eating the K/D, that eneded up being a very helpful thing with my kitty. I never used the Hydra Care but I've heard quite a bit of good things about it from other who have. Hopefully you won't need SQ fluids anytime soon! You're definitely on the right track to holding that off. It's so very stressful and heartbreaking when they get sick but like you said the most you can do is try to enjoy every moment of all of the good days while you can.
I'm just a couple hours south of Sacramento, in Fresno County.
@@the_plants_meow You're my hero for being able to administer SQ fluids! I've been trying to mentally prepare myself in case it's needed down the line. When Cookie was diabetic, giving insulin injections and taking blood glucose tests at home was already a huge strain on me... omg. Thank goodness those days are in the past now. At least managing hyperthyroidism doesn't involve needles! I really appreciate it when other cat parents leave comments about their experiences. So a giant hearty thank you, Heather!
@@cookiescactiI was so nervous and stressed about it. It's amazing what you're capable of doing when you know it's your only choice. Hopefully you won't have to do it down the line but if you do, I'm sure you'll be able to tackle that just like everything else so far! I never got to the point where I had to do insulin injections or blood glucose tests but we were headed that way and I was dreading it, so props to you! Any of these sort of things are very straining! Luckily her treatment now doesn't involve needles! On another note, it's nice be be able to talk with another cat parent who also love cacti. Your videos are the best of both worlds of two things I love 😺
@@the_plants_meow Gosh your comment is so true, it's crazy what we are capable of doing for our loved ones when there is only one choice.
Isn't it wonderful when two loves collide? It doesn't get any better than cats and cactus LOL! I find a lot of plant lovers are also animal lovers, which is the best! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, Heather!
My cat has kidney disease. The vet prescribed a kidney care diet, Hills Prescription K / D. Hills also makes an early stage kidney care diet. It is supposed to prolong their lives. It works because her health has stabilized in the 10 months she’s been on it.
That is excellent news that your cat's health has stabilized in 10 months! Is she currently on the K/D diet or the early kidney care diet? I have K/D food, I've been slowly transitioning Cookie to it. The tricky part is that Cookie has a history of diabetes and is currently in remission, so I've been closely monitoring how she responds to higher carb diets such as K/D. So far so good, we're taking it nice and slow but it's so stressful 😭
@@cookiescacti My cat Zoë is on K / D. With kidney disease Zoë has become a picky eater, so her vet recommended squeezing Churu on her wet food to stimulate her appetite. She licks off all the Churu along with some of the wet food, then returns later to eat more.
@@carolgoehausen8100 I've noticed Cookie getting more picky with food too. Have you had to administer subcutaneous fluid yet? I am so dreading having to do that eventually ~sigh~
How are Tom and his friends doing? Did they survive the heat? One thing I would recommend for the next heat wave is somehow leaving the sides of your shade cover open so that the heat doesn't get trapped and the air can circulate.
Thank you for asking about Tom! He and his pals are doing great, they survived the heat from last summer and the unusually cold and long winter. I can't believe the OG Tom will have been in the ground for 3 years come July, so crazy how fast time is passing. Thanks for the note about shade cloth and air circulation, I'll definitely keep that in mind!
Hang in there🙏💞
Thank you! We're starting to get some relief! The temperature dropped today and the lows will be below 85F for the first time in a while. Yay!
Shade cloth should be suspended above the plants. You could also spray paint the shade cloth with silver spray paint. Get a swamp cooler and move them all together. I moved my cactus to shade.
Thank you for the tips! We're finally starting to get some relief from the high temperatures, thank goodness! I see some rain in the forecast, fingers crossed the plants get a good drink soon...
Dude, I gotta ask: how did you make that 70% shade cloth hut thingy in the back? I really need to make something like that.
It's one of those plastic greenhouse kits you can find on Amazon. When summer arrived, I removed the plastic cover and put the shade cloth on. The shade cloth I bought in a big roll from Home Depot and cut it up the best I could to roughly fit the greenhouse frame. I used a bunch of clips I bought off Amazon to clip the cloth onto the frame. I can't believe it has held up to the monsoon winds! Once it starts cooling down in November, I'm planning to take off one layer of shade cloth (leaving one layer behind) and will put the plastic cover back on.
I wonder if that totem was getting burned from that laundry basket touching it. Probably got really hot.
I was hoping the white colored fabric wouldn't hurt the plant, but you never know... It's funny that last year the cactus wasn't tall enough to touch the top of the basket, certainly not true anymore!
I wonder the temp difference over the black stone as opposed to the light colored?
Hmmmm... possibly. It's so hot at that point that any surface is awful LOL. But we made to the other side! The highs are now in the 80s, I can finally do some outdoor stuff again.
I guess I can relate somewhat , I used to be a roofer and often times when it was 90 degrees outside it was 110 on a black shingle roof. Just thinking that black stone could be intensifying the heat. Anywho good luck and appreciate the reply 🙏💙
@@pass_the_buck_owen5159 Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! Uggh I can't imagine being on that black shingled roof in the summer!
Wow 112 I could barely handle 102.
I swear every year the heat comes on like a surprise even though we know to expect it! Luckily we're getting some relief from the high temps now, but it also means the humidity has bumped up significantly. Oh well!