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Justler

Cacti garden vs leaving them in pots?

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Hi guys/girls,

I need to repot all my green fellas, or alternatively I could start a garden :lol:

I'm leaning towards the garden. However there are a few things that I need to consider that may be holding me back.

1. Environmental factors - potentially flooding, morning frosts, temperature range from potentially 0 - 45 degrees Celsius.

2. Time at this location - as i plan on moving house at the end of next year.

Taking these into consideration, I guess the question I'm asking is whether planting my spiky green fellas is going to be beneficial for their overall health, growth, and flowering potential. If so, would the benefits really show in a period of 1.5 years? Or would planting out be seen more as a long term benefit for someone staying in the same place for an extended period.

This decision isn't taking into account how awesome it would be to have a nice little cacti garden to tend to over the next year or so. It is purely based on health, growth, and flowering potential. Why? As I'd rather have amazingly healthy and beasty specimins to build a wonderful garden with at my new location. A garden like col's would be great :lol:

Money isn't to much of a factor either.

 

Pots (Evironmental Factors)

 

- Currently located under an awning to protect from over night frosts

 

- Easily movable to dry areas when back yard floods

 

- Not subject to rain watering or potential over watering (under awning/sheltered)

 

- Currently receives sunlight from around 12pm till sun down (5 or 6pm)

 

- Appear to be quite healthy, not sunburnt, not elongated, no rot, no scale, no disease etc. - Although spiders love to web them up and live in their ribs.

 

Perceived benefits: easy protection from floods, sun/temperature, frost

 

Potential negatives: Inhibited growth? Black pots leading to root burn?

 

Proposed Garden Plan
(Evironmental Factors)

 

- Slightly slanted location (help reduce potential of rot via flooding)

 

- Raised bed - 15cm? Should it be raise more? (increase height to help reduce potential of rot via flooding)

 

- 50% standard gardening soil/potting mix, 50% pebbles (increase drainage to help reduce potential of rot via heavy rain and flooding)

 

- Will receive morning sun till 3pm or 4pm

 

Perceived benefits: increase sunlight, full growth potential?, roots are protected from heat/burn.

 

Potential negatives: 40 - 45 degree temps for maybe a week or two (might be able to workout shade cloth to cover the area in this period), frost, heavy rain at times, flooding? (flooding may not be a problem with above plan)

Given they'll only be in the ground for a period of 1.5 years, is it worth it? Family member might remain at this residence, so i could always top them, start a new garden, and leave the base for them to regrow. Or alternatively, dig them out.

Is there anything else I've missed or need to take into consideration?

Do you think there are benefits of planting them out given my concerns?

Thanks for your help!

Any comments and advice is welcomed :)

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How many cacti do you have, and what sizes are they? :)

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I dunno about you but I'd much prefer not to bother making a nice cacti garden

when your going to be moving house even if it's not for another year or more

I'd wait till I was somewhere more permanent before going and planting them in the ground

But that's just me :)

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Just a few :wub: .. Sizes range from 40-90cm.

My largest is a 90cm Roseii 1 which is around 18inches fat at its widest. Glad she doesn't diet as much as my GF :lol:.

Cheers Myco, I appreciate your input. Is that based on effort though? haha

Edited by Justler
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yeah if you're moving in 1-2 years then they might only just get established then you have to move again, i doubt they'd grow much more there than if you had them in pots (although this isn't based on anything but a hunch). sounds like more trouble than it's worth to me.

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bigger pots will get at least as much growth in such a short time.. feed them well!

raised beds are good, but for such a short time not so much. frost not much of a problem for trichs.

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Yeah I think it sounds like not quite enough time there for it to be worth the effort of a garden, I'd just plant a few in the ground though as they might have enough time to grow enough of a root mass to pump out some growth for one or two seasons and compare them to the pots.

At the last place I was living I had a couple of garden beds so just planted a bunch of trichs none bigger than a foot and I was always amazed how fast they grew compared to the potted ones (although the pots were pretty neglected). When I moved over a year ago I had a fair few 2m plus multiple branched monsters and a lot of smaller ones all of which were dug up and transported to the new place, it was a damn hard job but they were easier to dig out than I imagined probably because their roots are mostly sprawling.

So yeah I reckon it might be worth putting in a few but not actually making a garden, unless your happy to put in the work knowing you'll have to do it again soon it that is.

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Trich's are much hardier than you think.

Before I moved to Aus I had about 180 Trich's growing outdoors in the garden in NZ. They grew a lot faster and fatter than any I had potted and they were subjected to ALOT of rain over the winter and heavy frosts, down to minus 5 degrees C. I never lost a plant.

BUT if you are moving in a year or two I would probably wait. we are buying a property soon where I intend to put 300 Trich's into an interactive Cacti garden but after that I am never moving again!!

But as Levicacti says put a few in the ground, at least it will give you an idea of the difference in growth rates between potted plants and those free ranging!

Cheers

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Sorry to step off topic, but Getafix, what on earth does an ''interactive cacti garden'' entail?

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Ha ha, good question, just liked the sound of the word!

No seriously my plan is to build a large, and I mean large area of the garden of just Cacti that witl have slate paths and seating areas to sit right amongst the plants along with areas covered from the top so even on rainy days I can hang out in it.

So I really just meant a cacti garden I can get amongst as opposed to a garden bed I can stand beside and look at.

Cheers

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Lol I was wondering if you were talking columnar cacti mazes and hidden keyhole gardens of lophs protected by big spikey mo fo's!

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Lol I was wondering if you were talking columnar cacti mazes and hidden keyhole gardens of lophs protected by big spikey mo fo's!

 

mmm, now you have just given me some ideas! :lol:

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That was the plan all along :wink:

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Maybe we should start a thread with all the ideas for extreme outdoor areas we might create? I could quickly see myself rambling on for a few pages about it. :P

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Maybe we should start a thread with all the ideas for extreme outdoor areas we might create? I could quickly see myself rambling on for a few pages about it. :P

 

I like the idea. I will have a blank canvas in a few months, could turn some of the good/crazy ideas into reality!

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Brilliant idea for a thread.

My mind supplies an endless stream of crazy ideas, always good to have an outlet B)

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I'd leave em in pots 2, just making unesseciarry work for you'reself for minimal gain in that amount of time.

Once you do move though, big raised beds are great if you do have really poor drainage.

post-9498-0-66820700-1346415882_thumb.jp

Here's some pach I saw near the beach on the west coast of NZ; seemed to be doing ok :)

post-9498-0-66820700-1346415882_thumb.jpg

post-9498-0-66820700-1346415882_thumb.jpg

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I think I'll be leaving the majority in pots as suggested.

Doesn't sound like 1.5 years in the ground will be worth extra effort.

Might plant out 1 or 2 just for comparisons sake.

Thanks for the input everyone!

Cheers,

J.

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