Winter Arriving: Which Cacti & Plants Must Be Taken Indoors

[SaBReT00tH]

With winter arriving quickly I'm wondering if cacti, succulents and my plants can stay outdoors. I'm thinking of leaving these plants and cacti outside during witner: Hops plant, Yerba Mate, Calea Zacatechichi, Heimia (Sinicuichi), Mimosa Hostilis, Ephedra, Catnip, Wormwood, Psychotria Carthiginensis, Coffea Arabica, 'Dwarf' Coffea Arabica, Trichocereus Bridgesii, Trichocereus Peruvianus, Trichocereus Pachanois, Astrophytum Myriostigma, Hoodia Gordonii, Hoodia Gordonnii grafted to Stapelia, Stapelias, Trichocereus Spachianus's, Aloe Vera, Agave, and Pereskiopsis's. The only thing I was going to bring in to sit inside on a windowsill was my three Hawaiin Baby Woodroses, as I know the first or second year of their growing they require warmth during winter. Does anyone know if it's vital for any of the other plants or cacti I've mentioned to be kept indoors during winter?? If taken inside during winter do plants and cacti actually continue to grow throughout winter and otherwise suspend growing during winter if they're left outside? Can grafting cacti still be done in winter if cacti are kept inside? If cacti are currently beginning to pup now and are left inside or outside during winter will the pups still continue to grow? By the way the lowest it usually gets in my state (South Australia) in winter is usually about 4 degrees celsius.

Edited March 26, 2006 by SaBReT00tH

[Rev]

With winter arriving quickly I'm wondering if cacti, succulents and my plants can stay outdoors. I'm thinking of leaving these plants and cacti outside during witner: Hops plant, Yerba Mate, Calea Zacatechichi, Heimia (Sinicuichi), Mimosa Hostilis, Ephedra, Catnip, Wormwood, Psychotria Carthiginensis, Coffea Arabica, 'Dwarf' Coffea Arabica, Trichocereus Bridgesii, Trichocereus Peruvianus, Trichocereus Pachanois, Astrophytum Myriostigma, Hoodia Gordonii, Hoodia Gordonnii grafted to Stapelia, Stapelias, Trichocereus Spachianus's, Aloe Vera, Agave, and Pereskiopsis's. The only thing I was going to bring in to sit inside on a windowsill was my three Hawaiin Baby Woodroses, as I know the first or second year of their growing they require warmth during winter. Does anyone know if it's vital for any of the other plants or cacti I've mentioned to be kept indoors during winter?? If taken inside during winter do plants and cacti actually continue to grow throughout winter and otherwise suspend growing during winter if they're left outside? Can grafting cacti still be done in winter if cacti are kept inside? If cacti are currently beginning to pup now and are left inside or outside during winter will the pups still continue to grow? By the way the lowest it usually gets in my state (South Australia) in winter is usually about 4 degrees celsius.

hops plant - decoduous . will die off and shoot again in spring anyway

Yerba Mate - i wouldnt risk it. better in a sunny indoor position kept dry and away from draughts

Calea Zacatechichi - will frost and reshoot but i dont think they like continued moist cold conditions

Heimia (Sinicuichi) - tough as boot leather

Mimosa Hostilis - ?

Ephedra - ? what species. Major should be fine but heavy frost will still damage it

Catnip - fine

Wormwood - fine

Psychotria Carthiginensis - dunno i kill every one but people on the plains can get them through winter

Coffea Arabica, 'Dwarf' Coffea Arabica - ? more cool hardy than most think. coming from the mountains but they wont like frost but u can shield them

Trichocereus Bridgesii - watch SBS world news weather. look at la paz - its a frikking ice chest even in summer. theyll be fine so long as they drain easily and or are kept fairly dry while cold

Trichocereus Peruvianus, Trichocereus Pachanois - fine but keep well drained

Astrophytum Myriostigma, Hoodia Gordonii, Hoodia Gordonnii grafted to Stapelia, Stapelias - None of these like cold and wet. Up here they take dry cold at night winters and war days just fine. The hoodias can take -3 for example but only under teh above conditions. they wont tolerate wet and cold at the same time

Stapelias dont like it below 0C and get cold damage and die of frost

Trichocereus Spachianus's - as for pachanoi

Aloe Vera, Agave, and Pereskiopsis's. - as for hoodia. except some agave are remarkably frost hardy to -12C or lower, depends which species though.

The only thing I was going to bring in to sit inside on a windowsill was my three Hawaiin Baby Woodroses,

windowsills can be horrible places as the day night fluctuations can be severe - great for cyclamen- not good for most plants

better to build an outdoor greenhouse - rudimentary

i had a mate in the Adelaid hills who grew dope through the winter in such things made from a table frame covered in clear plastic

pay attention to draughts and thermal mass around it as a heat bank

best of all get some lights and heat mats. even a coupel fluoros will tide over a dormant plant through winter at household ambient temps

good luck and do report back in spring. Its a collective information collation in progress

[SaBReT00tH]

Thanks. All my cacti (minus the Agave, Aloe Vera, large Pachanoi, Peruvianus and Bridgesii - as they can't fit in it) are in a small outdoor greenhouse which means they shouldn't get any rain on them. I know the Yerba Mate in the adelaide botanic gardens (which is large many many metres high) gets through winter but as mine is very small with only about 8 - 10 leaves on it I think I'll try and bring it in. The Calea won't have to deal with being moist as it's slightly undercover and shouldn't receive too much rain ( I'll try not to water it very often), think I'll bring the Carthiginensis in as it's very small and only has about 3 small leaves, and the Ephedra Major I think I may bring in too. I noticed the adelaide botanic gardens also has ephedra major growing in the ground there and so it must get that through winter too. I know ephedra need lots of root space to grow and the pot I have mine at home isn't big enough and thus the plant hasn't been growing very much, so I had been thinking of planting it in the ground at home with a mix of perlite and soil, or soil and sand, and am wondering if this would be a good idea if the plant doesn't like winter much. In terms of bringing my other three plants indoors, as my heatmat is already being used for my Viridis's I think I'll have to buy another reptile one for the Ephedra, Carthiginensis and Yerba. I know lights are expensive to run so I'm wondering if two windows letting in natural daylight would be good enough to get these plants through winter?

Edited March 27, 2006 by SaBReT00tH

[Rev]

fluoros only cost a few c (single digits) an hour

less than a heat mat

no need to heat ephedra major - its from places in spain which have a similar rainfall and seasonal regime to adelaide

just saying u should keep off frost

as it looks to me if you had an terrarium with a fluoro light with 12 hour timer on top thatd do it

and around your plants you could germinate some cacti seed over winter in tubs

just options

[SaBReT00tH]

what wattage of fluora is the minimum that would be needed? The only thing I wonder about is how to attach it to a terrarium or if I don't have a terrarium what I can attach it to (I'd need a little stand or something, that'd be handy) as I'm not very good with building and electrical things.

[Rev]

nether am i

i dont even try

i go get a terrarium

if you have $ get a glass one with nice stand so you can drool over your collection at night

if you dont lik emost of us get a plastic storage bin

then go get a fluoro array from the hardware or lighting place and some tubes.

or from the aquarium store if you have a little more $ and want it to look good

i might add that the aquarium lights are great for drying herbs on top of - esp fungal collections

cant even remmber what i used.

ask Darklight cos the ones they use for tissue cultured plants are just fine

its all off the shelf

no fiddling required

just match the sizes

[SaBReT00tH]

ok, how does the aquarium or fluoro array attach to the aquarium? Does it have adhesive tape?