Can you keep Trich's actively growing all year round?

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Edited April 5, 2010 by lsdreamz

[planthelper]

i don't think a setup which helps you to avoid dormacy, will be worth the effort.

you would waste a lot of electricety, just to get a few more cm, and if the setup doesn't work 100%, you might still end up with some sort of etiolated growth.

at my place the cacti planted outside, keep growing over the winter, but at halve the rate, of what they achive over summer.

the funny thing is that, i have frosts at times, but even so, the daytime temps are pretty high, and that keeps them growing, whilst at places with no frost, but not as high daytime winter temperatures, the pedros slowed down much more.

so it seems to me that, it's not minimum temps, which slow a pedros growth, but the maximum daytime temps, in case they are too low. maybe this helps...

and if you just want to avoid narrow growth over the wintertime, than overwinter the cacti cold and without any light, like in a garage.

[zelly]

Depending on how many trich's you have & their overall height, it might be worth your time to construct a 60cm x 60cm x 1.5m or so grow box with fluorescent lighting on all 4 sides instead of the top. Add a low voltage heat mat at the bottom & a small fan for air circ. Strive for fat pedros rather than tall skinny ones.

I did something similar on an indoor mj grow & ended up with a bushy christmas tree with densely packed lateral growth on all the branches.

[Trichoserious]

at my place the cacti planted outside, keep growing over the winter, but at halve the rate, of what they achive over summer.

 

Indeed....volume of light certainly seems to be the critical key. In my climate there is consistently strong winter growth, also with no etoliation. Perhaps something less than half the rate of the other seasons. Also, coloration is a bit more subdued shade of green...less vibrant somehow....but they do put on at least a foot during the winter months here. And while temps remain seasonably high, they do in other climates as well. The difference in growth I attribute to higher levels of sunshine. My southern US contemporaries also experience winter growth with no etoliation, but not to the same degree.

[naja naja]

IMO, not worth it for trich's, except getting seedlings crankin in winter. But for loph's 18-24h is the bomb! Sumthing in the light seems to stimulate pupping IMO. Outside, even during summer they won't grow as well, fast or pup as much. However under 18-24h HPS they just grow nuts! A light rail will set u back close to a grand, but u can cover more space, with same light and not much more power consumtion. Also handy for overwintering many other sinsitive ethno's or giving u the ability to grow sum ethno's that would never be able to be grown in your area. Good for propagation too. For any serious cacti grower of the loph, astro, etc genre I'd consider it a worthy investment. Also, it is completely legal too as far as I am aware. Best use for lights imo, herb is nicer when nature does the work. All trich's seem to etoliate under HPS, maybe they'd prefer MH or the lights closer than mine. All trich's stay outside unless the got loph's grafted on them. Then keeping them inside also keeps them safe from rats, mice, birds and seed can be collected easier and more often.

Edited March 28, 2010 by naja naja