Keeping cactus happy during winter?

Hey,

Just wondering what everyone here does with their cactus during the winter months. I errected a green house, but due to lack of planning and not securing it down, it collapsed.... twice.... taking all the plants with it.... twice. As you can imagine i'm getting good practice at repotting!!

I've since bought a different green house, secured it down tight with truckies knots and it's not moving an inch!!

My plants are from the Argintina area (Pasacana's, golden barrel cactus, Oreocereus celsianus). I've left the door open to provide insulation and all the plants are dry. From what I've been told they are all hardy plants.

Do most people here do something similar? (assuming that they aren't in the garden). I noticed that some people actually install heaters to keep the temperature at or above 40c, but i'd hate to see their electic bill!!

I'll post some pics up in the next few days. I'd just like to get some ideas of what people do here. I live in Melbourne.

Cheers,

Paul M.

No one in their right mind would want to keep a greenhouse at 40C!

I'm thinking your plants will be absolutely fine... they can all take cold i think. Just keep em dry and hope the greenhouse holds!

40C ??? That can't be right ? That's too high to even be trying to grow the plants at all - in summer even!! 4.0C maybe ???
I heat my greenhouse in Winter to stop the temperature getting too low and the lowest it gets too is around 8-10 C. But if it dipped a couple of degrees lower I doubt there'd be much damage as everything bar the winter growers is bone dry.. As Lewis says, most will take the cold unless they're wet or unless they are of more tropical genera like Uebelmannia, Melocactus or Discocactus.

Mine are doing ok in the greenhouse atm with daytime temps around 25-27 and night time temps to -3. As others have said... the mix is very dry (EDIT: mineral based and very free draining)... I haven't watered since the beginning of Autumn. Some (Mam bocasana and Mam. gracilis) are even flowering. Mostly Mams but opuntia, Echinopsis, Sulcos, Rebutia, and Notocactus (what do they call them now??? Edit: Parodia! that's right ) too.

I'm a bit south of Melbourne, and I grow pretty much my entire collection outdoors and completely unprotected from the elements. The less-hardy (generally Mexican) miniatures and things like Lithops I keep on a sunny windowsill indoors and out of the rain; however pretty much everything else cops whatever the weather decides to throw at it.

I saw a video on youtube. He had a small heater and temp guage in the green house. The electricity bill would be interesting! I'll post a link if i find it.

So you leave your plants exposed? I know there is a Golden Barrell exposed at work and it's healthy. I think the cactus I have are fairly hardy which helps as well.

We had extreme winds again in Melbourne the other night and the greenhouse survived!! It's not at our unit. It's located at the missus mums house for the winter as it's in a nice sunny north facing position.

I have some cacti on our window ledge (we face north as well). The "Notocactus" had lovely flowers, but now it's dormant :-( I also have a very very young Oreocoreus celsianus and another small pasacana.

Addictive hobby!!!

Yeah, but keep in mind my exposed cacti are mostly pretty unkillable - Trichs, Echinopsis (I still refuse to lump them ), a couple of Opuntiads, some common Rebutias, Mamms, Feros and Notos, with a handful of misc columnars thrown in the mix. Anything that is delicate - like I said, pretty much all the usual suspects, Mexicans, etc - get kept out of the elements.

I think once plants reach a certain size they become more hardy. I've lost a few baby golden barrels to cold wet winters, but I've also seen much larger specimens that thrive under such conditions.

Quote :

I noticed that some people actually install heaters to keep the temperature at or above 40c, but i'd hate to see their electic bill!!

I think that you'll find that they are referring to 40° Farenheit, not 40° Celcius. In Celcius that's about 4° - coincidentally what Nava wondered it might be.

That's the trouble with reading US stuff - they're still in the 19th century as far as units go...