Duly noted. And I'll keep reading and see what else I may find. While being cautious of BS, of course.
Steve, I can't thank you enough for all your help
Rot or Not? Please help
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- Posts: 24
- Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2024 8:06 pm
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
In Utah, but I have to grow with lights.
- Steve Johnson
- Posts: 4530
- Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2011 4:44 am
- Location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
Excellent, and yes -- re. cacti the "BS factor" is everywhere in gardening websites, so if/when you see it, this forum will be a great place for calling it out.CoolestGravy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 28, 2024 6:31 pm Duly noted. And I'll keep reading and see what else I may find. While being cautious of BS, of course.
Since I now know that you're growing cacti in the house 24/7/365, here are a few final thoughts...
- Day length influences growth and dormancy. If you can put your grow lights on a timer, you'll be able to emulate day lengths as follows:
- January -- 10 hours
- February -- 11 hrs.
- March -- 12 hrs.
- April -- 13 hrs.
- May -- 14 hrs.
- June and July -- 15 hrs.
- August -- 14 hrs.
- September -- 12 hrs.
- October -- 11 hrs.
- November -- 10 hrs.
- December -- 9 hrs.
- For the growing season, daytime highs in the house should be 72-80. If you set your air conditioner's thermostat to 78 in the summer, you won't need to water any more often than you would in the spring.
- Stagnant air in the house leads to all kinds of problems for cacti and succulents. If that's the case in your house, a fan near your plant table will keep the air flowing -- all you need is an artificial "breeze" and nothing more during the day. (Not sure if you would need it at night, though.)
- Buy a digital kitchen scale if you don't already have one.
- Weigh each pot while the mix is bone dry, and write down the weight.
- Saturate the mix with deep watering, weight each pot again, and write down the weight.
- Weigh the pots on a daily basis until they're back to their dry weights. Make a note of how many days it took for the pots to go from wet to bone-dry.
My pleasure! If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
If you just want photos without all the blather, please visit my Flickr gallery.
My location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)
My location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)