In order for your cacti to survive the winter without loss, you need to provide them with the right conditions, similar to those under which succulent plants wait out the cold in their natural habitat. It is necessary to strictly maintain the desired wintering temperature for cacti, reduce moisture saturation to a minimum, choose a suitable placement to protect plants from drafts.
Wintering temperature of cacti at home
Winter is a dormant period for cacti in your home, unlike where they grow, where this period falls on the dry season. The winter period is the most difficult in the life of home collection cacti.
This is the time of experiencing adverse conditions. It is in winter that the greatest losses are possible, therefore, the preparation of the collection for wintering must be taken quite seriously.
The plants brought into the room are carefully examined before being placed on the windowsill. Instances that cause doubts are not too late to warm up and transplant. The dirt accumulated over the summer on pallets is washed off. Before caring for a cactus in winter, you need to check the composition of the collection according to the file cabinet and make the necessary adjustments.
For young, well-growing and not registered in the collection plants, cards are given with the assignment of permanent numbers. The assigned numbers are applied to the pots. This can be done with an ordinary ballpoint pen, the numbers are saved for a long time, but it is better with a special marker.
When keeping cacti in winter, in order for the plants to stop growing and go into a dormant state, the collection wintering on the window must be fenced off from the warm air of the room with glass or film to create a certain microclimate. The optimum wintering temperature for most species is about 10-12°C.
It should be borne in mind that there is a horizontal and vertical temperature gradient on the window. The temperature drops from the edge of the window sill to the window and rises from the tray on which the cacti stand to the tops of the plant stems. The difference in the first case can be 3-4 °C, in the second – 4-5 °C or more, depending on the height of the enclosed space.
On the upper additional shelf, depending on the height of the location, the difference in temperature can reach 7 or more degrees. All this must be taken into account when arranging cacti for the winter. Species wintering at temperatures above 10 ° C should be placed at the top on an additional shelf.
It is also worth placing valuable heat-loving species (ariocarpus, roseocactus, neogomesia, obregonia, etc.) and seedlings of the first year there. Species that are constantly withering strongly during wintering are best kept on a shelf under glass caps. It is desirable that the shelf for keeping cacti in the winter is located at a height that provides full illumination of the plants standing on it, and does not create a shadow on the windowsill when the spring sun is high. For this, the shelf should not be wide and as offset as possible towards the room.
The first time, until the cacti have entered a state of rest and there is moisture in the soil, the caps sweat from the inside. The resulting condensate must be dried in time; in a cold, damp atmosphere, cacti can rot. Species that require a colder wintering for normal flowering in spring (Matucana, Chamaecereus, Echinopsis) are placed closer to the glass, the rest are further from the glass.
How to care for cacti in winter
Until November, outdoor temperatures are still quite high, and the sun that appears from time to time raises the temperature on the window to 20 ° C and above. So that the plants do not wilt ahead of time, the collection will have to be carefully watered 1-2 times during October. Water on warm days in the morning, before night the top layer of drainage should dry out. When caring for cacti at home in winter (November to March), the collection is not watered. Healthy plants in undepleted soil tolerate this time without water perfectly well.
During wintering, cold air from the street should not freely penetrate to the cacti, so the window is carefully insulated. To save cacti from hypothermia, pallets with plants are placed not on the windowsill, but on a common ventilated pallet. Such a pallet can be made from plywood or a thin wood board, the size of a window sill. On the underside, bars of a small section are nailed around the entire perimeter of the pallet. On two long sides, they are stuffed with small pieces, between which windows are left. Through the windows, cold air from the glass will flow into the room without accumulating over the cacti, and the oncoming flow of warm air will mitigate temperature fluctuations near the glass. Pieces of the same bars are nailed in the center of the pallet so that it does not bend. With the panes fully lowered, this pan design ensures better air circulation in the enclosed window volume and reduces the vertical temperature gradient.
Severe frosts that occur periodically during the winter, especially when the wind blows through the windows, can lower the temperature on the windowsill to a critical level. Conducted window insulation in such situations does not always save from the cold. As a result, rush to move the collection from the window sill to the room is not ruled out.
This is not the most pleasant occupation, especially with a large collection. Given the possibility of such a situation, it is highly desirable to make double glazing on the internal wooden frames. In addition to warmth for the collection, additional glazing will increase the sound insulation in the apartment from the external environment.
Windowsill glazing designs for wintering cacti can be different, using glass, plexiglass or film. Any wood is used as a material for the frame. The frame is assembled on metal studs made of nails of a suitable diameter. Nails are hammered into the frame and cut to the desired length. Holes are drilled under the studs. Also, with the help of studs, the frame is fixed on the window sill and in the window frame box. The pre-assembled frame is installed on the window and fastened with just two screws or bolts to the window walls, through the holes in the side posts.
After installation, the frame is glazed. Glasses are simply laid on top, and from the side of the room they must rise up along the guides to regulate the temperature on the window. Over the winter, the upper glasses collect a lot of dust, which, in their absence, would have ended up on the plants.
Guides are easiest to make from small nails without hats, bent at right angles and driven into the frame. With this design, the raised and slightly skewed glass is easily fixed at an angle on the guide nails at the desired height. Long-term operation of the proposed frame for wintering cacti at home has shown high reliability and practicality of its design, combined with ease of manufacture and installation.
In addition, the disassembled frame easily folds into one plane and does not take up much space during storage.
Keeping cacti at home in winter
In order to preserve the collection in winter and minimize possible losses, it is regularly inspected. Different types of cacti tolerate wintering in different ways. Of the most common troubles, the strong wilting of plant stems is most often noted long before the end of wintering.
They must be immediately removed from the window, warmed up in the room and carefully watered. If the cactus is poured, then after the soil dries out, it is put in the collection in its old place. When caring for cacti in winter, plants that do not take on water can be saved by warming up in hot water and transplanting. In rotten plants, damaged roots are removed, and, if necessary, part of the rotten stem.
After warming up and drying, cacti with preserved roots are transplanted into fresh soil. A stem cut without roots can be tried to root. Of course, winter is not the best time for such operations, but it’s still worth trying to save a dying plant.
The considered option for keeping cacti in the winter is the most common and optimal for a home collection, but not the only one. You can also keep cacti in winter without soil in special cassettes. At the same time, the roots of cacti are lowered into the cut holes, and the cassettes with plants are placed for wintering.
The size of the openings of the cassette is determined by the diameter of the stem. Cacti can really winter well in such conditions, but, in my opinion, the annual replanting of the entire collection, especially a large one, is unlikely to arouse enthusiasm among most cactus lovers.
But this technique is indispensable when growing cacti in the open air, when they, one way or another, have to be dug up for the winter.
