cacti newbie

[masterplain88]

can cacti be grown indoors under mh or hps lights in the winter time. because i want to keep a steady amount going and have a room they could go in in the winter.? i was thinking of making a indoor green house but im not sure. thanks,
masterplain88

[Irishlion]

Originally Posted by masterplain88

can cacti be grown indoors under mh or hps lights in the winter time. because i want to keep a steady amount going and have a room they could go in in the winter.? i was thinking of making a indoor green house but im not sure. thanks,
masterplain88

yes they can but, make sure its not very high watts, maybe floros would be better for cacti, also wanna keep soil temp above 70 or they will go dormant.

Indoor raised cacti are about worthless unless you properlly stress them, IE lack or water and what not so during winter, its good to keep them growing and what not but, in spring and summer put them outside.

[UnlearnEverything]

Originally Posted by Irishlion

yes they can but, make sure its not very high watts, maybe floros would be better for cacti, also wanna keep soil temp above 70 or they will go dormant.

Indoor raised cacti are about worthless unless you properlly stress them, IE lack or water and what not so during winter, its good to keep them growing and what not but, in spring and summer put them outside.

If you grow indoors through the dormancy period using florescents, do you need to keep a light/dark cycle? Or can you run the lights 24/7?

What wattage would be ideal?

How could you maintain soil temp? Put an aquarium heater under the pots?

I'm a newb too!

[LordLuke]

A 250W Sodium with a 16on/8off cycle should be fine, and the lights provide their own heat to some degree. From what Swim hears, you probably won't need a separate bulb for flowering either.

[beautypath]

As Solomon said in Ecclesiates 3 " For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven........a time to plant and a time to reap.
Forcing the cacti to grow during the winter is disrespectful to their nature and may lead to weaker plants. Right now is the time to put them in the sun and water them a little every week. Just as we need the night for sleep and rejuvenation the plant people need the winter to rest.
Happy growing!

[Irishlion]

Originally Posted by beautypath

As Solomon said in Ecclesiates 3 " For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven........a time to plant and a time to reap.

Forcing the cacti to grow during the winter is disrespectful to their nature and may lead to weaker plants. Right now is the time to put them in the sun and water them a little every week. Just as we need the night for sleep and rejuvenation the plant people need the winter to rest.
Happy growing!

Couldn't have said it better myself.


If you are gonna grow them during the winter, although I never do so I am unsure of what watt light to use, a typicaly floro panel used for vegging or a small HID would work on a 16 8 or 14 10 timer would be best with ambient heat in the room or seedling heating mats underneath them. Although remember that that indoor grown cacti are usually pretty weak as there is no need to produce akaliods as they are getting taken care of no real stressing factors there.

Personally, every cactus should be allowed to go into dormancy IMO, which means you put them in a cool dark place for the winter, you will want to keep the temps below 60 degrees. If the temps get above 60 they will come out of dormancy and etiolate


Etiolation


In general, cacti require lots of very bright light to be healthy. This level of light is extremely difficult to provide for plants grown indoors. South-facing windows (North-facing in the southern hemisphere) with no obstructions can give a cactus enough light to prevent etiolation, but even the brightest window in a house still does not capture as much light as the plant would like. Plants grown in windowsills will also lean towards the light as the inner side will be getting much less light than the side facing the sun. Artificial lighting doesn't stand a chance against the power of the sun. It is possible to use HID lights, but these are expensive to purchase and operate and not something many people would like to have in their living space.







Etiolation is defined as "Pale, sickly, excessive growth caused by insufficient light, incorrect feeding, or overcrowding." New cactus growers may not know what normal growth should look like or may have inherited a plant that is already etiolated. The images here demonstrate typical etiolation on cactus plants. The growth is often a very light green or yellow-green color. It forms a point almost like pulled taffy and is usually quite weak and flimsy.



Treatment:


Once a cactus has put on etiolated growth, the effect is permanent. While you can almost always bring a plant back to full health with a change of conditions, it will be forever misfigured where the etiolation occurred. To correct etiolation, you need to get your cactus into stronger light. This is usually more sunlight or sometimes supplementing existing sunlight with artificial lighting. In either case, it is important not to simply take a plant out of the window sill and stick it out in full sun the next day. It must be gradually introduced to stronger light to prevent sunburn. Even healthy plants can get sunburn from a dramatic increase in light; in etiolated plants this could be fatal. If you have a plant with poor lighting, you can reduce etiolation by keeping it cooler and not watering as often. Ideally, having nights that are around 20 degrees cooler than the day temps would improve the situation for the cacti, but again, it would be less than ideal for their human roommates. The best option for locations that are too cold to leave cacti out year-round is to grow outside during the summer and then put the plants in a cool spot (45ºF-50ºF) with no water for the winter. The cacti in these conditions will sit dormant and can be kept with no light at all. While some species won't tolerate this, most will do fine or even better with this dormant period.

[masterplain88]

i just wanted to bring it inside in the winter then back out it the summer.

[Quadrupliplex]

What type of fluorescent fixture would be good for sprouting Bridgesii seeds? wattage? size? I have a 33 seeds to sprout.

[Burger]

Originally Posted by Quadrupliplex

What type of fluorescent fixture would be good for sprouting Bridgesii seeds? wattage? size? I have a 33 seeds to sprout.

With such a small amount of seeds, a small compact flouro or a single 2' tube would be more than ample.

Bottom heat is also beneficial when germinating seeds/growing seedlings ime.