Cold Climate Cactus

This is the first truly hot day. The seed trays should not be germination till the end of May or after then. I still decided to spray water on the seed trays because it is warm enough to dry them out today. I suppose it will rain hard later tonight.

The night time temps. are in the 30s and 40s so the Astrophytum myrostigma cactus plants are back outdoors for some more direct sun.

It is still close to freezing at night, but it will start to warm up soon. I scattered Misquito Beater over the outdoor cacti today. This will provide a lot of prevention when soil flies or scaria flies start to hatch this spring. In case there are any eggs present on or around the cacti. This is especially important for seedlings and pots containing seeds that could germinate this spring. Adult cacti usually have few problems with these small flies, but I think it helps protect adult Pediocactus plants too.

The cold frames are all open and the snow has melted. The cacti are now getting direct sun and full exposure all weather conditions.

The snow has melted enough to open 2 of the 4 cold frames. The cactus plants look great, and are still asleep. They are gray and shrunken as they should be in the winter. In a few weeks they will start to turn greener and take up water again, if the weather continues to warm up.

We had a blizzard, and this gave the cold frames more than a foot of new snow cover. This will keep the cacti very save if we get some sub zero weather.

Snow is building up on the cold frame lids. Even though it is only a few inches this should help keep the cactus plants safe.