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[bezevo]

I was reading up how to store or not store my Trichocereus cacti in winter zone 5b .

Some say stop watering a few months then move indoors to a cool dark room zero light .

Others say no water  for a cpl months move indoors to a cool or cold room sunny  ?

I want to avoid the skinny growth  etiolation ?

Could I hear your opinions from experience  please .

I will post any pertinent info I come across .

[oplopanax]

I take my cactus inside for the winter, stop watering, and keep them away from too much light. I have already moved mine out to a greenhouse where they are getting more light but still no water. If you water them through the winter they will indeed grow etiolated, which is not a huge deal but creates a weak point where the cactus will probably snap once the growth above it gets fat in the summer. I'm in zone 7b or something like that.

[bezevo]

Thanks for your info oplopanax

MY PC  San Pedro from HomeXDepot   went from 8"x3"  to 12" last summer.
  but last month this fall the top grew a few inchs  etiolated I am guessing I should have stopped watering it sooner before I brought it inside.

[Auxin]

The length of time you need to go without watering before bringing them in is directly proportional to their size, IME.
Cacti need to have their soil dry and need to reduce the water in their tissues to a certain level before etiolation will not occur, that happens slower in big and beefy cacti.
Last fall my smallest cacti had dry feet for 2 weeks and my biggest had dry feet for 5 weeks, even then the tip of my fattest macro grew a bit and turned white. Its half my body weight with spikes as long as my finger but I've been carrying it outside on warm days to green up the white tip. The rest of my cacti are doing fine.

Its a balancing act that takes hands on experience more than anything. Exact timing varies based on climate, substrate, etc.

2 Likes TBM and Ian Morris like this.

[bezevo]

Auxin do you leave  in light indoors in winter or store in the dark ?

[FewTrueSeed]

Temp is more important than light IME. I keep mine in window light but keep the temp as low as the species can handle. About 50 degrees is great.  At the end of the summer I stop watering them far before I bring them in. Keep them out in the greenhouse until it gets below 45 degrees F at night.
No water until spring. By mid summer I soak them every couple of days, as the water evaporates quickly in the greenhouse.

[happyconcacti]

I agree with Tragic about the temp hypothesis.

I haven't ever really planned in advance for putting them into dormancy. Normally I freak out because a really hard freeze is coming. In a panicked frenzy I throw them all in an unheated garage for the winter. Zone 7B. The garage stays above freezing all Winter but definitely gets down into the 30s.

In-ground Trichs can handle down to about 25F for a night, and lower if you cover the tips. Bridgesii are the weakest tho and I'd never let them be in the low 30s without tip coverage.

2 Likes FewTrueSeed and LIBERTYNY like this.

[bezevo]

THANKS Tragicfalacygtr2 and happyconcacti

the only room that stays reliably cool is a room in the basement were I  store flower bulbs and my dormant potted fig trees . this room stays dark it is 40f to 50 f most of winter . but probably close to 50f

[Auxin]

Thats pretty much my setup, a spare basement bedroom with a window that lets in some light, closed off heating vent keeps it about 50° F in winter. Its also where I store sacks of grain and potatoes, 50 squash, jars of medicine, et al. Basically a larder.

[oplopanax]

Mine live in an unheated shed for the winter. I think I am in 8b?

 It gets COLD out in that shed. Only a little bit above the outside temp, and they are usually just fine and go dormant very thoroughly, no etiolated growth for years now.

 I have lost em all in the past when we had a crazy hard freeze and they all froze solid, this was when I lived in a tiny ramshackle cabin in the woods, off the grid, only a woodstove for heat, basically the whole house was an un-insulated shed. I got home and they were all frozen solid, so I frantically cranked up the woodstove and then got really sad as they one by one thawed out and flopped over into goopy piles. If they freeze just a tiny bit however I find that they grow with exta vigour and often gain a lot of girth the next growing season. This year in the shed I just hung a heat lamp over them like I use for baby chickens and left them in the shed while we had outside temps down to the single digits and they were fine.

Those were funny days tho back in the cabin. The cacti occupied about 50% of the available living space that I had in there all winter, I kept a Brugmansia tree in there with me too. We all got really close.

[bezevo]

cool story about the cabin oplopanax  to bad you cactus froze . 

I heated a  few little houses with wood back in the collage and grad school days .

I would probably live in my cabin and be a hermit if I didn't need the medical insurance

oh and money ha` .

ok I think my  cactus Pups I potted up will go into to the cold dark unheated basement room were I store my dormant fig trees .

giving you all who offerd advise some Good KARMA

[Ian Morris]

Basement or garage work best IMO.

I learned the hard way to put a layer of cardboard down first.  That concrete really sucks the heat out of them.

-Ian

1 Like LIBERTYNY likes this.

[bezevo]

thanx IAN

The floor has carpet over concrete that should be fine  .  I hope

[bezevo]

my figs are starting to wake up .. so I am guessing cactus soon also