Flower growers characterize cacti as plants which quickly adapt even to extreme conditions. Despite "exoticism", cacti quietly transfer the Russian winter. During cold weather they need the minimum leaving, - and still about watering you should not forget.
- - straw, two rows of frames and polyethylene film (if cacti grow in the greenhouse);
- - the shelter with canopy from glass or plastic (if cacti grow the open ground);
- - small rigid brush for drawing means from diseases and wreckers.
1. "House" cacti should be watered approximately every ten days in the winter. Waters it is required a little – so much that roots not too dried up. Exception – "Decembrist", or Christmas cactus which just blossoms in the winter and demands frequent watering. At the same time it is not necessary to put pots with cacti on the windows coming to the North. The room in which plants winter should be aired regularly (especially it is important for cacti which were exposed in garden or on balcony in the summer). In February it is possible to begin spring change; it is not recommended to water plants after their moving to other capacity.
2. With temperate climate or during not cold winters it is possible to leave cacti on wintering in hotbed in areas. In this case watering should be stopped from the middle of October. It is necessary to trace reliability of frames in the greenhouse: they can pass moisture. Not to allow it, at the end of fall it is necessary to establish two rows of frames between which it is worth laying polyethylene film in hotbed. Frames have to adjoin to regions of the greenhouse densely. In thaw the hotbed with cacti should be aired. In frosty days the greenhouse needs to be covered with straw or cane.
3. There are species of winter-hardy cacti (undersized prickly pears and others) which can grow in our country under the open sky. Such cacti since September should stop be watered. Before hard frosts the cacti have to dry out slightly. It is impossible to allow stagnation of moisture in the soil. It is possible to build for them the shelter with canopy from glass or plastic, but with open sides.