Well, I was sitting in the livingroom the other night, and was looking at the cart where I have some of the cacti and a few plants sitting it out in front of a southern window until I can once again put them outside for full appreciation for sun, rain, etc, when I decided for some reason to look closer at my huge golden barrel cactus I'd purchased a year and a half ago. It had survived thru the first winter after I bought it in replacement to the smaller one, and loved the spring, summer and fall outside despite the massive rainy weather we had last year. Moved it inside to the livingroom (where my house is warm and dry due to heat pump), it got winter southern exposure and slight watering every three weeks in a well draining pot that I made sure never had standing water on it. Walked over to it and poked it carefully with a chop-stick and sure enough, my subtle feelings were dead on.............it was dead, the spines were just fooling me into thinking it was still whole. I've killed yet another large specimen. Cereus, is it because ALL these cacti need cooler, dryer temps? Emphasis on the cooler......the house was consistantly 76-78 degrees, and dry. (heat pumps do that, dry out the air badly) and I have decided regardless of wheather there appears yet another large and tempting golden barrel cactus for sale at Lowes for $19.97, I will NOT purchase it despite my adoration for them. What on earth am I doing to these poor things that they're dissolving like this? Makes me decide never to grow cacti again.........I know why the kalanchole died, you hafta water those and I've been distracted with the two under the aquarium with the timed plant light. this has been a distractable year, to say the least. But I'll appreciate you're take on the reason, as this isn't the first nice cactus I've had to do this over a span of a couple of decades. (the Cerius cacti by the way is fine.......but that pot is HUGE, the plant is HUGE and I suspect it rides out the dry enviroment better than the smaller plants, althought this barrel cactus was as large as a basketball.........sigh sniff :( ) Thanks for response when you see this, Cereus. madgardener, up on the soaked and damp ridge, back in faerie holler, overlooking cloud draped English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee
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19 years ago