View Single Post
  #9   Report Post  
Old 18-08-2007, 10:33 PM posted to austin.gardening
Omelet Omelet is offline
external usenet poster
 
First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Nov 2006
Posts: 1,477
Default Is it possible to overwater succulents?

In article ,
Wooly nobody@nunya wrote:

Robert Allison wrote:

I heard an interesting suggestion at a nursery a couple of years ago. A
woman had come in that was not from here (from the north). She had
purchased a couple of cactii and had question after question for the
nurseryman about care of the cactii. After politely answering far too
many questions, he told her:

Subscribe to the Phoenix newspaper. When it says it rained, water the
cactus.

Not too helpful in this instance, but I thought it was funny.


That's the basic method I use with my cacti garden, though I do water a
*bit* more frequently since mine are in a pot and not the landscape.
Like bonsai they require more care when they're in a pot, but unlike
many bonsai in this climate they don't require constant watering in the
form of drip irrigation (which failed when I was out of town, hence the
cactus in my expensive forest pot, bleh). Last summer I ran the
sprinkler out back every 14 days or so to keep some of the grass roots
alive, so that's how often the cacti got watered, and they seemed to do
quite well with it.

I do have the pot raised on pebbles, and the drain hole is clear (I
checked), so I guess I'll have to take Om's advice and move the pot
under the patio roof. Less direct sun but that's OK.


Good luck. :-)

If you can get some cheap umbrellas and wind won't take them away, maybe
they can be stuck in the pots somehow?

Might sound silly, but I've seen clear plastic umbrellas so you'd not
get the sun restrictions?

Just trying to toss out ideas!

My succulents are all inside the greenhouse right now so are not
affected by rain.
--
Peace, Om

Remove _ to validate e-mails.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a bitch" -- Jack Nicholson