It's summer, nice weather, lots of sun and the growing and flowering season for many of your cacti and succulents. In this blog, we describe how to care for your cacti and succulents in the summer and give you some useful tips for this season.
Growing and blooming season
Summer is the growing season for most cacti and succulents in our country. If your plants are happy with you, you will see that almost all of them show new growth. Species that occur in Africa, for example, have their growing season with us in winter. A few will not grow in the summer, but many plants from this continent adapt to our conditions and start growing in the summer. During growth, make sure your plants get plenty of light and enough water, once a month nutrition to support growth.
Summer is also the period when many cactus and succulent species bloom. Some cactus species that have already flowered in the spring often bloom for a second time in the summer. Cactus species that typically do this are the Astrophytum, Rebutia, Mammalialria and Gymnocalycium.
Cuttings and sowing
Summer is also ideal for taking cuttings of your cacti and succulents. They root easily due to the warm temperatures. Curious about cutting your plants? Read our BLOG about cuttings here. If you have seeds from your plants from the first flowering round, you can also sow them the same season.
Heat wave or hot weather
During a period of warm weather, you can give your cacti and succulents extra water, both indoors and outdoors. We normally recommend watering once every two weeks. But if the soil has dried out quickly and completely due to the warm weather, you can also water once a week.
Your plants also like it when you mist them at the end of the day in warm weather. Do not do this during the day in the sun. This can cause burns, and the pores that absorb the water are closed during the day during the heat and do not absorb the moisture. When it gets cooler in the evening, the pores open again. Your plants will love this extra water, and it will also keep them growing during this period. As soon as your plant receives too little water during warm weather, growth will stagnate or the plant becomes less attractive. As an example, the leaves of Opuntia and Tephrocacti, can grow elongated.
In the greenhouse or close against the glass on the windowsill
Do you have your cacti and succulents in a greenhouse? Then ensure sufficient ventilation and shade in the summer. The temperature in the greenhouse can rise very quickly because the sun is intense and strong in the summer. Make sure you ventilate a lot by opening windows and doors. Automatic window openers can be a solution so that you don't have to pay as much attention to this yourself. In addition, it is advisable to whiten the roof of your greenhouse during the summer, or to install shade cloth with light UV dampening. This also protects the plants from the bright sun.
During a heat wave, you can also remove extra windows in your greenhouse, install fans and spray water on the ground. All this ensures that the temperature goes down, and your plants do not get too hot.
Do you have your cacti or succulents close to the glass on your windowsill? On sunny days, it can become very hot just behind the glass. The air is also often stagnant. This can cause your cacti or succulents to develop burn marks in parts. You can easily solve this by placing the plants further away from the glass or, in very sunny and hot weather, by placing cardboard between the glass and your plants.
Now I hear you thinking, surely our plants can withstand some heat, little water and high temperatures? Why do we have to do this, and why do they burn? In nature, our plants can indeed handle it very well. But they are also frequently found in open plains where the air moves. In our greenhouse or behind the windowsill, you frequently have a lot of stagnant air. The plants in nature are also used to these high temperature's day in and day out. In our country, it is often a week to several weeks that it really gets that hot.
Cacti and succulents outside
In the summer, your cacti, and succulents love being outside. This will really benefit them, they frequently grow faster and more beautifully and get a nice colour. Especially if you place them in a sunny spot. In many succulents you can see this in the colour of the leaves, and in many cactus species you can see that the new spines that grow during the summer also have a more intense colour.
Besides the fact that summer is an enjoyable season for your plants to be outside, there are also a number of important things you should pay attention to. The first is sunlight. You have to let the plants get used to the sun. Otherwise, they burn just like us when we sit in the sun for too long. Build up the number of hours of sunshine in the first week, or take them out of the sun during the hottest part of the day between 12:00 and 15:00.
Dutch summers can also be very wet. Make sure that sufficient water can drain from the pots. If you have terracotta pots with a bowl underneath, remove the bowl from underneath. Indoor pots that do not have a hole at the bottom are also not ideal because water cannot flow out of them.
In short, summer is a beautiful and fun season for you and your cacti and succulents. Let the enjoyable weather come!
