Transcript:
Hey, guys, what’s up, its fern. I hope that you are well. Thank you so much for joining me for another Planty Video today. I’m actually filming in my plant room like the new one since I swapped my bedrooms and it’s a bigger room with not a lot of furniture in it, so it sounds pretty echoey to me. I’m gonna have to decide whether I’m gonna be able to film in here or not, so I’m so sorry if it’s too echoey. Um, I won’t be filming in here again, But just bear with me for this video anyways today. We are going to be talking all about how I take care of my cactus and succulents over the winter. This was requested by one of you guys, and I thought it would be an interesting topic to talk about because I do live in the Pacific Northwest. I live on Vancouver Island in Canada, so we do have a long gloomy, dark rainy winter season, which is obviously not ideal for Cactus succulents, but mine all seem to be pulling through, which is really awesome and I’ve had cactus and succulents for a couple of winters. Now I don’t do anything super special, but I am going to share a few of my tips with you. I’m not an expert by any means, and obviously it’s going to be very different, depending on where you live. Um, also. I did want to mention that. I do have a collection video showing you all the cactus and succulents that I have, so I will link that if you’re interested in watching it. Um, so without further ado, let’s talk about how I care for these plants. Okay, so the first thing that I’m going to talk about is light, which is obviously very important. Um, typically, these plants obviously live in the desert with a lot of bright direct sun. So you kind of have two different routes. You can go with keeping these plants. You can either invest in a grow light and put them under artificial light over the winter or you can keep them near window where they are getting natural light, And that is actually what I do. I do not use grow lights for any of my cactus. They are all actually still near my self-facing windows, which are obviously not getting much light right now because it’s raining almost every day, but there is still, you know, sunlight coming through those windows and the light that they are getting is enough to basically keep them alive. They’re not growing or anything like that. They are just kind of chilling waiting for the spring, but they are still alive, so I’m happy with that. I don’t expect them to be growing during the winter time and the reason that I don’t have them, for example in my plant room under my grow, lights is because there is a humidifier in here. It’s a higher humidity. Um, I just don’t. If that’s not like it’s more of an environment for my tropical plants and it’s just not super suitable for my cactus. I don’t really feel the need. I’m totally okay with them. Just kind of relaxing during the winter and then growing again in the summertime. So that’s why I opted to just leave them all near the windows. Something you do want to be aware of though. If you decide to do what I do and keep them. Near windows is just to make sure that the window isn’t like, frosty and freezing because you don’t want these plants to be exposed to that, like frigid air and frigid environment. Luckily, there isn’t really a ton of snow or anything like that where I live. At least this year. We actually haven’t really had much snow at all, which is nice, but I haven’t experienced any cold damage on my plants. Um, you might live somewhere where it gets very cold, so you will have to be aware of keeping your plants away from your cold windows. Now something else I will say about Light is just to make sure that they are not like across the room from a window or in a corner or anything like that, like you want them to be getting some light Whether it’s from a window or a grow light, there is just going to be different expectations for each. Okay, so the next big thing is watering now. I do not water these plants unless I can like physically tell that they are thirsty, so I will look for wrinkling, or I will feel them to feel if they are squishy or not like, literally with this. Uh, booby cactus. I will literally just like, feel it and right now. It’s quite firm. I honestly haven’t watered this for probably a month or longer and it’s still firm, so even though it’s been a while since I’ve watered it. I can tell that it’s not time yet, so you know, she’s good to go for a while, and I will feel all of my plants. Honestly, like you will be able to tell. They’ll get softer and especially succulents like bears, paw and bros. Tail and stuff like that. You can just feel and if they’re squishy, then you know that it needs a water, but I would absolutely not water unless you are positive and are seeing signs or feeling signs that they are thirsty, because if you’re over watering in the wintertime, especially when they’re not getting the same amount of light and warmth, then you’re at very high risk for rot, so you need to be super careful with your watering. I’ve heard some people say that they don’t water their cactus at all over the winter like the whole season long, and I don’t do that. I definitely do water in the winter time, but just a lot less like it won’t be uncommon to go. You know, even like a couple of months without watering, so you just have to really monitor your plants and get to know them, and then you’ll be able to figure out when they’re thirsty along with watering. I just want to mention fertilizing now. These are my only plants, basically in my whole collection that I do not fertilize year-round all of my other plants. I lightly fertilize all year, but my cactus and succulents. I only fertilize in the spring and summer. Um, I honestly don’t know, like if something detrimental would happen if I were to be watering them. During the winter time, but I just haven’t tried it because there’s just absolutely no need for it. They’re not growing, they’re just resting, so I’m just giving them plain regular tap water, and that’s been working fine. So once we’re in the spring approaching, the summer is probably when I’m going to add, um, back some of my Schultz cactus fertilizer and I usually mix it with super thrive or now I’m trying out, grow tech vitamax so I’ll probably probably start fertilizing, you know, early summer-ish and then actually do fertilize like into the early fall as well. Another thing that I did want to mention, is that, Um, I typically hold off on repotting them. In the winter as well. I’m totally fine with repotting my tropical plants during the winter time. But for my cactus. I just tend to want to wait until the spring or summer, so for example, again, my booby cactus there. I got it in the fall. I got it! I think it near the end of September. Actually, did a video unboxing it as well. But, um, I have not repotted it. This is still the little container that it came in, and I just planned to leave it in there because it’s fine. And once we hit the spring summer, then I will be repotting it, but for now, it’s all right, and I think that’s pretty much it. These are honestly super easy to take care of, especially over the winter for me because they require very minimal care. I just ignore them pretty much and then every couple months. Give them a drink. Okay, so that is basically all I have to say. I didn’t forget anything. Um, please leave me your questions down below. I’d love to chat with you and as always, thank you so much for all of your support, you guys. I appreciate you so so much. Um, I feel like I don’t say that enough, but I really really appreciate everybody who watches my videos. Um, thank you and don’t forget to give this video a thumbs up. If you liked it, make sure you subscribe to my channel, and I will also link my patreon down below if you’re interested in bonus content. And that is it, I will see you guys in the next one. Okay, bye . I couldn’t even if I.