san pedro growing question

[famousness]

waddup all, been a while since i posted on here.....ive been having too much fun in the meantime :wink:

anyway, its just about wintertime here(midatlantic, US). and i got 3 cacti cuttings that have been going since august. they have grown pretty tall but really skinny, about 1 foot tall now( i just used whatever soil was laying around as i was very poor and couldnt even afford a 5 dollar bag of dirt...). I have them set up in my window that catches direct sunlight from about 12 to sunset.
I am actually gonna give em some more care now(new soil, new pots) and was wondering if it was ok to put them under a HPS bulb, specifically a 400W HPS. I also have about 100W of warm fluorescent and about 100W of cool flourescent light.

would the 400W be too much light? can i just use flouros? will alkaline content be affected by the type of light i use? are combinations of light possible?

any advice is welcome.

 

[Guest]

i cannot give you any advice about the bulbs, but that skinny cactus is kind of worrying me. first of all, have you watered once a week in the summer ? if you think the cactus is going to make it, moving the pot outdoors so that wind can hit directly the cactus is certainly going to make him sturdier.
perhaps is it too cold in the summer ? too humid ? too dry ? in my experience, young cactus love 80% RH, and then they tend to love the winter dry and the summer with about 60-70& RH, perhaps more. buying an higrometer, or a meterologic station (a little more expensive and hard to find, but with much more interesting measurings) and doing some experiments might pay off, i don't know.

 

[famousness]

the thing is i live in the mountains, (and i dont have a yard) so i cant stick em outside

also, i dont want em sticking by the window cause it gets kinda cold around the window.

 

[GOD]

Put them within a few feet of a window and dont water them unless they show signs of wilting through the winter . If its warm enough for you in the room its warm enough for them , they can take temperatures down to zero with no harm . They can live on the sides of mountains where it sometimes gets cold and rains often . The HPS light is to much for them , i used to put mine in my growing room when i used to grow , but on the sides out of the dirrect light . When i stoped growing i put them by a window where they got 4 - 5 - 6 hours of indirect light in winter , and at night only the lights that i had in my room = 100 watts of flourescent light . They were always happy . You didnt say how wide they are . Mine were anything between 10 - 12 cms wide and up to 1.55 m high . If you grow them to near to each other , or give them flower fertiliser , or they dont get much light and loads of water , or are in to small pots they tend to grow long and thin .

 

[synchronize]

winter time is resting time... If you really want to take care of your cacti (san pedro) put them in a large pot (10Liters or more) and put m outside during summer (and last bit of spring) in a bright spot and give them lots and lots of water. They would love it, and for thanx they will grow their asses of, and not only in length but in breadth as well!! So no need for giving artificial light in winter time, since they need their rest as well as we do