It would help to know the general area of where you live and how low the temperatures get there. Are they outside? What do you cover them with?

Austin Texas.

Just right at or below freezing for maybe a few hours.

Cover the tops with an old shirt, then wrap with a fleece blanket and then put frost blankets on top of that. At the base, we put half cinder blocks to keep the air from getting under the covers.

Last year we also put old style smaller Christmas lights on the lowest layer. Haven't put the lights on yet.

We had some HARD freezes last year in the low 20s for most of the day and they made it through ok.

I'd uncover them as soon as the temps rose out of the freezing range.

Just ended up covering and uncovering everyday or two.

Wondering if during a cold snap (5-7 days) if they could just stay covered the whole time.

This post was edited by nuxx on Fri, Nov 14, 14 at 12:55

What species are we talking about and how big?? What is the exposure of your cactus? where are you in relation to the heat bubble of Austin? How cold did you get last night? How wet is your soil? What is your plant planted in?

This might be a response for a cold front into the low 20's, but it might be over kill for a dip into upper 20's.I am "west of weird" and we got to 28 last night which would probably mean that you barely got to 32. There are a lot of variables and the expense of a large cactus might mean that overkill is a good tactic.I find death from cactus usually comes from the wet soil and cold here.

If you are planning on keeping it covered till wednesday morning, I think it will do alright. as long as plastic is not involved and it can breathe.

Their is a picture icon showing on the thread but no picture is showing up.

We're in Bee Cave (71/620).

The following cactus:
~ 5.5 foot Giant Saguaro
~ 3 foot Cardon
~ 2 foot double Giant Saguaro

No plastic is involved, everything should be breathable. More worried about lack of exposure to the sun.

The bed is tucked in between our house and our pool. Pretty well drained area.

Here's an old picture before filling in the rest of the bed with rock and adding the other cacti.

{{gwi:698953}}

What mara said. Given the the material of the coverings, a week should be fine. Aren't those plants hardy to around 20F anyway?

tj

Think the Cardon had some issues due to being newly planted last year and kind of skinny.

Might as well try to be overly cautious :)

Not cheap and hard to find, especially the double.

This post was edited by nuxx on Fri, Nov 14, 14 at 20:48

You are not in the Austin heat bubble but at the rate Bee Caves builds parking lots and malls, they might be making another heat dome.(I am in the Hamilton Pool area, a titty tad colder).

Me, I would not cover it on every cold front that comes through. I would uncover it. The one coming through on tuesday is supposed to get to 29F. I would be more concerned about the possible rain that is coming maybe tomorrow and sunday. Has the dirt been built up and is there appropriate drainage built into the structure of the soil, i.e., pea gravel, crushed granite, pumice, turface? If one sees that it is going to pore , One could put down some plastic around it on the ground to get the water to drain away from it and remove the plastic as the rain passes so it can dry.. That moisture combined with the next cold front could cause rot. It is only a 19% chance of raIN. There is a bigger chance on rain on Thursday but it is followed by lows in the 50's. Does that rock wall get hit by winter sun or the cement walk ways around it? They will supply some thermal mass.

I have a girlfriend that grew a Sagarro under a roofline in Beecaves on Hamilton Pool rd , in the shade by her house. It also protected it from rainfall. It got to be 10 feet before it hit the eaves of her house. She had it protected and close to a stone thermal mass , but no sunshine. She decapitated it and started another.

Dirt has been built up and it's in a bed of crushed gravel.

The wall and walkway get the strongest sun of the day, the other side of the house gets the morning sun.

Great idea about the plastic around the cactus... they've been planted for over a year and went through some big downpours and last winters very cold and wet streaks.

I hope they can do well here, not too much obstructing them from getting tall :)

This post was edited by nuxx on Fri, Nov 14, 14 at 23:19

Saguaros are tough.They can take temps as low as about twenty degrees and do fine as long as it's not a prolonged cold. Ten or twelve hours and the oldest and the youngest start to die, very slowly. It can take years to show.