Should I water my conos? Solved

[Terry S.]

I usually start to water my cono collection sometime during July and wait for a cool spell before I do it. But this year cool spells do not exist in the south-east, so should I water or shouldn't I? I consulted my guru in southern California where one normally expects heat and he said water, so I did about a week ago. Many of the larger-headed species have broken through their old skins already so I am happy that I did the right thing and will now continue to water weekly.

There is no way a CAM plant is going to be able to photosynthesise under the present warm-night conditions but in the case of conos, I don't think that they really have to. The cells for the new heads and flowers were formed back in the winter and spring and all that is happening now is that the plants are imbibing water and inflating their cells.

[Aiko]

Only the Conophytums, not the other winter active succulents got water?

[topsy]

I will add a little to Terry's post and say that I have been watering my conos and all my mesembs during most of this extreme heat and the conos are really breaking through with frutescens and a yellow-flowered bilobe now in bloom in addition to the usual early flowerers. I will add that the area where the conos are housed is perhaps the coolest part of our collection with many trees on the western side of the garden. As has been said before - plenty of air movement is a great help to all our succulent plants and we keep the doors and windows open 24/7 with the fans also on 24/7. Yes, Aiko, my winter growing mesembs have also been receiving water and are showing signs of coming into life.

My thoughts about watering when perhaps we wouldn't normally is that when it is time for our plants to start growing there is every chance that the feeder roots will have dried too much and will have to regrow before the plants can start absorbing moisture and growing.

I also firmly believe that if a plant is in bud or flowering it needs water as it is putting a lot into its blooms.

Suzanne.

[cactuspip]

I watered all my Conos on Sunday. Quite a few Bilobes are starting to flower and I was concerned that if I didn't start watering the smaller bodied species might be under threat, particularly with the weather continuing to be around 30°C+ for the rest of this week. The lack of any rain in the forecast also prompted me in making my decision.

Just to add to it I'm due to be giving a talk, with plants, in September, so I want them growing well by the end of August.

Reading the other posts in this thread has set my mind at rest over my decision to water.

The next question will be when to take down the shading? Any thoughts?

[Diane]

Thanks, Terry, I've been wondering whether to water my Conos, so will be doing so shortly.

[Terry S.]

Aiko: I find that watering tylecodons, othonnas, pelargoniums, etc at this time of year has very little effect. These all need to be able to photosynthesise to grow new leaves and I will not see any new growth before September. Amongst the mesembs, I find that there is little reaction to watering from the Mitrophyllum group before September. Genera such as Cheiridopsis, which do not have complete sheathing in many species, get enough water through summer to stop leaves from shrivelling.

[rodsmith]

I'll follow the experts advice and water my conos tomorrow. They are mostly looking very dry and unloved.

[cactuspip]

Don't worry Rod!

I find it fascinating to see them perk up and start bursting through last year's skins. I watered on Sunday and you can already see the effects.

[Mike P]

With such sage advice what else could I do but go and water mine. And put the fleece sun shading back afterwards.

[iann]

Not watered mine yet. Except Ophthalmophyllums, when I thought the heatwave was over last week. My smaller ones have some shade, the larger ones are sheathed better than they usually manage. Some of the bigger ones got a bit of unexpected rain today, so maybe I will be forced to deal with them awake now.

Flowers on several species, spring and summer-flowering. They don't seem to need water to do that. I'd usually be ready to water many of them by now, although some really don't want water until it cools down. I'm holding off until nights are cooler, maybe even days too, something more like a normal summer.