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Cacti turning white in basement wintertime?

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Twilight Person

Twilight Person

Esteemed member
Hello!

So I put my cacti into the basement and now hoped they would fall asleep. Now I was observing them like four weeks later and they look like this (picture).

So why did they turn white at the tip? Is that new groth which got bleached because of no chlorophyll? But shouldnt they not grow at all?

Maybe you can comment if that is normal or if I have to change something about my storage.

I now put a red mark with a pencil on top to see after 1 week if they continue growing, and grow white ... or if that just happened now, but the growth stopped (like it should be).
 

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But shouldnt they go to sleep and do NO growth?

Because if it is just normal when no light is present, then any other nexus member would also have white cacti in their basement? Do you have or not? Because I have not heard, so I'm getting nervous about something being not correct with the storage.
 
I once had a cutting that i stored for a while before using it because i'd heard that stressing them out like that increases the mescaline content. It had a simmilar color.

But i made tea....i mean slime from that cactus, so i don't know what would have happened if i would have tried to replant it. The cactus turned out to be very high in mescaline indeed, but i don't know if it was still alive, or if it was maybe dying.
 
I had very same problem with my cacti when I stored them in the dark during winter. After that experience, I just stop to water them in November and keep them at the place where they grow whole season (windowsill).
Ime it's better when they have some light, more important is to not water them in the winter.
 
If you want them to hibernate, you have to give no light and no water. A little light, and you will get that. That said, that isn't much at this point. I've had them grow a few inches white.
 
A little light, and you will get that.
Click to expand...

But it's 100 % dark.



Let's maybe make it clear with the following question:

Rule:
During winter, cacti are placed in the basement with no light and no watering, if they would otherwise die outside.

If you do this, will your cacti get white?
Or will your cacti not get white?
 
dragonrider said:
Yeah. I think without light, they'll go white.
Click to expand...

Twilight Person said:
Maybe you can comment if that is normal or if I have to change something about my storage.
Click to expand...

It is a normal response of plants to the lack of plants so you should not worry to much of it

That's completely true Dragonridder, it is called 'etiolation' and it happens to flowering plants that grow in partial to full absence of light. An additional effect hereof is an extra long stem with increased growth as the plant is desperately trying to find a light source (think of a plant under the soil, leaf litter or in a lot of shade of competing plants...)

The white color is due to chlorosis which is the absence of chlorophyll which is induced by the lack of activity of the plant hormone auxin because auxins are only active in light. Normally when plants are placed back in the light chlorophyll is rapidly produced again and the plants will become green again (but be careful to not shock a plant by having to change its environment from darkness to full sun immediately, it better to let it get used to the sun again in a couple of days)
 
I think your temperature are too high...I mean..instead of totally hibernate..for whatever reason the place where you put the cactus reach temps that allow some growing..then due to the lack of light you got the white...
Try to put it in a lower temperature place but without reaching frozen one..
 
Nachooo1 said:
I think your temperature are too high...I mean..instead of totally hibernate..for whatever reason the place where you put the cactus reach temps that allow some growing..then due to the lack of light you got the white...
Try to put it in a lower temperature place but without reaching frozen one..
Click to expand...

I think you are right. Because after reading a lot here it sounded NOT normal that they get white. Instead it would be normal to stop growing and not do anything at all, instead keep being green, but no growth. I have cacti at 2 places. One is 10° or less in a small house. The other place is in a BIG house where the basement is still pretty warm. Easily 15-20°. So probably these cacti are not dormant and instead continue growing, now growing wrongly die to etiolation. So that is not normal but a problem i guess :cry: :cry: if i keep it like this, i will have a 10 cm white skeleton finger in top of my regular cacti in the big house - the small ones have reacted as i read as online - no white, no growth, just sleep.
 
Twilight Person said:
Nachooo1 said:
I think your temperature are too high...I mean..instead of totally hibernate..for whatever reason the place where you put the cactus reach temps that allow some growing..then due to the lack of light you got the white...
Try to put it in a lower temperature place but without reaching frozen one..
Click to expand...

I think you are right. Because after reading a lot here it sounded NOT normal that they get white. Instead it would be normal to stop growing and not do anything at all, instead keep being green, but no growth. I have cacti at 2 places. One is 10° or less in a small house. The other place is in a BIG house where the basement is still pretty warm. Easily 15-20°. So probably these cacti are not dormant and instead continue growing, now growing wrongly die to etiolation. So that is not normal but a problem i guess :cry: :cry: if i keep it like this, i will have a 10 cm white skeleton finger in top of my regular cacti in the big house - the small ones have reacted as i read as online - no white, no growth, just sleep.
Click to expand...

Yes..15-20 C are growing temps...I had your issues several times due that the winter resting place reached same temps...in this case you should provide light..and water only a little..they will grow slower with some etoliation..but not very much..If it continue in the dark will etoliate a lot like an albino little snake..
 
Looks like they're too warm to go dormant?

When they're warm they won't go dormant and will etiolate without light. If they can't get light, they need to be put somewhere cold.

I have some outside (where it may occasionally get too cold for them and cause damage) and some in an unheated shed (where they're fine, including the peyote).
 
Has anybody ever verified that hypothesis btw, that keeping them in the dark increases mescaline content?

The one i had, that turned white/yellow, was indeed very strong. But you can't realy call one confirmed case convincing statistic evidence.
 
dragonrider said:
Has anybody ever verified that hypothesis btw, that keeping them in the dark increases mescaline content?

The one i had, that turned white/yellow, was indeed very strong. But you can't realy call one confirmed case convincing statistic evidence.
Click to expand...

I did but unfortunatly all images of this thread are gone (it could be on some old hard disk but no time to dig).

My conclusion is (with more experiments) that 3 month in the dark does increase mescaline content but not so much (10-20%).
 
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