Oh I see, that is a pretty standard width windowsill otherwise (without modification). I'd love to, but we are renting at the moment so sadly, I am limited in what modifications I can do. :\

I wish I could go back a month later and the BBS cacti look just as good; they look etiolated by that point and still drenched lol.

I did some more work on my succulents and my few little cacti yesterday and today and managed to get some more leaves started. One that had been sitting for about 4 or 5 days already had several small roots on it. I moved the large Selenicereus cuttings over to the 'hot' greenhouse. As soon as my materials come in I'll be putting up some shelves made from cinder blocks and 2x2x8' lumber so everything will get moved over there as it's the warmest in the winter. The greenhouse they're now in will become my seed starting one.

@chris1948
Chris, I see a couple in your group that will like the cool weather that's coming. I don't bring my sempervivums inside to escape the cold, but to escape too much WET and cold. Usually all I do then is set them under the eave or in the unheated garage temporarily. If it's predicted to get in the the low teens or below, I usually just move them next to the house where it stays a few degrees warmer, but I'm not sure even that's necessary.

Actually, I find a lot of the little rosette forming succulents like the cooler weather and thrive in temps from the upper 30s to the 50s. They like that better than the heat of a Texas July and August. That doesn't apply to every succulent, but I think any that may lend themselves to a description containing 'Alpine' probably enjoy cool temps. Those whose native origins are given as South Africa tend to be the ones sensitive to a freeze. Unfortunately that doesn't always mean they like the heat of summer . Also, plant origins aren't always known and cultivated hybrids just may be mixed up.

I sure wish it would get here soon. I don't see any lows in the mid 50s until next Thursday. I guess I need to quit procrastinating and get my heaters out and cleaned out and tested. Probably should make sure my tanks filled up too. I need to get IDs on everything that I don't have already which isn't much. That's pretty much the reason I have to 'hot' and 'cool' greenhouses. During the summer the one under the tree stays at least 20 degrees cooler than the one in the open even though it has 60% shade cloth over it. It's not too bad in there right now so all the large succulents are in that one. I noticed the Echeveria that I recently cut and restarted looked terrible this year in the pot they were in even though it wasn't really that hot as compared to other years. My big Aloe seems to just suck up the heat though and never complains.

Yes, I've found Echeverrias sensitive to the high temps. I've killed a couple just by giving them water one time. There's a breaking point for a lot of succulents on high temps when water above that point will kill them overnight. When it gets really hot here, a lot of mine just don't get water from me at all. They're safer even if they are miserable. I once killed a jade plant that'd been growing here for over 20 years. I still regret that. I'd been watering it the same as always, but it was the summer when we were having 112-115F days and hot nights. I did the usual and it was fatal. Overnight. I hated that summer, but I learned a lot.

That's why I've got to get my electrical project finished so by summer I can have some fans working. My jade plants were out in the sun part of this summer and I noticed the leaves were getting nice and crispy looking. I moved them over to the shade between the two greenhouses and they finally look good. My large Kalanchoe was doing the same thing and had to be moved. I hate it when the summers get that hot. It's so miserable and I just hate to go out and do anything but the plants need taken care of. I'll have to remember that about Echeveria

I finally brought my 'Aloe Vera' home (the one I was questioning about having developed a stem). She was spending the Summer at my folks since we don't have the best lighting indoors or outside on our patio. I repotted her a couple weeks ago and realizing it was probably not the best time of year to do so, I opted for a clay pot. I think next Spring I'll repot again into a plastic pot (she dries out too fast in clay with our hot summers). I'm excited as she is producing her first pup. She has a couple hitchhikers ('Mother of Thousands' babies), but I'll leave them be for now.

Cute little devil @Hamwild. I've got Mother of Thousands/Millions/Billions babies all over in the pots they're in plus I have about 5 little pots started. I even found one growing in the same pot as my Pride of Barbados. I guess they were sitting next to each other earlier this year. Here's my large Aloe, don't mind the high grass I repotted it in the spring this year and it looks like it's already outgrown this pot. Have to figure out something to do with it next year but at the same time I have to be able to get it into the greenhouse for the winter also so it can't be too heavy. I'm sure it's full of pups that can be potted.

chris1948 said:Cute little devil @Hamwild. I've got Mother of Thousands/Millions/Billions babies all over in the pots they're in plus I have about 5 little pots started. I even found one growing in the same pot as my Pride of Barbados. I guess they were sitting next to each other earlier this year. Here's my large Aloe, don't mind the high grass I repotted it in the spring this year and it looks like it's already outgrown this pot. Have to figure out something to do with it next year but at the same time I have to be able to get it into the greenhouse for the winter also so it can't be too heavy. I'm sure it's full of pups that can be potted.

Oh my.

We got some rain here yesterday late afternoon to midnight, a steady drizzle, really loved it, since our last rainfall I believe was in late March. I allowed my succulents to get some rain, but seeing the rain duration is getting longer and into night time, I moved some of them to a protected spot.

Today, whole day was nice, breezy and the sun showed up, so a good dry off time for the plants. Expecting another wave of rain later tonight. It is still breezy outside, but I saw the rain clouds finally forming, so maybe much later. As a precaution, I moved back the smaller succulents to its protected spot last night. I think there is a final wave of rains for tomorrow, after that back to sunny conditions.

But I am going to start moving them indoors by Oct. 21, seeing the high 40F's overnight seems to start showing by then.

Love your new aloe Hamwild!

I've had her for a couple years now, I'm excited to see her with a baby.

Speaking of babies, I have grown impatient with this aloe so today I cored it in the hopes of triggering some branching. Hopefully deep enough to be effective.... time will tell.

Baja_Costero said:Speaking of babies, I have grown impatient with this aloe so today I cored it in the hopes of triggering some branching. Hopefully deep enough to be effective.... time will tell.

Baja, can you enlighten me on "coring"? I assume it means cutting the center of the aloe. I always keep a small A.Vera around for burns and skin irritations and have just ordered a couple of hybrids. Some very nice looking Aloe plants avaliable.

Coring a plant means deliberately damaging/cutting away it central growth area. You want to cut deep enough to remove the existing growth center, but not deep enough that it actually kills the plant - so getting the depth of the coring right is important.

(Baja it looks a little shallow to me, but I understand the hesitancy about cutting deeper)

The aims is to have the plant respond by growing multiple new rosettes - or pups - from the damaged area and in that way propagating the plant. If you do not cut deep enough the plant will likely recover by just growing a single growth center back rather than a number of pups.

This approach is often reserved for special clones of plants that have not produced offsets and/or seed. It is a very popular method among Agave collectors that do not have access to a tissue culture facility (or do not want to pay for the service), to propagate variegated and other special plants that are not offsetting.

Exactly. This is one of only two offsets the original seedling ever made.

Regarding the depth, I took off a few leaves from the top so I give it maybe 75% probability of success. Will post a picture here when it's evident what happened.

As I have learned from my experiments with Dudleyas, you can always re-core, but you can never un-core.

Good luck with the coring. I have never done that before. I am not sure if I feel confident doing that to my coral aloe, but I would really like to get some pups offsets from it. It has gotten too large for its pot and I was considering leaving it outside this winter. I have heard they can do fine in my zone and we are supposed to have a mild winter this year. It is now 26" wide and about 20" tall. I keep peaking under its huge leaves but nope nada!

I think as long as you keep it dry when it gets really cold it could be OK. I have had in the ground Aloes take low 20s one dry year without any major issues, a few years later when it got to high 20s right after a serious amount of rain and several had plenty of damage from the frost. Nothing that killed them, but it sure made some look pretty ugly for a while.

If you are going to try coring first try it on something you would not mind if you killed it inadvertently. There might be some trial and error involved.

I think that plants in the ground fare better than potted plants.

I got some new bargains at WM yesterday, paid $1.72 for each of the two cacti and one pot of the succulents which I split into four when I got home. I also hauled 65 cement blocks, 25 bags of topsoil, 5 bags of 'Dillo Dirt' (compost) and 4 8' 2x8s from the front to the back. I got my shelves put together in the one greenhouse. They won't win any 'Garden Beautiful' awards but they'll hold all my succulents and cactus this winter. I've got 2 coats of Thompson's Water Seal/Stain on the 2x8s so that should keep them from rotting hopefully.