water experiment     10/6/18
This is the third year of spending the summer immersed in water for seven of the plants above. For the eighth plant, Echinocereus viridiflorus, second from the top on the left, it's the second year. I put them all into this water bath June 9 and removed them from the water yesterday, so they were immersed in water for four months. They look healthy to me. The Matucana intetexta now flowering had about 20 flowers over the summer, all the while with its root ball totally wet. I do this to challenge the watering notions of so many cactus keepers. I want people to think what "overwatering" might mean, as in "I killed it by overwatering it." Four months of sitting in water hasn't killed the plants above. My point is that during the growing season, you can water most cacti freely. I'm going to search for ones you shouldn't treat like this soon. I suspect that Sclerocactus and Pediocactus, and others, won't like this treatment. Also, I have a small jade plant in a plastic jar. It's been sitting in soil having an inch or two of water over the soil for 14 months straight. Summer outside under shade cloth, winter in the greenhouse. It's still alive. What are your chances of killing a jade by giving it too much water?   (32/32)   

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