Here is the Joshua Tree, which is doing very well 5 months prior to planting.
Sad News: All of the Saguaro Cactus have died. I brought the container outside, because mold was forming. My suspicions are that it was too cold, and the cactus saplings froze. If I get a new kit, the cacti will definitely be grown inside, and I might have to use a heat lamp or something to maintain constant heat.
The one Joshua Tree that managed to survive, however, was kept inside at all times. Although it might not look like it has changed, it has gotten a bit more dry and cactus like. Before, the sprout resembled a fresh green sprout. Now it resembles an actual sapling living in a desert. If you haven't noticed already, I repotted the tree into a bigger pot. Various sites said that repotting is dangerous for the tree, but this sprout seemed to do fine.
In 200 days, it is supposed to look like this:
That picture is from a YouTuber named Melvin Wei from Los Angeles. He has been keeping his own Joshua tree for the past 7 years! If you look at his channel, you'll see that his tree actually resembles a small version of the wild ones in the Mojave Desert. The reason why I think his plant does so well is because he lives in LA. The city's high temps vary between 65-85ºF year round, and humidity is low because LA is located far from the ocean. Los Angeles is also in close proximity to the Mojave Desert.
Meanwhile, our tree is kept at a temperature of 63-68ºF because the floor it is in is heated.
Starting March, I moved the tree from downstairs to my upstairs South-facing window, where sunlight poured down for most of the day. I did this because I thought that the tree would do better The tree was doing fine, until the sun started scorching the tree's leaves and turning them yellow. I found this ironic because in the wild, these trees remain green even in temperatures up to 115ºF.
But, I figured that like any other young plant, they shouldn't be exposed to too much sunlight. So after our trip to Calistoga (after that, our plant was mostly yellow), I moved it back downstairs. Another thing that was ironic was that it started to do BETTER in high humidity conditions. It started to revive then when I put a clear plastic bag over it downstairs.
As you can see from the pictures, the soil is watered when it is very dry. The reason why the tree is not watered a lot is because the soil is very compact, and too much water can lead to root rot.
The tree is currently placed beside a window that gets direct sunlight for 4 hours.
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