Ben, what specific plants are you growing and what will be the indoors temps? I usually thought mats came out for seedlings and highly sensitive species. Im curious :)

Both of those species you mention like a winter rest, AFAIK, and Pseudolithos are particularly prone to rot if watered in the winter. OTOH, I don't know how they'd react to constant warmth, so knowing I'm giving you opinions from both sides of the fence, I'll stop now.

I've read that Dorstenia gigas can be tricky to over winter as they like lots of heat. I have been growing mine on a heating mat over the winter, and so far it's been doing well. I have it sitting directly on the mat which is set to 73°. It's losing some leaves now, typical for this time of year.

Rina - these plants and some other tropical succulents are very temperature sensitive. Although my apartment probably won't get colder than 65 degrees F, I'm worried that the draft from the windows will make it colder, especially in like January or February when it get bitterly cold here.

Minty - the indoor temps would be at least 65+, but for a lot of Somalian and Soqotran succulents, that is literally the lowest advisable temperature I have seen on the internet. I would probably want to put all my Dorstenias (gigas, lavrani, foetida, barnimiana, cuspidata, and zanzibarica), all my Pseudolithos (2xcubiformis, dodsoniana, miguirtinus), some of my other Asclepiads (Whitesloanea crassa, Stapelianthus madagascariensis and decaryi, Echidnopsis specksii) and a few Malagasy Euphorbs (tulearensis, bongolavensis, cylindrifolia var. tubifera, maybe a few more small species) on the heat mats.

cactus - yeah, these species are kind of tricky that way! their winter is more of a dry mild warm season that a cold one. I think you're right, I wouldn't want to give like 80 degree bottom heat during winter, but I've been reading online and some people say that keeping their root zones around at least 70 degrees can help these plants survive the winter more easily

dog - thanks for the info!! your gigas is beautiful :-) i see you have some D. lavranis heating up as well! if you don't mind me asking, does running the heat mat during winter raise your electric bill a lot? you can PM me about it if you like, or you don't have to answer if that's too personal!

Ben

Thank you, learned something new today:)

A heated GH would be nice...

Rina

Ben, I haven't noticed a large jump in the electric bill because of the heating mat. That being said, I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't really looked closely to see whether it has or not. These plants are at the end of our living room in a spot that has windows on the south, east, and west. On sunny days that area heats up a lot, and I doubt the mat turns on at all then.

Rina, I do have a small heated greenhouse... it is nice :)

But I don't have the heat set too high in that. Up until this year, I had mainly Clivia in it and had it set to 40°F until January, when I turned it up to 55°F. I've given away a bunch of Clivia, so now it's a bit less then half Clivia, and half citrus and cactus/succulents and set to 55°. Still too cold for the heat lovers.

How small is 'small' GH? Is that photo of it? What kind of heating do you have there?

Your Clivias are gorgeous! I don't know much about citrus, but many succulents will be fine in 50*F (perhaps even bit lower). I overwintered many in my basement, under lights, and they were kept at around 48*F. Not one died of cold. I just made sure they were not watered much (cold and damp isn't good for their roots) - but they are in very gritty mix, so it doesn't really happen.

Ben

Hope you don't mind me asking all these questions...Did you set up your plants on heat mat?

Rina

My greenhouse is a lean-to type, a Lord & Burnham that we installed when we added on to our house a couple of years after we moved in, so about 32 years ago (guess that dates me). It's 8' x 13' and is heated by hot water baseboard heating from our house oil burner. It's on its own zone, so I can adjust the temperature separately from that of our house.

Rina - of course not!! :-) and not yet, I've been very busy in lab and with homework and writing grants, so hopefully I can let them limp along until Sunday night, when I will (hopefully :-P) organize them into heatmat and no heatmat groupsgroups.

Dog - thanks for your honesty! My growing area is in front of 2 south-facing windows, and near a west-facer, so it also gets warmer in there than I would expect. I finally turned the heater on indoors, but the past few days have been sunny enough that the heater hasn't kicked on in the daytime. As for the bill, if you haven't noticed, I doubt it was that big of an increase. No news is always good news, hahaha!! :-P

What kind of citrus are you growing? As a Floridian I'm always curious about citrus :-P

Ben, I have a kumquat, a mandarin orange, a variegated Buddha's hand, a variegated calamondin orange, and a finger lime. I've only had them about a year, got all except the calamondin as small plants from Logee's Greenhouses.

Sounds tasty! Keeping them in the greenhouse to simulate milder climates increases fruit yield (especially true for kumquats), so hopefully next harvest season you'll have big ol' bunch to eat! :-)