Introducing a cactus to dormancy can help preserve your plant when your climate doesn’t allow for healthy growth through the winter. Bringing it out of that dormancy when the time is right is just as important, and just as easy! In fact, we forgot about the cactus from our previous overwintering video and accidentally left it in a closet for three months too long, and it’s still doing fine.

In this blog, we’ll walk you through how to safely bring your cactus out of dormancy and what to do to help it bounce back if it’s been resting a little longer than intended.

Assess & Bring out of Dormancy

First, check on your cactus’s overall health. After an extended dormancy, you’ll likely see etiolated growth, like our poor forgotten guy here. Also, look for signs of rot or soft spots. If the cactus is firm and mostly healthy, it can recover! Ideally, you would take your cactus out of dormancy when temperatures start to average over 60°F, as that will trigger new growth.

Start by moving your cactus to a brighter spot and gradually increasing its light exposure every 2 to 3 weeks with the use of greenhouse covering or shade cloths. It hasn’t been receiving UV light, so jumping straight into full sun can cause sunburn. Make sure to take it slow. Give it a light watering, NOT a full soak, to signal that it's time to start growing again, and then leave it be.

Over time, your cactus will begin to wake up and regrow. As you see signs of new growth, you can transition your plant to more direct light and steadily increase the amount of water it receives as well.

Dealing with Etiolation

If your cactus shows some mild etiolation, like ours in the photo below, you can leave it as is.

However, if the etiolation is more severe — meaning the growth is too weak and skinny to support itself — you may need to trim it back to the healthy portion. This will encourage fresh, sturdy growth from an offset. You can also replant the cut tip and root it in well-draining soil, and hey, as a bonus, you now have another cactus! 

For steps on dealing with etiolation, you can read our Etiolation 101 Blog here.

Outro/Summary

Overall, bringing your cacti out of dormancy is easy, and bringing them out late isn’t the end of the world. Slowly reintroduce light and water, keep an eye on new growth, and it’ll adjust naturally. Most mild etiolation will even out over time, and if it’s more severe, a quick trim will set it right.