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Species library › Ferocactus › Ferocactus pottsii
Succulents Well documented

Ferocactus pottsii

A solitary barrel cactus up to about 1 m tall, from tropical deciduous and pine-oak forest in Chihuahua, Sonora and Sinaloa. It gets a dry spring, monsoon rain in summer and a cool, dry winter; grow it in strong light with summer water and a dry winter.

Ferocactus pottsii
Photo: User:BotBln, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Cool-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Dry airBand in Plantistry
Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

Rocky slopes in tropical deciduous forest and pine forest in the Sierra Madre Occidental and its foothills.

Literature gives 240-1000 m; GBIF records span 200-1861 m with a median of 753 m.

MexicoChihuahuaSonoraSinaloaDurango

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.