Cactus lovers often find not a single copy, but a whole mix of a dozen, or even two dozen plants of the most diverse and bizarre forms. Care for cacti depends on which succulents they belong to - desert, forest or, like the popular triangular euphorbia, to the euphorbia family.
How to care for a cactus
When buying in a store, they usually give recommendations on how to care for a particular cactus at home. Most prickly handsome men are unpretentious, but differences in the conditions of detention still exist.
The cactus family is diverse and beautiful.
Watering mode
Plant viability largely depends on proper watering and water quality.
In the summer, desert cacti (xerophytes) and triangular euphorbia should be watered once or twice a week; in winter alone is enough. It is better to do this in the morning, so that in the evening the soil has time to dry to a depth of 2-3 centimeters.
Forest (tropical) cacti are watered more often. In winter - twice a week, in the warm season - as the top layer of the earth dries.
The earthen lump should be completely wet, while it is impossible to prevent waterlogging and, especially, stagnation of water. It is advisable to use filtered or decanted water with a neutral pH reaction.
Important! Rigid and chlorinated can not only spoil the appearance, but also damage the delicate roots that absorb nutrients.
Watering should be plentiful enough
Air temperature
Cacti are not capricious, but they need care. In the summer, all cacti are very useful to stay on the street. Xerophytes and milkweed no high temperature does not hurt, they like the heat and bright sun. However, when the temperature drops to + 5-7 degrees, they need to be brought into the house, even if the sun shines with might and main on the street.
In the winter, it is better to keep them in a room where from +5 to +15 C. Left in the heat, they will continue to grow, and since there is not enough light in the winter, they will stretch and bend toward the light source, acquiring an ugly appearance. In addition, many varieties devoid of dormancy do not bloom.
Forest cacti, such as the aporocactus wattled and Schlumberger - also known as the Christmas tree and the Decembrist - need cooler daytime temperatures in summer and even lower temperatures at night. If at night from +13 to +16 degrees, their flowering will be full and long.
Decembrist will please New Year's bloom
Humidity
Cactus care includes moisture control. Cacti come from deserts and semi-deserts, so they are preferable to plant in rooms with warm, dry air.
Forest cacti prefer a moist air environment. It’s difficult to maintain 80-90 percent humidity in the apartment, which is optimal for them, but you can create more comfortable living conditions if you regularly spray it. In hot summer weather, it is advisable to do this daily, in winter - a couple of times a month.
Lighting
One of the most important factors for the normal growth and development of plants is lighting. Some succulents like to be in direct sunlight, others require diffused light, while others generally prefer to live in the shade.
Important! Desert cacti need bright light, because the best location for them is window sills facing south or southeast. In summer, they can be taken out to the balcony or, if possible, to the garden, kitchen garden, courtyard, so that they are in the open sun. This is the best prevention of many diseases.
Forest cacti are also responsive to care. They need light, but they cannot stand direct sunlight. They are best bred on windows facing west or north. In the summer, it is also useful for them to be outdoors, but in shaded places.
Euphorbia grows well both in the shade and in the sun. It can be kept all summer on the balcony or on the street.
Light is necessary for photosynthesis and is a powerful stimulus for the growth and flowering of all cacti. With its lack, they lose their natural color, do not give growth and may not form buds for years. To avoid this, in darkened rooms, as well as in winter, when there are fewer sunny days, you can use additional artificial lighting.
Light supplement - artificial lighting
The soil
The soil for planting cacti can be purchased in specialized stores. But you can cook it yourself, because the purchased soil for all succulents is often made on the basis of peat, which is not at all suitable for desert cacti. Under natural conditions, they grow on dry, mineral soil, where due to the abundance of the hot sun there are few soil microorganisms.
Important! Microbes living in peat-based organic substrates can cause not only partial decay and death of part of the root system, but also death of the plant.
An ideal mixture for desert cacti is a low-nutrient substrate consisting of garden soil, fine river sand with the addition of perlite or pumice. You can also add a little bone meal.
The soil mix for forest cacti should be more loose and breathable. In the natural environment, they most often live in rocky crevices or on tropical trees, feeding on organic waste and rainwater. Therefore, the soil composition for epiphytic cacti includes:
- turf land;
- sheet earth;
- river sand;
- lowland peat;
- charcoal.
Top dressing
Care for cacti also involves regular feeding with complex mineral fertilizer. As a rule, they are carried out during the period of active growth, that is, in the spring and in the first half of summer.
At home, it is not always possible to prepare the perfect fertilizer. Therefore, it is better to buy it in a store and use according to the instructions. For example, in the Flower Paradise fertilizer series there are compositions for cacti.
Important! It is not recommended to do top dressing during the dormant period. This should not be done immediately after planting; you have to wait until the root system develops.
For feeding and, at the same time, for disinfecting the soil, forest cacti are occasionally watered with a pale pink solution of manganese.
Boric acid is an excellent way to enhance flowering. It improves metabolic processes, increases the content of chlorophyll in the leaves, increases the plant's resistance to disease. The spray solution is made at the rate of 0.1 g of boric acid per 1 liter of water. Spray in the early spring.
Cacti will respond to care with a healthy appearance and lush flowering.
Important! Top dressing is better in the evening or in cloudy weather. Before this, the plant should be watered.
Cactus Transplant Methods
Transplanting stimulates growth, promotes better flowering. Young plants are replanted annually, it is enough to transplant old ones once every two to three years, when the entire free space of the tank is filled with roots. For healthy specimens, the best transplant time is spring and early summer. Plants affected by rot, mold or pests are transplanted at any time of the year.
For a transplant you will need:
- the pot is several centimeters wider than the previous one - the height depends on the type of cactus; when buying, it is necessary to take into account the volume of drainage filler;
- special soil;
- a few pieces from a broken clay vessel - they will prevent the leakage of earth through the drainage hole when watering;
- drainage - expanded clay, brick chips or small pebbles to drain excess water and increase air permeability of the soil.
Epiphyte cacti grow faster than desert ones. To determine whether they need a transplant, you can visually. If white roots appeared in the drainage hole, and the aerial part seems too large compared to the pot, then the time for transplantation has come.
Young plants of Decembrist and other epiphytes are transplanted once a year, old ones once every 3-4 years. New vessels should be wide, since the root system of forest cacti is more widespread in breadth than inland, and is located close to the surface.
Fungal diseases are more susceptible to epiphytic cacti; care for wet and slightly damaged roots - transplantation. If the roots are significantly damaged, only rooting will save the situation.
How to prune a diseased cactus
A healthy upper part of the plant is cut off and put in water for several days. When the roots appear, the plant is planted in a new flower pot. The rooting solution of phytohormone will accelerate; It stimulates root formation and boosts immunity.
Important! To prevent damage to the hands during transplantation, it is advisable to wear gloves. It will also take fabric or newspapers to wrap the thorny plant.
Proper care of the cactus is the key to abundant flowering. The reasons why succulents do not bloom at all or rarely do it are different: diseases; too high or low temperature; excessive irrigation and high humidity for drought-resistant cacti; the air in the tropical room is dry. Frequent rearrangements of pots are also harmful.
If you keep these problems under control and properly feed the exotics, they will surely please you with a long and plentiful flowering. For example, bright pink, purple or red flowers of aporocactus will adorn its long lashes from February to June.
Aporocactus is unusually picturesque
Sometimes they ask how to cut the cactus and whether it should be done at all. Healthy, slow-growing species need no pruning. But quickly growing mass of milkweed and disease-damaged specimens must be cut; the first - to prevent excessive growth, the second - to maintain health and decorative appearance. Forest species also remove lignified shoots - they will no longer have flowers. When cacti are sick, care includes compulsory pruning.
How to prune a cactus
As gentle as possible, circumcision will help to make a sharp utility knife. Milkweed produces a lot of juice when pruned. So that after drying there are no white streaks on the trunk, the fresh cut should be blotted with a napkin.
When trying to update a plant using pruning, precautionary measures are mandatory - thorns of plants often leave long healing wounds.
Important! Milk milk juice is poisonous. Getting on the skin, it causes a burn. In order not to suffer during trimming, you must be extremely careful and always work in tight gloves.
To propagate cactus plants, you can use one of the following methods:
- kids
- seeds;
- cuttings.
Almost all types of succulents breed both as children and as seeds. It is not always possible to get seeds at room conditions, because reproduction often occurs by children and cuttings. Sometimes, in order to improve health, rooting of the entire upper part of the stem is carried out.
Euphorbia is propagated by lateral and apical shoots.
Rebucia and Mammillaria are ready to share the kids
Reproduction by children
Children are small spiny processes on the main stem. Such desert succulents as rebuts and mammals have quite a lot of them.
The most viable grow closer to the crown. Sometimes they fall down themselves, sometimes they need to be separated with tweezers. Fallen away usually already have small threadlike roots that help them to take root quickly in a new place. So that ugly bald spots do not form on the uterine plant, it is better to carefully remove the children with tweezers when they are still very small.
Seed propagation
This method takes longer than growing a new specimen from a shank or a child, but this approach allows you to more preserve the biological qualities of a subspecies or variety.
When the flowers fade, the dried seed boxes fall off and seeds are taken out of them. Before planting, it is advisable to store them in the refrigerator - stratification will provide high germination in the future.
How to propagate a cactus with cuttings
In specimens of elongated shape and in milkweed, the upper part of the stem is cut off (10-15 centimeters), the section is thoroughly washed to remove the juice - when dried, it forms a film that prevents the growth of roots, and it is dried in the shade in the air. After a couple of days, the stalk is ready for planting.
On a note! Tropical cacti also propagate both seeds and vegetatively. For the Decembrist (Schlumberger), aporocactus wattled and other immigrants from the tropics, the best time to plant the cuttings is from March to June.
How to root a forest cactus
Several upper segments are unscrewed from the mother plant in a circular motion, dried overnight in the shade and planted in a small wide bowl, one third filled with substrate. If there is a greenhouse, put there, if it is not, the plant is covered with a glass jar and periodically ventilated. From time to time, the stalk needs to be sprayed to maintain high humidity under the can.
Blooming Echinopsis
Currently, there are more than 2000 species and varieties of decorative cacti. Their external variety is amazing. Most cacti are centenarians, but they can bloom only with special care. For example, echinopsis, with proper care, even in room conditions, can live for more than half a century and all this for a long time please the eye with a peculiar beauty.
