Piante grasse cactus spine

Tag: repotting

Growing cacti and succulents: seasonal care and what needs to be done during the year

I have discussed in various articles on this site of the basic factors for growing cacti and succulents, particularly those collected in the Cultivation category. This post intends to be a kind of summary “map” organized by seasons (seasonal care), indicating what you have to do at each time of year. In the following article, I review everything that needs to be done in terms of watering, fertilizing, repotting, exposure, etc. – season by season, to best grow cacti and succulent plants in general. This guide is thought to be a practical “vademecum” at a glance (but each topic can be explored in depth thanks to the appropriate internal links) of what is useful and recommended to do in spring, summer, fall and winter.

In short, a kind of handbook to keep in mind every time to organize work, whether you have a greenhouse or a terrace, a balcony or even only a windowsill. Let’s see everything in this article. (…)

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Brief tutorial on planting cactus in natural light and heat: the various stages of the procedure

I usually sow between the end of March and the first week of April, always in natural light and heat. This year, given the unusually low minimum temperatures, I had to postpone it until mid-April. In these days I have taken advantage of the raising of the lows and the improvement of the days to sow some seeds that I obtained from my pollination last year and some recently purchased seeds. I sowed cacti exclusively: Copiapoa, Gymnocalycium, Pyrrhocactus, Astrophytum, Lobivia, Escobaria, Frailea, Leuchtenbergia, Ferocactus, Thelocactus and more. The seeds had been cleaned immediately after harvesting and stored properly. I have written several articles on sowing: you can find everything in this section of the site: sowing.

In this article I thought of creating a sort of sowing “tutorial”, photographically documenting all the various steps involved in my method. It’s good to specify it: it’s simply my method and I’ve been following it for years now, but it doesn’t mean that it can be good for everyone or that it can be comfortable for everyone (…).

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Strengthening the thorns of cacti: a small experiment with some Ferocactus sowings

Based on the experiences of some growers, plants of the genus Ferocactus seem to appreciate the addition of calcareous material in the substrate. Above all, the thorns would benefit from it, which would be significantly strengthened compared to those of specimens grown in more “traditional” soils, for example the classic pumice, lapillus, peat mix in equal parts. Based on this consideration, I wanted to make an experiment with some of my sowings of Ferocactus acanthodes (seeds obtained from a dried fruit taken from an adult plant during a trip to Arizona) and Ferocactus latispinus. The acanthodes were born in 2013, while the latispinus are from 2010. Except for the seedling soil, which was based on peat, pumice and gravel, these plants grew up in the traditional compost with 30% fine peat and the rest pumice and lapillus in equal parts. I generally use this mix when I want to help seedlings develop more quickly, and then pass them into what I consider my “standard potting soil” made of sandy clay, pumice, gravel and 10% peat.

In the following article we see exactly what my experiment consists of, what type of soil I decided to use and above all we see the results with the photos taken two years after the test. (…)

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Repotting cacti: a few tips on how best to do it without… donating blood!

Repotting is often one of the reasons why many people steer clear of cacti. Maybe they like the plant, but the idea that sooner or later it has to be repotted, with all those thorns, frightens those who are new to this kind of plant. Many people even decide to give up on cacti for getting leafy succulents, which are much easier to deal with when repotting. In fact, even particularly prickly plants like Echinocactus grusonii or Ferocactus are not so complicated to repot. A little experience and a few “tricks”, and you can get out of it without literally having to “give blood”.

Let’s see how to proceed and all there is to know about repotting,
especially the most challenging ones due to the plant’s size and the thorns on the stem. (…)

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Targeted repotting: sowing identical plants in different soils to test the substrate

It’s time for… testing. Between the end of December and the end of February, as soon as I have time, I dedicate myself to repotting the plants in the greenhouse. Obviously I only repot plants in stasis, with very dry soil, postponing the change of pot to spring for the plants that I keep in vegetation in winter, perhaps outdoors (but still in pots and not in the ground, of course). Today I flared and planted about fifty plants that I obtained by sowing in natural light and heat. Some of them were born in 2014, others in 2016 (but already large enough to be repotted). It was an opportunity to start a useful test on various types of soil to understand how this affects the growth of some specific species of cacti.

Let’s see in the following article what exactly this experiment on the substrate consists of and let’s see, thanks to the photographic update two years after repotting, how the plants have grown. (…)

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