About growing cacti

In indoor culture, cacti are as unpretentious as in their natural environment. The main thing is to provide them with as much sun as possible and to be careful with watering. Grow them on the southern, south-eastern or south-western windows. The optimum temperature for cacti is 20-22 ° C.

Fast-growing species - some prickly pears and cerci - in the summer it is recommended to take out to the air( but not to the balcony) and drop in pots with plants in the open ground.

Transplanted cacti only occasionally, not like most other plants. For smaller specimens, a friable nutritive earth mix is ​​prepared. It is made up of 1 part of turf, 1 part of leaf, 1/2 part of greenhouse earth, 1/4 part of crushed coal, sand or gravel is also added. For adult specimens, more sod land is taken, not light, but clay so that the substrate is more dense. If there is no such land, then in the already described mixture

include 1/4 clay, the content of leaf land is reduced to 1/2 part, and the greenhouse, on the contrary, takes the whole part. Crushed coal is added less, and gravel is more.

Perennial specimens of cacti can be fed in summer with a weak solution of ready mineral fertilizers, once every 15-20 days from May to August.

Propagation of leaf cacti( for example, as known to all the epiphyllum, or "Decembrist") by cuttings growing on the main trunk.

Experienced cactus breeders also use other methods of propagation - vaccinations and seeds. For sowing, earthenware with sand or a light mixture is prepared. Sand is wetted and seeds are sown over its surface. After sowing, lightly sprinkle seeds with a thin layer of soil or sand and cover the container with glass. Poured from the pallet. The temperature before emergence should be maintained at 23-25 ​​° C.

Even if you do not belong to the society of inveterate cactivores, but keep these plants at home for purely practical purposes( for treatment, for example), it is not superfluous to remember the so-called 10 cactus commandments:

your cactuses to winter in dry and cold conditions;

in the spring do not wake them up with watering, but only with irrigation at elevated temperature;

the first watering is done only after the apparent beginning of vegetation;

plants, overwintered in the dark, gradually get used to the sun;

you can fertilize cacti only in the first period of full vegetation of plants, regardless of what fertilizer you use;

during the vegetation period, give cacti enough sun, water and fresh air;

a plant that has stopped growing, never water;carefully take it out of the earth, cleanse it and take appropriate measures;

periodically sprinkle plants or sprinkle water over them, but not in the bright sun;

do not transfer thoughtless pollen from flower to flower;follow the species cleanliness of seeds and plants;

since September, with a decrease in temperature, reduce the number and volume of watering and at the same time increase the ventilation, so that the plants are perfectly ripe and passed into a state of vegetative dormancy.