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Cactus Care Tips are Provided by Nan at www.nansnook.com
Rooting and growing cactus cuttings:
You will need a 4-6" clay pot and the soil
mix detailed below for the best results. It really is
worthwhile to mix up your own batch of specialized cactus
soil. I have been experimenting with cacti soil mixes
for years and this is what I have found works best for
this specie, and many, if not most, other species as
well. I have studied the soil types of many different
cacti in their native range. And I can locate wild specimens
by locating the correct soil type. This is a good potting
mix:
One part commercial bagged topsoil.
One part commercial bagged cow manure, compost/manure,
or compost.
One part crushed limestone "minus grade" (This
bagged limestone, available from large nurseries and
landscape companies, is the finest screening from a
rock crusher. It contains limestone particles ranging
in size from sand to pebbles.)
1 cup or so of powdered or pelleted limestone
(or dolomite) per 6' pot. Peter's Professional All-Purpose
Plant food (hardware or garden center)
You can substitute crushed oyster shell or
crushed cuttlebone (pet or feed store) or finely crushed
marble for the minus grade limestone. I just call around
and pick up a bag of the crushed stone for about $3.00.
The problem with commercial bagged cactus potting
soil is that most of it contains mostly peat moss. Peat
moss reacts with fertilizer to produce an acid soil.
Acid soil encourages rot, and Pedro will not take up
primary nutrients: you get a weaker plant in addition
to increased chances of rot. Some commercial cactus
soils are pretty good, but how do you know? They all
need some pH adjustment and stabilization, and getting
the right pH after a few heavy soakings with strong
fertilizer solution can be tricky. So I recommend a
peatless mix, and the recipe above contains stone chips
that provide good drainage in addition to long term
pH stability. The mix will grow cactus in the same pot
for years and years with just an occasional light liming
in the summer when using strong feed.
Mix the ingredients and break up any lumps,
you want the soil to have lumps no larger than your
rock chips. If you are rooting a bud or small stalk,
fill the pot to within 1-1/2 inches to the top, packing
the soil down tightly with your fist while filling.
Center your bud or cutting and pack soil mix around
it to within ? inch of the top of the pot. You want
about 1 to 1-1/2 inches of the cutting in the soil,
just enough to hold it stable. Make sure to pack the
mix tight. Then soak the pot slowly and thoroughly with
plain water. You can set the pot in a bucket and fill
with water to the pot rim, let soak 15 min, remove &
let drain.
With specimens that are already rooted (usually
shipped "bare root"), it helps to have one person hold
the cactus with the roots hanging in the pot, fill with
crumbled soil mix and gently tamp, taking care not to
clump the roots up together. Fill the pot up with soil
to the yellow line on the cacti base. Soak the potted
cacti in 2-1/2 tablespoons Peter's per five gallons
of water.
Place the pot in full direct sun if possible,
the more light the better. For fastest rooting and healthiest
plants it helps to dig a hole in the ground in a sunny
location and sink the pot in up to the lip. This provides
some temperature and humidity stabilization that helps
rooting and encourages much healthier growth. They neglect
better and you will water less as well.
During the growing season water the pots whenever
it feels dry when you press your finger into the soil
surface. Rooting should occur quickly when the cactus
stalks are set up in full sun, the pots are pots sunk
into the ground, and the soil mix is kept cool and moist.
Usually 2-3 weeks. You will see new growth on the tip
when roots have begun to set. When the growth resumes,
begin feeding:
2-1/2 Tablespoons of Peter's Professional All-Purpose
plant food per 5 gallons of water for starts. This is
a 20-20-20 fertilizer with chelated trace elements:
Trace elements are essential for good color, growth
and potency in cacti. "Blue" Pedro is grown by maintaining
the proper levels of: sun, feed (nitrogen, potassium,
phosphorus & trace), pH and water... Lots of water.
In summer, when mixing feed for fully rooted and growing
Pedro's, try to add some pure urea to your feed. For
peak summer growing I feed with a mixture of 2 tablespoons
Peter's (above) and 3 tablespoons of Urea (46-0-0) in
five gallons of water. Don't let the pots go completely
dry during the growing season if you can avoid it. Outdoors
in many areas summer feed is supplemented with rainwater,
if not give the plants a break from feed about every
second or third watering. Plain water, or weak lime
water once in awhile rinses out accumulating salts.
Rinse the pots well with a hose or rainwater ad-lib,
but keep feeding. And lime with a few tablespoons of
powdered rock per pot every few months if you are feeding
heavy. A word to the wise: don't feed any heavier or
you will burn the roots and don't let the pots dry out
and get hot in full sun if you feed heavy. Roots like
it rich, cool, and moist.
When using the Urea formula above, add a tablespoon
or two of powdered limestone or dolomite to each pot
every two-three months to maintain a "sweet"
soil chemistry. Soured pots will still grow, but the
color and potency of the cactus is second rate, and
it will not grow as fast. The lowest the pH should get
is 6.8, any lower and Pedro will start to grow out pale
yellow. Hit sickly or yellowed plants with: lime, hardwood
ashes, sunlight and fertilizer... They will improve.
I water my cacti out of a five gallon bucket
I keep filled in the back yard. The water has a chance
to sit 24 hours at air temperature, I mix in fertilizer,
and dip it out with a small pot. Using this water in
combination with sunken pots works just great. The roots
are never shocked and nutrient/water uptake is both
rapid and constant. Pedro will grow like a weed once
the root systems are established. The grow method detailed
here is simply the bestest. This grow tek provides an
ideal environment for Pedro roots: proper drainage,
gas exchange, water uptake, nutrient uptake, pH control.
When soaked with feed, sunken pots will fill and hold
water long enough to completely soak the soil mix, thereby
retaining the maximum amount of moisture. When the feed
solution drains off by seepage a complete gas exchange
takes place within the pot. Pots never need to dry out
under these conditions, especially since there is pH
control with the crushed limestone rock. This environment
produces a thick, fat, knotted rooted system. It looks
just like a fully colonized jar of mushroom mycellia
when a healthy cactus is pulled from a pot.
In the early spring and early fall, Pedro grown
outdoors should be switched to rooting feed: 2-1/2 tablespoons
Peter's in five gallons. One month before the first
frost: rinse the pots well with 2-3 fillings of plain
water, then stop watering and fertilizing altogether.
You are done for the season, rainwater will usually
be more than enough to keep plants hydrated during the
late fall in many parts. Bring dormant plants indoors
just before the first frost.
It is not unusual to bring dirty, cold, soaking
wet pots inside, so be forewarned. Let the pots winter
indoors in a cool bright location. There is no need
in most cases to water during the winter dormant period
(unless your plants were not well hydrated when you
brought them in), water can be resumed indoors around
Feb 15th, but unless there is plenty of light it is
usually best to wait until after the last frost and
move them outdoors before watering. Lack of light causes
skinny weak growth. This cacti really needs bright light
to grow exceedingly well. Short day lengths, cool temperatures,
and lack of water during the late fall, winter, and
early spring will cause the cacti to go dormant. Increasing
day length, and water, starts them growing again the
next spring.
Pots tend to go a little acid when plants are
wintering dormant. You can take advantage of this acid
condition in the early spring with a "post dormancy"
treatment for the first spring watering: 1 rounded teaspoon
S.T.E.M. (Soluble Trace Element Mix, available from
nursery supply companies) and 2-1/2 level tablespoons
Epsom salt in 5 gallons of water. Soak pots with this
solution; let them sit in the cool early spring weather,
good sun, for 7-10 days. STEM and Epsom salt creates
a temporary low pH condition (below 6.8) where trace
elements will absorb rapidly. You will see thin dark
blue (almost black sometimes) streaks moving up the
creases in the stalk as the trace elements hits the
chloroplasts. Cacti are typically heavy trace element
feeders.
Once absorbed, soak the pots down well with
the following feed: 1-quart hardwood ashes (sifted barbeque
ashes are fine), 2-1/2 tablespoons Peter's, and one
cup powdered limestone or dolomite swirled in a five
gallon bucket. This feed will raise the pH back up,
where Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium are absorbed
readily by the root systems. Trace elements are still
available at a higher pH when using Peter's because
the elements are chelated. Chelated nutrients are compounded
in order to make them available to plant roots over
a wide range of pH condtions, and it works, but a strong
shot of trace elements in early spring, first thing,
will establish reserves that are available for the early
summer growth spurt. You get bluer cacti when you dose
with trace elements
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