"Helicoil" wrote in message
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Hello all, a Very happy New Year to you.
Maybe one of you has an idea why my Christmas Cactus (which has
flowered faithfully in the same position for about 5 years) changed colour
to a pale green and has not flowered at all this year. Some buds did
appear
about 3 weeks ago but were gone after about a week.
Thanks in
anticipation,
Helicoil.


There's an informative RHS article on here, about the variables
which are believed to affect flowering in Schlumbergera. Where the
main determinants are claimed to be temperature and day length.

There are some interesting suggestions regarding covering the plant
to create an artificial day length, for instance.

However a lot of this is still probably subject to experiment, and
different authorities may offer conflicting explanations, not least
because of ongoing hybridisation among the existing Schlumbergera hybrids.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile...mas_cactus.asp

To get to the point...

If however you've kept the plant in exactly the same environmental
conditions over the past five years - with say thermostatically
controlled central heating, and the same position in the room -
then it's most likely the cultural conditions are responsible. If
you've kept to the same watering regime throughout, then its most
likely the plant probably needs feeding and or repotting.

A "pale green" colour in a plant is often indicative of lack of
nitrogen, and so the plant would probably benefit from a balanced
feed at the very least. "Balanced" in the case of houseplants being
lowish nitrogen (they all need at least some nitrogen however) and
in the case of a flowering plant adittional potash (tomato feed etc)
maybe starting just prior to bud formation. A standard liquid feed,
easily bought in powder form will do, containing trace elements in
addition so long as you avoid high nitrogen mixes. The actual proportions
probably aren't all that critical, the point being that anything at all
is probably a 100 times better than nothing if you want the plant to
perform as it did previously.

The plant might also benefit from repotting in a standard potting
compost mixed in with a bit of grit for drainage. Although drainage
isn't as critical as with desert cacti, as forest cacti mostly grow
in moist humid conditions in nature anyway, and are often kept suspended
in hanging pots etc.


michael adams


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