First Time Cactus Owner =D Help Please
 

Hey there everybody, im new to the forum, im only 13 years old and descided to buy myself a cactus. I have had 1 before but when I was like 7, that was under my mums control and now is too dead for me to recover un-expierienced. But anyway, back to the fresh new one!

I have a few questions, if you can help answer 1 of them it would be perfect!

1. How often should I be watering mine, ive been doing a tiny bit onto its dish around twice a week and it sucks it all up!

2. When should I be re-potting mine? Mines only a small cactus (Not tiny, But about a little over half of a full sized ruler.

3. How can I make soil for my cactus? Ive been reading that the ones in garden centres arnt as good as making your own. Id kind of like a simplish way of doing it!

Thanks a lot! Will hope to be getting a few more cacti when I know im a perfect owner of one!

Hayden

First Time Cactus Owner =D Help Please
 

On 21 Mar, 12:57, Hayden wrote:
Hey there everybody, im new to the forum, im only 13 years old and
descided to buy myself a cactus. I have had 1 before but when I was like
7, that was under my mums control and now is too dead for me to recover
un-expierienced. But anyway, back to the fresh new one!

I have a few questions, if you can help answer 1 of them it would be
perfect!

1. How often should I be watering mine, ive been doing a tiny bit onto
its dish around twice a week and it sucks it all up!

2. When should I be re-potting mine? Mines only a small cactus (Not
tiny, But about a little over half of a full sized ruler.

3. How can I make soil for my cactus? Ive been reading that the ones in
garden centres arnt as good as making your own. Id kind of like a
simplish way of doing it!

Thanks a lot! Will hope to be getting a few more cacti when I know im a
perfect owner of one!

Hayden

--
Hayden

Hello, Hayden,
It's always nice to see someone young starting with an interest in
plants. not knowing what kind of cactus, I will go out on a limb and
tell you that you should water your cactus about once every two weeks
and not let the pot sit in water after you've watered it. They like
very sunny windows, and during winter, they like it a bit cooler, but
not freezing, but if that's not possible as your house is warm, just
make sure you don't water it too much. As for potting it up, cactus
grown as houseplants like their toes (roots) to be rather tight in
their pots. All of my cactus (and I have over 100 of them!) are in
clay pots with a good drain hole. As for making soil for your cactus,
two parts of course sand with one part of some dirt mixed together and
little bitty rocks on top to keep the soil dry once you water is
always a good thing.

I use kitchen tongs to hold the cactus so I don't get stuck, and
if you really want to repot it, now is the time. Let your cactus dry
out first, mix up your sandy dirt, then half fill the new pot with the
cactus soil. Tip out the cactus and use your tongs to pick it up
gently and set it down in the center of the pot making sure the cactus
is poking it's body out past the rim of the pot and fill in the spaces
with the rest of the sandy soil, firming it up carefully and then
topping it off with those little bitty rocks about an inch deep. (I
get the little rocks where they sell fish and aquarium supplies in
bags for the bottom of the fish tanks and bowls. Or if you have an
inexpensive store with a nursery section, a bag of what's called
landscaping rocks which are usually rather small like brown peas. One
thing, though, never pot a little cactus in too large of a pot. Not
unless you're going to have a cactus garden in a large shallow dish
and a bunch of different cactus and succulents in together. I have
some little pots about three inches wide with attached saucers that
drain nicely and fit on a window sill. The largest from there would be
a six inch pot, which is plenty of size and depth for "bumping
up" (the horticultural term for repotting most all container plants).
I have huge pots for the older, larger cactus. And just to let you
know that you'll have years of enjoyment, I have had two cactus for 27
years! One is a Mexican Cereus cactus that is in a rather large thick,
black nursery tree pot that holds about 20 gallons of sandy soil and
she's about six foot tall and has seven arms, weights about eight
stone and it takes a hand dolly to move her in and out every year.
And come late August, blooms at night, one flower at a time for only
that one night. I have another cactus, that is one of the slowest
growing ones, called a "Monstrosa" and it's never bloomed for me yet,
but it's in a clay pot that holds about five gallons of sandy soil. I
can only one day hope it will bloom for me! I move all of mine
outside to enjoy spring and summer and early fall when all chances of
frost are past here in Tennessee. I hope this helps you with your new
hobby. Watch out for those spines! and if you happen to get a few in
your hands, some cellophane tape or duct tape will pull them out very
well. I know how to handle them, but I still sometimes get stuck!
Good luck and I hope this helps.

Maddie over in Western Tennessee, USA

In general, you need to hardly water them at all in the darker months, just a little bit if they are looking very thirsty. Start watering about now, and reduce watering in about October. Water them weekly in the lighter months, though they should survive a bit of neglect. In the earlier period of the lighter months, you can feed them using ordinary liquid plant food diluted with twice as much water (or half th enumber of drops) it suggests on the bottle.

Though if you have a winter-flowering cactus like "Christmas Cactus", epicactus and the like, you will need to find out a specific regime for it.

Some cactus can be, would welcome being, put outside in summer, say, June to mid-September. My mother grew one about 5 feet tall like that!

I'd avoid repotting it if you can. I've lost them like that...

The most important factor in growing cactus is giving them good light. In poor light, they can grow quickly seeking the light, but what you get is a weak, hollow cactus that then collapses and goes rotten.

First Time Cactus Owner =D Help Please
 

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 07:43:44 -0400, echinosum
wrote:

Though if you have a winter-flowering cactus like "Christmas Cactus",
epicactus and the like, you will need to find out a specific regime for
it.

My Christmas Cactus lives on a window sill in a downstairs cloakroom.

For the last year it has thrown out about 3 -4 new flowers every 5 or
6 weeks. We just soak it in water once a fortnight but I shall give
it a little Miracle-Gro shortly.


--
(¯`·. ®óñ© © ²°¹° .·´¯)

First Time Cactus Owner =D Help Please
 

Hayden wrote:
Hey there everybody, im new to the forum, im only 13 years old and
descided to buy myself a cactus. I have had 1 before but when I was like
7, that was under my mums control and now is too dead for me to recover
un-expierienced. But anyway, back to the fresh new one!

I have a few questions, if you can help answer 1 of them it would be
perfect!

1. How often should I be watering mine, ive been doing a tiny bit onto
its dish around twice a week and it sucks it all up!

In winter it depends how warm the room is. Mine kept frost free get
almost no water in the winter until about now when they start growing
again. I water from above and in summer they get watered almost like
other house plants but are never left standing in water for long.

2. When should I be re-potting mine? Mines only a small cactus (Not
tiny, But about a little over half of a full sized ruler.

What shape is it? Flat pads, globular or tall columnar with ribs?

Repotting in February-March with the plant is dormant and soil dry is
safest, but cacti will survive OK when under potted for a year or more.
They are used to growing in the soil trapped in cracks in a rock.

3. How can I make soil for my cactus? Ive been reading that the ones in
garden centres arnt as good as making your own. Id kind of like a
simplish way of doing it!

One part of JI No 2 and one part of Sharp Grit upto 5mm mixed together,
and then some nice gravel to put on the top. You can increase the
proportion of gravel for tricky plants - if the water runs straight
through then rot is less likely to be a problem.

Thanks a lot! Will hope to be getting a few more cacti when I know im a
perfect owner of one!

You might like to try growing some from seed if you have the patience.
They are a bit slow taking 3-4 years to come into flower. Rebutias and
Notocacti are about the easiest ones to flower when still small.

And you might want to find your local branch of the British Cactus and
Succulent Society - they are always keen for new members and
plants/cuttings/seeds are much much cheaper than in garden centres.

http://www.bcss.org.uk/branches.html

And some cultivation hints from my own home branch

http://www.teesside.bcss.org.uk/BCSS...T/cultivat.htm

Good luck.

Regards,
Martin Brown

First Time Cactus Owner =D Help Please
 

echinosum wrote:
Though if you have a winter-flowering cactus like "Christmas Cactus",
epicactus and the like, you will need to find out a specific regime for
it.

I have a winter cactus that spends all year looking half dead, then bursts
into beautiful flower at exactly the right time of year, then goes back to
looking half dead. I don't do anything to it other than very occasionally
(about once a month, although it lives in the bathroom so it probably
absorbs atmospheric droplets) throwing a tiny bit of water on it.

I'm not a big cactus fan, I think we have a hate-hate thing going on. :-)

Ok, thankyou very much for both of yours help! That giant cactus you have sounds amazing! Maybe I will have one that big one day =P

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...se/cactus1.jpg

Heres my cactus if any of you know what type it is! By the way, I didnt get it to flower, I bought it that way =P