First Time Cactus Owner =D Help Please
 

On 22 Mar, 16:55, Hayden wrote:
echinosum;880999 Wrote:



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.

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

--
Hayden

I wish you luck Hayden.

I have 3 large cacti, and I read on an internet site many years ago
that the best way to get them to flower is not to give them any water
between the end of October and the beginning of March. This is to try
and replicate the dry season that they would have in the wild.

So, I dont water mine during the winter, and I dont give them too much
in March and April either - but they still havent flowered. One is now
about 18 inches tall in a pot that is about 3 inches deep. They are on
a south facing window sill, so get nice and hot in the summer, but
still no flowers.

I tried putting them out in the greenhouse in the summer, hoping that
might help them to flower - but still nothing so now they just stay in
the window all year round.

If you get yours to flower, please let me know how you did it.