How long do cacti live: how long can they grow at home and in nature, how to properly care?

Caring for a cactus at home

Following agrotechnical techniques will help you get a healthy, flowering plant. Caring for a cactus is not particularly difficult.

Diversity of the world of cacti

Watering

The frequency of watering depends on the location of the pot, the presence or absence of direct sunlight, and the season. Indoor humidity also plays an important role.

In summer, there is intense growth, so you need to water more often than usual. It is better to do this in the morning, using settled water for this purpose.

With the arrival of autumn, watering should be gradually reduced. In winter, waterlogging of an earthen coma should not be allowed, as the root can rot.

Artificially dyed thorns with food coloring

Temperature

Winter maintenance should take place in a cool room. This condition is necessary for the setting of flower buds and future flowering.

Important! In spring and summer, it is advisable to shade cacti from the scorching rays

Air humidity

Plants need moderate humidity and constant ventilation of the room. Cacti will not grow in stale greenhouse conditions. However, being in a constant draft is fraught with the development of root rot.

It is recommended to spray the plantings more often, especially in summer. It is better to do this in the evening, when the sun will not fall on the flowers, otherwise the vegetative parts will get burns, wrinkle a little.

Lighting

Caring for cacti is all about choosing the right light level. They do not tolerate both an overabundance of lighting and a lack of it.

Note! If the plant looks lethargic, and the thorns have lost their decorative effect, become pale, then the lighting is too bright. Pulling the trunk indicates that the indoor culture is receiving little light.

Soil and fertilizing

Top dressing should be carried out with complex fertilizers with a low nitrogen content. If there is an excess of this component in the soil, then the cactus is characterized by rapid growth, which negatively affects the plant itself. This gives a lot of children to the detriment of flowering, the skin bursts, as the delicate tissue simply becomes thinner.

Home collection

Having received an answer to the question of how to properly care for a cactus at home, it is important to conclude for yourself that for good growth it is necessary to surround the plant with attention and care.

General care tips

Caring for cactus mix is simple. Even a novice florist can grow them. But this does not mean at all that they do not need to be looked after at all. First of all, you need to choose the right place for the cactus, as this will affect its development and growth. Determining the location is not always easy, since the first condition is good illumination.

Another difficulty is the heating season. The fact is that in winter, when the temperature is above normal, and the air is very dry, the plants enter a dormant phase, and then suddenly there are hot batteries. On the windowsill, the cacti will be nice, especially if they are placed closer to the glass, but there should be no heating devices under the windowsill.

When choosing a pot, pay attention to the fact that its size should correspond to the size of the roots in a straightened form. Clay and plastic pots are suitable for growing at home.

In plastic pots, the soil dries more slowly, so they are good for young plants that are just starting to take root.

By the way, pay attention to the shape: it should be round, since the air circulation is better.The soil for planting Dutch cacti must be loose.

Water the cactus mix with soft and clean water (rain, boiled or settled water is suitable). Plants need watering from late spring to early September. If the succulent is deprived of watering in winter, then it can bloom. For the vegetation to be normal, light and heat are needed. Moreover, they are not afraid of frost and sudden changes in temperature.

To care for a mix of cacti, where all known species are collected, you need to draw up a program that will include features for caring for individual varieties. For example, you need to care for cacti with multi-colored needles in the same way as for their traditional counterparts, but you need to water it once every ten days, and you should not spray it so as not to wash off the coloring pigment. Succulents with long needles, on the other hand, need to be sprayed.

Gymnocalycium, for example, prefers diffused light and partial shade. The Decembrist can generally grow in the shade, and it is rarely necessary to water him, and he also loves “showers”. As we have already noted, if you do not water the plant during the winter months and place it in partial shade, it is guaranteed to bloom. In summer, domesticated "hedgehogs" can be exposed outside in the sun. This will accelerate growth and make them big and plump. In March-April, you should feed the plants, but this should not be done during the flowering period. Rare watering, sun and feeding on schedule are all that cacti need. Feed this plant a month before flowering, during and during dormancy, otherwise the plant will grow instead of producing a flower bud.

How to care for a mini cactus for beginners

Mini cacti are small plants growing in the same small pots. You can find such cacti in almost every garden store.

These cacti are very easy to care for and even a novice plant lover on the windowsill can grow them.

In addition, such cacti are very compact and do not take up much space. But you can put several different types on your home windowsill at once, creating a kind of collection.

And, most importantly, these little "hedgehogs" are very unpretentious and do not require special care.

After buying such a "baby" in the store, it is not at all necessary to transplant it. It will feel good in a small pot.

In winter, when the cactus is dormant, the best place for its wintering is the windowsill. A little winter lighting will be enough for him. In winter, the cactus is very rarely watered, only once for four or five weeks.

The main watering is done from early spring to late autumn. For irrigation, settled warm water is used. Watering is carried out in two ways: in the pallet and under the root. It should be remembered that it is better not to add a little cactus than to pour it over.

Mini cacti are not afraid of low temperatures, but the optimal temperature for wintering will be the limit between 5 and 15 degrees.

In addition to watering, cacti must be sprayed every 2-3 days from a spray bottle, also with settled warm water.

In the summer, cacti standing on the windowsill can open the window slightly, giving them access to fresh air. You can also build a special shelf on the balcony.

As the roots of the cactus grow, it is transplanted into a new pot. This is usually done every two years. The capacity for each transplant is selected slightly more than the previous one. Moreover, if the root system of the cactus is pivotal, i.e. elongated in length, then the pot needs a high one. If the roots grow wide, then the pot needs a wide one.

There are many types of mini cacti. The most popular among them are Blossfeldia liliputana, Lophophora williamsii's Rebutia minuscula, Obregonia denegrii and Ott's Notocactus, which is shown in the photo below.

When growing mini cacti, pay attention to their location.A sill located on the south or west side is best suited

Such cacti grow best at temperatures from +20 to +25 ° C. If you are planting a cactus in a new pot, then drainage should be placed at the bottom. Expanded clay stones are best suited for this purpose. Can be grown in separate pots and in a common container. But at the same time, it is necessary to plant them at a distance of at least 10 cm so that the roots do not intertwine. You can also divide the cacti with partitions.

Watering is done as the soil dries out. Top dressing is done along with watering. Soluble fertilizer is best suited, which can be applied both as top dressing and as watering at the same time. The cactus is fed only once a month and only in the spring-summer period.

Before you start replanting a cactus, you must stop watering a week before. After the transplant, you can water it only after two days.

If you decide to take up the reproduction of your cacti, then this is done in the following ways:

sowing seeds,
rooting cuttings,
planting processes,
graft.

Sowing with seeds is carried out in the same way as with other plants. Seeds are laid out on the ground, sprinkled with earth. The container is covered with foil and placed on germination. Every day, the container is opened for ventilation, and when the soil is dry, the soil is moistened. After a week, the seeds give their first shoots.

Leaf-shaped forms of cacti reproduce by cuttings. Before rooting, the cut point of the cutting is dried and placed in moist soil. Moreover, the stalk is not buried, but simply put, pressing it a little into the ground.

The vaccination method is a little complicated, and not everyone will be able to use it without the skill of such work. An incision is made on the trunk of the cactus - a small area is removed, in place of which a fresh cutting is attached, which must be fixed.

The most common breeding method is planting by scions or babies.

When such processes appear, they are separated from the mother's trunk and simply transplanted into another pot.

It is easy to care for cacti, but it is not always possible to get them to bloom.

How to care for a cactus in winter

Around the middle of October, cacti already feel the approach of winter, as the light becomes less and less. At this time, they need to create coolness, which is very difficult to do at home. But it is necessary to try to do this: it is in the winter time that the growth of the past summer matures in cacti and flower buds are laid.

Temperature conditions

How long should cacti be kept cool? For most species, 2-3 months are sufficient. True, there are species that can bloom after a warm winter, but there are few of them, for example, notocactus, melocactus or aporocactus. But they also need to be given a rest: during the three winter months, water them just a few times with literally a teaspoon of water and do not feed them at all, and still try to make them colder at night.

Most species will not bloom without winter coolness. And if it is enough for mammillaria and rebutia to lower the temperature to 12-15 ° C, then for other species - up to 5-8 ° C (the temperature should be lowered gradually). In most cases, such conditions are realizable on cold windowsills, if you put the pots closer to the glass, but for control it is necessary to put a thermometer next to it. Even a short, for a couple of days, warming can cause an increase in cacti with their subsequent curvature. On the other hand, in some cases, the temperature of the glass may drop even lower, which is also dangerous, since the roots may freeze.

Some growers make "greenhouses" for wintering cacti, somewhat reminiscent of an aquarium. Often they put the pots not just on the windowsill, but arrange various barriers so that the cactus does not get the heat from the battery.You must constantly monitor the weather outside: in case of a sharp cold snap, you may need to put foam under the pots or move them closer to the battery, and vice versa. Pots should not be moved from place to place unless absolutely necessary. Closer to spring, the temperature gradually begins to rise.

Real flower growers make special apartments for their cacti for wintering.

Natural light on the windowsill in winter is quite enough for cacti, but if they start waking up ahead of time (for example, in February they cannot keep the temperature at a low level), they will have to organize a backlight. In this case, the soil will need to be moistened little by little, otherwise the plants will stretch out.

Moisture of soil and air, top dressing

Watering as such for the winter time is stopped, but it is necessary to prevent the cacti from shrinking. Of course, the reduction in irrigation, starting in autumn, should be gradual, simultaneously with a decrease in temperature. If the soil is completely dry in winter, you need to monitor the condition of the plants. To avoid drying out, it may be necessary to pour literally a few drops of water per month under the root, or lightly spray the plants and soil with a spray bottle. But just slightly: a few extra drops of water in the cold can already cause rotting of plants.

In winter, cacti are watered with lukewarm water, letting it go at the edge of the pot. Little by little, the amount of water begins to increase from March. Not earlier than spring, they are given additional feeding: all winter, cacti should not receive any nutrition.

In winter, just 1-2 "puffs" from a spray bottle onto the soil are enough

As for the humidity of the air, it is known that during the growing season, cacti sometimes even have to be sprayed: they do not like dry air. In winter, if they are placed on a windowsill and covered by a battery, there is no need to worry about humidity.

Transfer

Despite what on In winter, cacti are sent into hibernation, it turns out that they can be transplanted at the beginning of winter. It is in a state of relative dormancy that most plants are transplanted! It is better not to delay this and arrange a transplant from mid-November to mid-December. The soil in the new pot should be completely dry.

After knocking on the walls of the pot with the plant, the cactus is removed by the root collar from the pot with a lump of earth. If the cactus is healthy, the old soil can be left on the roots by gently squeezing the ball with your hands to remove any air pockets at the roots. After that, the cactus is planted in the usual way in a new, more spacious pot.

Even when transplanting at any other time of the year, cacti are not watered for the first week. In winter, this rule should be even stricter: the transplanted cacti are immediately returned to winter, and the winter watering regime remains the same, regardless of the procedure performed.

Video: transplanting cacti

Caring for cacti in winter comes down to keeping them calm, cool and dry. And if at the very beginning of winter they can and should still be transplanted, then in the future, until March, it is even better not to touch them at all.

Classification of cacti

Biologically, cacti are divided into 4 subfamilies and 11 tribes. However, such a division is not interesting to cactus growers. They divide cacti either by their appearance or by the conditions of life in their natural environment.

In appearance, cacti are:

treelike
shrubby
herbaceous
lianas

The classification by habitat is simpler: cacti are divided into desert and forest. Such a division of these plants is of a purely practical nature: in order not to refresh all 11 tribes in memory, it is easier for a cactus grower to immediately point out its shape and "place of residence", and it immediately becomes clear what he is dealing with.

Forest or tropical cacti tend to be very similar to each other. These are liana-like plants, often epiphytic (using other plants as support). Sometimes among them there are also species parasitizing on other plants.Some types of tropical cacti even grow in soil.

Forest cactus epiphyllum with flowers

However, in the bulk these are plants, the roots of which practically do not come into contact with rich soils and the organic matter, which they have to be content with, is very poor in nutrients. The shape of the leaves of tropical cacti is also very specific - these are long, flattened shoots with thin short antennae instead of thorns.

If forest cacti are more or less similar to each other, then their desert relatives are represented by three types:

Echinopsis

They have stems of a spherical or cylindrical shape.
Areoles, relatively evenly distributed, can be located on small ribs.
Extremely resilient and adaptable plants.
Grafting any cactus is impossible without echinopsis, which are used as rootstocks.
However, it would be a mistake to consider them exclusively "technical" plants.
There are many varieties of these cacti that have excellent decorative properties.

Prickly pears

The most common type of cactus.
They are distinguished by the characteristic shape of the stem - it is flattened and resembles a small cake.
There are a huge number of varieties of prickly pears, which in the places of their natural growth find a wide variety of applications: from food to dyes or raw materials for the production of alcoholic or medicinal products.
The living conditions of prickly pears are also very different.
There are species that can tolerate freezing temperatures and short-term stay under the snow, or partially ingrown into the ice.

Astrophytums

Cacti with pronounced ribs on which thick thorns are located.
Unlike echinopsis, they have smaller sizes, but a larger number of ribs, and also have many small specks on the stem that can absorb water.
Despite their small size, astrophytums begin to bloom at a very early age.
Their bloom lasts from May to October, which is a kind of record among cacti.
However, everything comes at a price.
In winter, this type of plant is dormant and practically does not grow.
In addition, astrophytums have the slowest growth rate of both stem and root system.
They are not recommended to be transplanted more than once every 5-6 years.

Not all cactuses can be grown at home. Some members of this family simply cannot fit in a living space. In addition, there are poisonous cacti that can cause both allergic reactions and serious poisoning, so it is better not to keep them at home.

Plants used in traditional medicine by the indigenous people of Central and South America represent a separate category.

Consider the most popular types and varieties of cacti in home floriculture, the features of their cultivation and maintenance.

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1 Rules for choosing a pot

Cacti feel equally comfortable in ceramic, plastic and glass containers. You need to focus on the size of the plant. There should be enough space for the roots, but a large excess of free space is not recommended.

The width of the pot should be such that the cactus does not completely cover it, otherwise excess moisture cannot evaporate. It is better when the plant takes up about half of the space. Pots with a drainage system are easier to use. Water leaves the ground, and root decay does not occur. For cacti, which are especially sensitive to excess moisture, such containers are well suited.

Experienced growers can use pots without holes. If you are careful in watering, you can create beautiful florariums, for example, inside glass vases.

You can take wide, low containers or trays for growing several plants at the same time.They usually get along well with each other.