How to care for your cactus
Time to dry
Depending on how freshly cut your plant is, you may need to give it up to 2 extra weeks to dry out before planting. This ensures that your cutting has less risk of rotting. To dry, leave it in a shaded and dry spot where it can take the time to form a callous where the cut is.
Light
Cacti need a well lit area to thrive. A little bit of shade is okay! If your plant is starved of light, you will notice it will start to elongate as if searching for light. Just be careful not to burn your cactus by throwing it out in the full sun. Give it time to adjust! Turning the plant a 1/4 turn per week is a good strategy.
Soil
⅓ sand
⅓ gravel
⅓ potting mix
Appropriate amount of slow release fertilizer. It’s very important that cacti have well drained soil to prevent them from rotting.
Watering
Cacti and succulents don’t like to have ‘wet feet’ and it’s important to make sure that the soil completely dries out between watering to prevent bacteria buildup and rotting. To be on the safe side, don’t water your cuttings for the first month of getting them.
SOMETHING’S WRONG WITH MY CACTUS
GOING BLACK & SOFT
This is most likely to be caused by rot and is one of the most common problems cacti growers face. If the rot is only small, you can use a product called Yates Ant-Rot. If the rot has spread, it may be worth cutting the rot off and throwing out the contaminated soil. Contact us if you need help!
WHITE FLUFFY SPOTS
You may have Mealybugs or scale. Mealybugs can accumulate around the base of a cactus or just beneath the soil. An early sign of a Mealybug problem is a secretion that resembles white fluff on the plant. Douse plant in a high concentration of detergent and water to suffocate the infestation. If the problem persists try a systemic insecticide mixed with white oil to poison bugs that ingest the cactus’ sap.
SUNBURN
Plants that have been just moved from a shady location to direct sunlight are likely to get sunburn. A light burn will just be whiteish discolouring and more severe burns will become a hard brown scar. If your cacti is lightly burnt, you can undo the damage bu getting it some shade. Severe burns will take more time to heal.
