Cactus transplant

Cactus soil

First, again about the cactus soil. It should be loose, pass water and air well. One of the main loosening components of any substrates is sand. But we often lower the postscript, taking it for granted that the sand should be river, well washed, and sifted from dust. If this is not done, then the sand will not add loosening, but cementing properties to the entire soil. Take a look, there are two types of sand in the photo, one is taken in a sandbox near the house (it got there from a construction site), the second is river sand, washed and larger (sifted), they even differ in color. After wetting, the first is stuck together in lumps, the second, on the contrary, does not keep its shape - it crumbles, and, of course, only this suits us.

Another component is zeolite pellets made from cat litter ("Badger Standard" or any other, only necessarily non-rolling filler). They are also added for loosening, but for this they are prepared: thoroughly washed and then sieved. A large fraction is added to the soil. The remaining components of the substrate, traditionally: garden land or universal soil from the store and fine expanded clay. The earth can be replaced with a coconut substrate, whose main advantage is friability, it does not stick together at all into a monolithic piece, allows the roots to breathe, and its acidity is close to neutral. When adding a coconut substrate from briquettes, it should be borne in mind that it swells at the first wetting, increasing in volume three times. In order not to be mistaken with the amount, and the cacti after the first watering did not "get out" of the pot, it is better to wet the coconut substrate in advance and re-dry, and then mix it into the ground.

Drainage in a pot

For cacti, drainage is simply necessary, especially if you do not know how to choose the right size of the pot, if you plant in a pot with small holes in the bottom or plant a composition of several cacti in one pot. Even drainage holes will not exclude stagnation of water in the roots, because the excess water remains in the pallet, from where it does not always have time to drain. Drainage sizes are relative - at least 1/6 of the volume of the pot, maximum - 1/3.

As drainage, expanded clay, small pieces of red broken brick, small crushed stone, as well as pieces of foam plastic, or a wine cork cut into small pieces can be used. The easiest thing with a cork is that it easily cuts into pieces of about 5 mm. But when transplanting, the old drainage needs to be thrown out - it accumulates salts. To drain well from the roots, carefully pour the cactus before transplanting. But after you dust off the old earth, leave the succulent to lie in a shade with an open root system for two hours. It is also good to add broken egg shells to the cactus drainage.

Preparing for cactus transplants

The best time to transplant cacti is late March, April, early May, i.e. when the plants are just starting to grow. But if necessary, cacti can be transplanted throughout the growing season. When transplanting healthy cacti, with a noticeably grown root system, the new pot should be slightly larger than the old one. The old pot should freely enter the new one. If rotten or dead roots were found during the transplant, they must be carefully removed with manicure scissors. In this case, the pot is taken a little less than the old one, and more sand and pieces of charcoal are added to the soil. Slow-growing cacti, which have not increased the root system much since the last transplant, can be planted in the same pot, just replace the earth with fresh one.

Before transplantation, it is better to disinfect both pots and soil. Pots can be poured with boiling water, and the soil mixture can be kept for about half an hour in the oven. Before transplanting, cacti are not watered for 2-3 days, because part of the wet earth will inevitably remain on the roots, and with injuries, cracks and breaks in roots, moisture quickly leads to decay. The soil mixture for planting should not be cold, dry, but may be slightly moist, but in no case, not damp. I will explain what slightly moist soil means - this is the humidity that the land bought in the store when opening the bag has. It is not dry to dust, but when squeezed in a fist, it clumps slightly, but quickly disintegrates.

How to plant a cactus

It is very convenient to use plastic tweezers to pull the cactus out of the old pot without damaging your hands against the spines. But there is another way - the plant is wrapped in a strip folded in several layers of paper, then the pot with the plant is turned over, and slightly tapping the bottom, taken out. As the famous Zaletaeva I.A. wrote, a healthy cactus must have a very strong root system, and this is defined as follows: if you take the cactus by the trunk and raise it, then it must either rise with the pot or get out of the pot with the whole earthen coma braided with roots. If the roots break, some of them will remain in the pot, and the rest will remain with the plant - then this is a sign that your cactus did not feel well, was sick. Most likely, some conditions of detention were violated, possibly waterlogging, which led to poor growth of the root system, or its decay and partial death.

In the event that the cactus "stuck" to the ground and the pot, you need to squeeze the plastic pot with your hands from the sides, or separate the ground with a knife along the wall of the pot.

If, on the contrary, the cactus easily fell out of the old pot, finding scraps of roots, it is necessary to remove all rotten areas, and sprinkle the sections with crushed charcoal. If the root system is significantly affected, and a lot of roots have been removed, then the new soil mixture should contain more sand, and the pot is selected less than the previous one.

Drainage is poured into a new pot on the bottom, then a little substrate mixed in a bowl, and then the plant is planted, carefully spreading the roots and evenly filling the ground between them. Tamping, pressing the ground hard is unnecessary, you can only knock on the wall of the pot so that the earth falls asleep between the roots. It is important when transplanting a cactus that the stem (trunk, body) is not covered with earth, the soil is covered only up to the root neck. If the stem is in the ground, then when watering the cactus, it will begin to rot, which will lead to the death of the plant, or upon contact with wet ground on the stem of the cactus, testing begins - the formation of a dry brown crust. A schematically correct transplant is shown in the figure above, where the pot is depicted in section (sizes and ratios of pot-cactus are almost life-size). How to properly water cacti we have already mentioned, do not forget that the frequency of watering depends on the temperature.

When transplanting, it is recommended to dust off the old earth from the roots of the cactus, doing it as carefully as possible. But if the roots were densely covered with an earthen lump and formed a root felt, then in no case should you pick out the old earth. It is necessary to transfer to a new larger pot with the addition of fresh land. But for cacti bought in a store, it is advisable to dust off all the land, since they are planted in pure peat, which is in no way suitable for growing cacti. From my own experience, I can say that in some cases it is easier to get rid of store land if it is dry (in large cacti), and sometimes you have to soak the root lump in warm (almost hot water), and then carefully remove the peat fibers from the roots.

After transplantation, healthy cacti do not water for at least 3 days, if the plant had many damaged roots, then it is not watered for 5-7 days. If at the same time the temperature indoors or outdoors is not lower than 20 ° C, then the cactus can be sprayed with a very small sprayer, preventing the formation of drops and their drainage to the ground. In addition, the newly transplanted cactus cannot be placed in direct sun, usually it is shaded for 4-6 days.

Young cacti are transplanted, under the age of three to five years annually, older plants are transplanted after a year. Epiphytic cacti are transplanted annually after flowering. Also, after flowering, all cacti that bloom in early spring or late winter are transplanted.

Root cactus bath

A special healing method (or root bath) for cacti with a damaged root system used in transplantation. I once read about this method in an old book about cacti, applied it myself and had positive results (with the exception of epiphillums and Decembrists). It so happens that the cactus is apparently healthy, but grows very poorly, and the roots during transplantation turn out to be poorly developed and weak. Then you can try the following procedure. The cactus, after being taken out of the pot, is dusted off from the old ground, you can even rinse the roots in warm water, but carefully so that there are no cliffs. Then hot water is poured into a cup or glass at a temperature of about 50-55 ° C. To do this, you need a thermometer.

Dense matter is taken, which is fixed on a glass above the water. A hole is made in the middle and a cactus is placed there, while the roots to the root neck should be in hot water, but neither the stem nor the root neck should touch the water. In this hot water, the cactus is aged for up to 15 minutes. It is important that the water does not cool, but is the same temperature all the time, you can wrap the glass with a woolen shawl, or pour hot water, monitoring the temperature using a thermometer, but in no case cover the glass with the cactus. This procedure stimulates root formation in cacti. After that, the roots of the cactus must be dried within 12-24 hours, and then planted according to all the rules.