All cacti prefer watering with chlorine-free soft water. Water should be clean, i.e. not contain any impurities or salts. Ideally, you would need to use rainwater or melt water, but you need to have patience to collect it, so you can use water that has been kept for at least a day or boiled, you can also use water filtered using household water filters. The temperature of the irrigation water should always be equal to or slightly higher than room temperature.
About the method of watering cacti - from above or through a pallet, sometimes there is a lot of controversy among cacti. Apparently, this is due to the fact that cacti have the bulk of the roots absorbing water in the lower part of the root system. Undoubtedly, each method has its own advantages:
Watering from above is convenient and familiar, you can see how much water is consumed, the earthen lump is all wetted with water, but after a while, with this method of watering, nutrients are washed out of the upper layers of the soil. In order not to wet the cactus stem, it is convenient to make a watering hole from a usually plastic bottle: take a piece of flexible tube (for example, from an IV) or a juice tube, use a drill or awl to make a hole of a suitable diameter in the lid and insert the tube.
Watering through the tray is convenient in that the soil in the pot is not eroded, soil nutrients are washed out much longer than when watering from above, however, with this method of watering, it is difficult to know how much water the plant needs, i.e. this method is more suitable for experienced cactusishit. For some reason, the question of the method of watering is very exciting for cactus owners, although in fact it is not fundamentally important, rather a matter of taste and experience.
How to water cacti
- do not allow water to fall on the stem of the cactus when watering, pour on the ground from the edges of the pot;
- it is impossible to allow stagnation of water in the pot, for this each cactus must be provided with good drainage, and when watering from the tray, after some time (after the roots absorb water) the remaining water is drained;
- any cactus can endure a certain time in completely dry soil, even during the period of growth and flowering, while excess water can be detrimental to it;
- the amount and frequency of watering directly depend on the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air, the lower the temperature and the higher the humidity of the air, the slower the evaporation of water from the substrate occurs, the less often you need to water. In addition, the intensity of water absorption from the soil roots is influenced by temperature. Cold water is practically not absorbed by the roots. But pay attention, if for us cold water is 18-19 ° C, then for cacti it is still warm, and cold from 12 and below. The cooler the ambient temperature, the less moisture the cactus needs. When hot, dry days stand in summer, cacti are watered every day, on a cool and even more rainy day it is better not to water the cactus ;
- the time for watering cacti is morning or evening, it is believed that it is necessary to water cacti in the summer in the evening, and at other times of the year in the morning, but again this is not of fundamental importance.
When to water cacti more or less
Almost all cacti prefer cold (or at least cool) wintering, but not every owner can provide this, and then cacti winter at normal room temperature, which can be 18-25 ° C. With such a warm wintering, cacti are watered less often than in summer (at the same temperature), the earth should have time to dry well.
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In most cacti, flowering is not associated with a growth period, i.e. and in winter during the rest period, cacti can bloom. Since watering is sharply reduced during the dormant period, the question often arises of how to water cacti blooming in winter. In this case, watering should be a little more or more often than if the plants did not bloom, but definitely watering should be much less common than in spring and summer.
Very often, when watered with hard water containing a lot of lime, deposits of light brown color form on the cactus stem at the base, which eventually turn into cortical growths and are not removed. Most often this happens in cacti that do not have thorns or with small, rare thorns. It is not rare that such a phenomenon is mistaken for a disease, but these are deposits of salts from water that are eaten into the tissues of the cactus. Therefore, it is recommended to water the cacti with boiled or filtered water.
Air humidity
All cacti are known to tolerate dry air well and are therefore considered hardy plants, however in nature most are refreshed by dew or fogs in the morning and evening. Cacti are very responsive to daily spraying at their natural hours, but in order not to harm the plants, it is necessary to spray only from a very small - pulverized sprayer, so that water jets do not descend along the cactus trunk.
The temperature of the spray water should be slightly higher than room temperature, i.e. warm (30-40 ° C). On sunny days, spraying is carried out only when the sun's rays have already or have not yet hit the plant. With the onset of autumn rainy days, it is better to stop spraying, but in winter you can spray cacti at the end of a sunny day. Read more about cactus wintering. Cacti with leaves (ripsalis, epiphyllum, etc.) can not only be sprayed, but also showered to wash off dust and prevent the appearance of a spider mite.