Mammillaria proliferates
Every time we go to a nursery it is easy for our unconscious - or perhaps conscious 😉 - to take us to the section of some beautiful plants that we normally see with thorns that are being grown in mini pots of just 5,5 cm in diameter. By selling them like this, the nurserymen can put low prices on them, getting more than one and more than two to take more plants than we had in mind.
But what do we do once we get home? We leave them in those pots for years and years thinking, perhaps, that they can survive like this forever, which is not true. So, When to transplant cacti?
Newly bought cacti have to be changed pot. This first transplant is very important, since it is most likely that it has been in the same mini pot for 3, 4 or 5 years, perhaps more depending on the growth rate it has. Even though they have been paying it regularly, the roots have usually taken up all the space they had available and the plants simply cannot continue to grow.
Sometimes it happens that, having no more space, they grow in ways that they should not. For example, a healthy Ferocactus can begin to grow columnar, when its natural shape is that of a globe; columnar, like Pachycereus pringleiThey can be very thin and small, and those who tend to have many suckers or "little arms", like the Rebutia, can be left with a single fleshy body.
Lobivia arachnacantha
But also it will be very important to transplant them again every time we see that the roots come out through the drainage holes, or when the cactus has grown so wide that it has occupied the entire pot. The question is, at what time do you have to change the container?
In spring, just after the risk of frost has passed (it can be March, April or May depending on the weather in our area). We can also do it in summer if we have gone shopping in that season, but only if it is not blooming, since otherwise the flowers could abort and wilt before their time.
If you have doubts, do not leave them in the inkwell. Question 🙂.
The soil for the cactus must be compost and sand or pearls? Do you have to mix well and place the cactus in the new pot? My cactus pots have a single hole under 1cm in diameter, should I make more of it? The pots are No. 12 clay. Thanks!!!
Hello Caroline.
You can use equal parts mulch mixed with perlite or river sand. Both perlite and river sand will allow the roots to develop well. You can even just use pomice, which is a kind of gravel-like volcanic sand.
With regard to the pots, for even better drainage you can put a first layer of expanded clay. This will also prevent the dirt from coming out of the hole.
Thank you very much for your comment, the first one on the blog 🙂
A greeting.