How to Grow and Care for Christmas Cactus
The Christmas cactus (scientific name: Zygocactus truncatus (Haw.) K.Schum.) is an epiphytic succulent plant in the cactus family, shrub-like, with pendulous stems, much branched and spineless, the old stems woody and the young stems flattened; bright green or slightly tinged with purple, truncate at the tip, flowers solitary at the tip of the branches, bilaterally symmetrical; the calyx lobes separate at the tip; the corolla in several whorls, stamens numerous, berry pear-shaped. The flowering period runs from October to February of the following year; indoor-grown Christmas cacti can have their flowering period regulated by controlling light.
How to grow the Christmas cactus:
Care methods
How should the Christmas cactus be cared for when growing it? Doing this is the good way to care for it: expose it to little rain, fertilize it little, the Christmas cactus has a very strong drought resistance, better dry than wet, water as little as possible, and letting it get rained on is even less advisable; also, move it around little, because if the Christmas cactus has already grown flower buds, moving it will cause the buds to drop. If you want more flowers, you can use monopotassium phosphate diluted 1000 times before the flowering period to promote bud formation and abundant blooming. This is how to care for the Christmas cactus.
Suitable temperature
The growing temperature for the Christmas cactus must not be too high or too low, so the Christmas cactus should generally be placed in a warm environment, and a temperature below 15 degrees is even more favorable for its growth.
Proper fertilization
When growing the Christmas cactus, fertilizing just the right amount is enough. In order to make the Christmas cactus put out more shoots and bloom more abundantly, growing into a cascading waterfall form, you can give it phosphorus fertilizer, so that the flowers will be more delicate and beautiful.
Propagation by cuttings
The Christmas cactus is also a plant that can be propagated by the cutting method. If friends who grow Christmas cacti want to go from 1 pot to several pots, or even more pots of Christmas cacti, then you can directly use a single stem segment for cuttings and it will propagate and survive, and the survival rate is very high, making it easy to root from cuttings.
Pruning
In daily life, if you have grown a pot of Christmas cactus, in order to make it take on a waterfall shape, you can buy a Christmas cactus support frame, and the leaves can then rest on the frame. At the same time, pay more attention to pruning, cutting it into the shape you like; this can also concentrate nutrients for the dominant branches, so pruning it is also quite important.
Main value
The jointed stems of the Christmas cactus often become pendulous because they grow too long, making them suitable for decoration. The Christmas cactus blooms right around Christmas and New Year's Day, and with its trailing plant shape it is suitable for decorating windowsills, entranceways and exhibition halls. However, because of the way it is grown, some Christmas cacti are regulated to bloom in October. In countries such as Japan, Germany and the United States, the Christmas cactus has already been produced on a large scale, becoming one of the main indoor potted flowers in winter.