How to grow and care for your first cactus at home: simple tips

A cactus is a plant that can decorate the interior of a home despite its undemanding nature. However, in order to grow a plant at home, you need to follow some rules that are not always easy but quite achievable.

It should be borne in mind that only full-fledged and healthy plants can make a home look aesthetically pleasing. The main task is to provide cacti with the conditions in which they will grow, bloom and bear fruit, as well as to take care of them, taking into account their characteristics.

Varieties of cacti for beginners

Among the many species and subspecies of cacti belonging to different genera, you can choose the one that suits you best. We recommend that you pay attention to mammillaria, which is a wide variety of plants that are small and unpretentious in their care. They need a lot of light, soil with good drainage, and infrequent watering. There are other cacti that are well suited for beginners:

• Echinopsis
• Rebutia
• Euphorbia
• Astrophytum
• Cereus
• Ferocactus
• Opuntia
• Gymnocalycium

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How to propagate cacti

There are two ways to propagate a plant:

• vegetative (using offshoots)
• seed.

The vegetative method is the most popular among cactus lovers because it is very simple. To do this, take cuttings that grow on mother plants and root them.

Before sowing seeds bought in a store, they should be treated with a solution of potassium permanganate and then placed on the soil surface to a depth of no more than 1 cm. The soil should always be moist, so it can be covered with glass or film to create a favorable environment for seed germination. The time required for this may vary depending on the specific type of cactus.

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Where to place the cactus in the house

In order for cacti to grow well, you need to choose a suitable place on the windowsill. Here are some tips:

• South window is best for cacti because it gets the most sun. All species with needles can be placed here, as well as those with a waxy coating on the skin.
• East window. If you have epiphytic cacti that grow in humid rainforests, then an east window will suit them.

• North window is not suitable for permanent maintenance. It is great only for wintering simple outdoor species.
• West window is also possible, but additional lighting is required.
• Group placement. It is better to keep them together rather than separately, immersing them under a moist substrate in a plastic or wooden box.

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Rules for caring for cacti

Cacti of all varieties, both desert and tropical, do not like excessive moisture. Therefore, the main thing in caring for them is to control watering:

• Do not allow water to remain under the roots in a shallow pot.
• Choose good soil with drainage that will not retain excess moisture.
• Water the plant only when the soil is dry to the touch, and moisten it half as often in winter.
• Most cactus species need bright light, except for tropical cacti, which grow better in diffused light.
• In the spring, fertilize the plant with a high-quality cactus fertilizer.

If you follow these rules, they will not only grow well but also bloom.

Earlier, we wrote about a useful life hack to feed violets with yeast.

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