Authentic California Organic cactus growing tips

CACTUS GROWING TIPS

Most cacti come from dry areas of the Americas. There are however some that live in the tropical jungles! And many of the succulents come from reasonably wet areas of the African continent.
   The natural growth cycle of many of the American cacti take advantage of the occasional flooding of the desert. These floods will rip through a canyon sweeping up all in its wake. The cacti swept up break into many pieces and are deposited along with other flotsam spread along miles of ravines and arroyos. The cactus pieces will be half buried in a mineral rich, loose mix of rock chips, sand and organic debris. The broken pieces will quickly grow roots from the areolas (the mole-like places where the spines grow from), these roots anchor the plant as it bends up to reach for the sun.
   These conditions are what the outdoor cactus grower must strive to reproduce. Well draining soil is definitely an advantage to reduce chances of rot. If your soil is heavy you can construct raised beds with rings of stones filled with a gravely mix. Mineral rich soil is helpful in growing healthy plants, the desert soils are often mineral rich. Adding compost will add minerals and help beneficial bacteria release the minerals naturally present in most soils. In fact compost is helpful if not essential for all soils, it will help open the structure on tightly bound clay soils, and help reduce excessive drainage on too gravely mixes.
   A sunny spot is best for most cacti, but all will live with light shading or partial shade. A hillside with southern exposure is ideal as the excessive water will drain away quickly, and the cold air in winter will drain to lower locations also, reducing freezing damage.
   Freezing damage can also be lessened by reducing water in fall to lower the plants' moisture content. Cease fertilizing with nitrogen sources in mid summer to eliminate new growth that might be more succulent in winter. Fertilizing with kelp extracts in summer and through the winter is reputed to reduce frost damage by imparting an 'anti-freeze' quality to the plants.
   Your Opuntia cuttings will have no roots, this helps reduce rots and the plant having to chance having broken roots when planted. Rest assured the leaves will put out roots in a short time after planting. The Opuntia pads should be buried about one half to two third of their length in the soil. Most growers prefer the Opuntia have one of the thin edges facing south to reduce the sun exposure in the heat of the mid-day. Yet the wide flat parts of the pads are showing to the sun in the lesser heat of the sunrise and sunset. One will notice that the orientation of the mature leaves is generally this direction.
   Cacti have a waxy coating called a 'glaucus bloom' that helps seal the plant moisture off from the external elements. This bloom can be removed with some pesticides, even organic ones! So be careful in what you spray on the plant, the removal of the bloom will not necessarily kill it, but will affect the appearance of the plant. The bloom does not grow back again, but new growth of the plant will have the necessary waxy coating.

INSECTS

There are some insects that affect cacti, the most likely to appear is the scale insect, this thing in it's adult form looks like a barnacle stuck on the plant. They can be as small as a period at the end of these sentences. The babies are almost microscopic. The adults are best removed with a small stick or toothpick. Spraying the plant with an Insecticidal soap should kill most of the babies and adults you missed. Repeat in two weeks.

DISEASES

Rots are the bane of the cactus grower, a well draining mix and good sanitation habits go a long way in helping reduce spread of disease once it starts. Sterilize tools in a 10% bleach solution when pruning infected plants. Cut off the bad part leaving absolutely no infected rotted area. Dispose of the bad portion, do not attempt to compost it if the compost will be used for cactus. The good sections recovered should be stored in a shady dry area for a couple weeks to dry out. This will heal over the cut area with a 'callous'. The callous will reduce infiltration of rot organisms. After a couple weeks the plant pieces can be replanted in a new area and should be OK.

Preferred soil mixes

Soil mixes are one of those things that can be bandied about by different growers forever. Many will have their own preferences, and in most cases most of them are probably right. The truth is, cactus have some very definite requirements when it comes to soil, and most growers mixes cover the basic requirements of fast drainage and being reasonably rich in minerals. The truth be known, there is no real formula that is a must other than the fast draining requirement. Most growers seem to prefer a mix of fairly equal proportions of a sharp coarse sand, a perlite, or vermiculite, or pumice component (pumice being preferred when available it seems), and a bit of loamy soil for the minerals and real soil(ness) of it.
The loamy soil in itself would be a mixture of sand, silt, and clay mixed with organic debris. this makes a fine mix.
I really like the additions of decomposed granite to the mix instead of the pumice or perlite, I feel the minerals and fast draining capabilities of this mix make it a very worthwhile addition to the mix.
This mix is equally good in a pot, a raised bed or planter and the open garden. In the open garden I find it to be adequate to just add lots of compost, compost will add minerals, open a tight soil to allow drainage, and yet hold the moisture a bit longer in a too quick draining mix (like our gravelly soil from the California hills). I like a four inch layer of mulch when possible, this will almost totally ensure great results. When the compost is in tight supply, or when planting plants that go far apart like many cacti should be planted, I like to add a five gallon bucket of our own home made compost (we make about ten tons a year) to each planting hole. I like to dig the holes about a foot or so across and take the subsoil out to use for a watering dike, I then add the compost and the topsoil and mix thoroughly before adding the plant.

WATERING

Watering is another odd thing about cactus, they are easier to kill by overwatering than by half-neglecting them. This is not to say that they should be left all summer in the sun with no care, in fact they will all do better with some summer watering, and they look much better for it also, but do not water every day, and with a potted plant once a week is probably enough.
I like to give our outdoor plants water about every ten days to two weeks in the heat of summer, they get through the dry 90 degree days with this schedule just fine. Most of our plants are large types that are on five foot spacing, so I like to use a drip system to apply water, this results in the water just going where the plant is, and not being wasted on the rows, water is a precious resource here in the West, and is well worth fighting over.
The general rule of thumb with cactus is to just water when the soil is dry, and then not to water until it again becomes dry.

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