Yesterday I planted a cutting from my yellow flowered Christmas Cactus. I hope it grows. I looked at a few different websites and did what majority of them said to do. The cutting looked healthy and had four segments, the sites asked for at least three. I used the only soil I have and that is a cactus and succulent soil, so I hope that was alright. For the container I reused a sour cream container. I watered the soil with filtered tap water and then placed a full segment and part of the second one. The plant went about half way down the container. Now it is placed where the temperature hardly falls and where bright light will not reach it. I read once I see new growth I can place it where it will get some bright light during the day.
For the cacti that I pollinated, it seems to have worked. I did not do many of them and I see about five plant that look like it has fruit. I hope I am right.
Not pollinated flower, notice the stem is skinny.
This one has been pollinated and it looks fat,
just like many websites said would happen.
On January 11, 2010, I re-potted my Christmas Cacti. They had some bugs, white flies or fungus gnats. Not sure what but still had the pests. I even found a couple of baby spiders. They would not have been a problem but they were highly venomous and I had to get rid of them. The plants were looking bad and very unhappy. After I changed the soil and the pots I used insecticidal soap and washed all the leaves. Of course I used a different piece of cloth for each plant. I am going to reapply the insecticidal soap in a week as the instructions say to use if bi-weekly. My plants are starting to look very happy. The pictures are of one plant, the white one. I did this will all four of my plants. I lost most of the Yellow Christmas Cactus but with luck it will grow well now.
Plant in it's new pot.
