Boy, I tell you, if you get the location for growing your cacti and succulents down right, your wards will reward you with healthy new growth and a profusion of flowers! Such has been my recent and delightful experience over the Nov. 1 holidays. Over the last few months, I have been transferring my cacti and a significant portion of my succulent collection to my new greenhouse in Tagaytay. The transformation in my wards, even over just a few weeks in their new location, has been quite astounding.
By location, I mean an area that receives full sun for at least eight hours a day and a free flow of fresh air. I’ve finally been able to achieve this in Tagaytay, and my efforts have been profusely rewarded. The cacti I collect, which, as many of you know, are the rarer Mexican and Chilean variants, simply love this new environment. They are putting out beautifully colored and strong spination and the new growth is now clean (as opposed to the “unclean” growth in polluted Metro Manila air). But the most visible sign of renewed vigor and enhanced health is the production of flowers.
Plants that refused to flower for me in Makati were flowering quite abundantly over the holidays. These included the very rare Ariocarpus scaphirostris (a plant I have never, ever been able to flower before), Ariocarpus fissuratus v. hintonii, Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus, Uebelmannia flavispina with its small, greenish yellow blooms, Turbinicarpus zaragosae and Turbinicarpus saueri, to name a few. I have had no luck flowering any of these plants in my constrained Makati microenvironment. But Tagaytay has opened up new and wonderful possibilities. Even on the Ariocarpus front, I have only managed to flower the odd plant or two once or twice in many years of culturing them in Makati. But over this one weekend, I had over 10 of my Ariocarpus flowering all at the same time, with most flowering for the first time for me.
While certain cacti (the most notable of which are the Ariocarpus) flower toward the last quarter of the year, most others are generally done flowering already at this time of year. And yet I was fortunate to have many plants across several genera that were flowering last week, including many from my other favorite Mexican cactus genus, Turbinicarpus. Clearly I attribute a lot of this newfound success to the new location in Tagaytay. As Bill Munkacsy, that great cactus grower in Northern California, would agree, more than half the battle is won with the location you have for your plants. The rest of the battle has to do with your mix of growing medium, growing container, watering regimen and feeding schedule. For raising beautiful cacti, I am now convinced of the following as far as these other factors are concerned (and given my personal growing habits and quirks):
For a growing medium, a good sandy loam soil is essential with little or no organic matter added, and with adequate drainage material (sand, pumice, volcanic cinder) added to the mix. I use from 50- to 60-percent loam with the rest in drainage materials.
For growing containers, I really like porous clay pots, which act to sap any excess moisture and ensure that the growing mix doesn’t stay wet for too long. Plastic pots, for me, just don’t do the trick, as these tend to stay wet for too long.
For watering, I find that one heavy watering per week is all I need for my cacti. This allows the plants’ roots to take in a lot of the moisture in the first 24 hours after watering. But then the medium dries out after three days at most, then stays dry until the next watering. I have been able to produce excellent root systems in my rarer Mexican and Chilean cacti by following this watering regimen. Now, if you are growing more moisture-loving cacti like Gymnocalyciums, for example, you may want to increase your watering to twice a week. Gymnos also can take more organic/humus matter.
For feeding, I fertilize my plants very minimally. I do have slow-release 14-14-14 osmocote mixed into the growing medium, but after this, I don’t fertilize till after one year of repotting. And at that juncture, I only use a very weak/diluted solution (i.e., 1/4th the strength of the prescribed dosage).
Anyway, I will continue to observe my plants in their new home, and will continue to report progress on their development.