A Beginner’s Guide to Cacti - How to Make a Cactus Garden

Table of Contents

Introduction

Cactus Spines

Choosing Your Cacti

Growing Your Cacti

Preparing Soil for Cactus

Suitable Soil for Cactus

Preparing Leaf Mold

Potting Your Cactus Plant

Watering Your Cactus

Watering Methods

Light spray During Summer

Cactus Decaying?

Sunlight

Hibernation for Cactus

Protecting Your Cactus in the Winter

Planting Your Cactus Offsets

How to grow Cacti from Cuttings

Cactus as Food

Diseases and pests

Appendix

Cactus clubs

Author Bio

Introduction

For all those people who have confronted a prickly pear, at least once in their lives, cacti are boring spiny plants. Also, cactus plants have long been the subject of a superstition that any house, which has cactus growing in it is going to be filled up with strife and trouble and arguments. That is because of the spines of the cactus which are known as spikes promote ill feeling.

There is something so odd about a cactus plant that it is often difficult until you grow them yourself to believe that these really belong to the plant kingdom. Historically, how many pioneer explorers of the desert areas in America saw them in the twilight and thought stories of monsters with their arms outstretched, and no heads, who turned into plants in the desert in the morning. No wonder, these giants which can grow up to 63 feet have always been the subject for legends.

Even today, most of us are told tales about the cactus, which many of us half believe. Some of us have heard that cacti are poisonous. Other people are going to tell us that cacti flower only once in 100 years, and only when the area is subjected to rain. The first tale is totally and true. The second tale is also untrue because certain species of cacti will flower, almost every year, if given proper cultivation and care.

Cactuses, also known as cacti belong to the family Opuntiaceae. Many of these plant varieties have lost true leaves, but they still have fluted and ribbed stems. The stems store water, and many of the desert varieties have very short growing time periods. Their periods of dormancy may be long, because many times, they have to go without water and rainfall for years, especially when they are growing in the Atacama Desert.

Cactus originally are natives of the Americas, except for some species, which grow in Africa.