Enjoyed the flowers of your Christmas cactus this festive season? Now what? If you are wondering about this – keep reading!
After the holiday season, you must follow a few steps to ensure your Christmas cactus stays healthy and strong. Here are some fantastic post-bloom care tips for you for this succulent!
Post Blooming Tips for Christmas Cactus
1. Make Changes to the Watering Schedule
You might have followed the rule of ‘Keeping the soil slightly and evenly moist’ approach when the plant was flowering in its full glory. That’s because a blooming Christmas cactus needs the soil to be evenly moist to sustain its flowers, and they start to drop if the soil turns dry.
But after the period ends, the plant can be prone to root rot a little more. It doesn’t use much water, as the flowers have already fallen, and the plant is exhausted. That’s your cue to water it less than before and let the soil dry out a little bit more.
It is not exactly called dormancy, but a resting period during which the plant recovers and prepares for the growth and next blooming cycle. What’s the change you need to make? Well, wait a little more and let the topsoil dry down to 1-2 inches before you moisten the growing medium again.
While you do this, ensure that watering remains thorough and consistent so that this succulent won’t suffer prolonged dryness.
2. Prune Off Dead Blooms and Worn Out Parts of the Plant
Pruning plays a crucial role in post-bloom Christmas cactus care – it helps maintain the shape and size and encourages bushier growth, ensuring that the plant blooms better and fuller the following year.
You have to avoid pruners–simply twist off an inch of each segment at the end. Look out for overgrown, uneven, and damaged segments! The post blooming period before the new growth phase starts is the best time for this.
3. Don’t Forget to Use the Cuttings To Propagate New Plants!
While you are pruning, how about you take off 3-6 inches long segments and use them to propagate new Christmas cacti?
This timing will allow your upcoming plants to be established on time, and you can have more specimens for your home ready for bloom the next year!
You can also gift them to your friends and family members for the festive season once they root.
4. Move it to a Brighter Location
Some people buy the Christmas cactus just for decoration; they choose a location that matches the house’s decor during the festive season, which might work for a month or two, and then the plant starts to deteriorate due to lack of light.
If you are also a part of that club 😃 – well, it’s time to move your baby to save it!
What you should do is, once the holiday season is over and your plant has finished blooming, move it back to a safe and ideal spot where it can sit in indirect light all day long.
If you don’t have such a spot, how about getting an artificial light for it, as shown in the picture above? And whatever you do, never keep it in these spots!
5. Start Feeding It
Now that you have pruned the plant, changed the location, and started to water it correctly (assuming), wait and observe for new signs of growth, which might happen after January or February (depending more on your climate).
As soon as you notice that, start fertilizing. Use a balanced liquid fertilizer, dilute it to 1/4 or 1/2 of its directed strength, and feed the plant once in 4-6 weeks.
If you want to do it more frequently (2-4 weeks), use one-quarter of the recommended dose by the manufacturer.
Fertilizing your Christmas cactus like this will provide a slow and steady input of nutrients for healthy growth and development. Of course, you can go with commercial ones, but they won’t be as potent as these!
The Essential Part – Placing it in the Dark (After Summer)
Christmas cacti require a period to induce blooming. This is how they prepare themselves for the next flowering period!
To trigger the blooming again in the fall, start placing the plant in a completely dark room for 12-14 hours around September or October. After that, take it out and put it where it gets bright and indirect light all day long. For more details, do read this article that we have.
