Dealing with a Christmas Cactus that refuses to flourish? Use Lemon Juice for Your Christmas Cactus, and It’ll Grow like Crazy!
If your Christmas cactus isn’t growing as good as it needs to, and you have absolutely no idea why it’s happening, you might need this amazing hack. Applying lemon juice to your Christmas cactus can make it grow like crazy; here’s how!
Using Lemon Juice for Christmas Cactus
Christmas cactus is pretty easy to grow and demands little care, but it has certain requirements. It needs 4 to 6 hours of bright, indirect sunlight, temperatures around 65 to 75 F (18 and 24 C), humidity, and careful watering. Providing this will help yours thrive for a long time.
The ideal growth of these plants is a few inches a year, and if yours isn’t growing that much, here’s how to take care of the problem using lemon juice!
Step 1: Determine Soil pH
Christmas cacti thrive in slightly acidic soil but grow well in neutral soil. If you have potted up yours in an alkaline mix, it may be why you haven’t seen any growth. When you’re doing everything right, nine out of ten times, this is what stops Christmas cactus growth, and lemon juice can help fix this.
But first things first, how do you determine whether your soil is acidic, neutral, or alkaline? We have easy pH tests you can perform at home! The best part is that you do not need fancy equipment for it.
Note: These tests do not determine the exact pH value of your soil and just give you a general idea, which is enough. If you still want more comprehensive results, you can get a device or go for a lab test.
Step 2: Prepare Lemon Juice for Christmas Cactus
Once you have determined that the soil you have planted your Christmas cactus in is alkaline or neutral, prepare this lemon juice solution. It is super easy to make, and you need only one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice (No added sugar or preservatives).
Mix this with a liter of water and spritz this solution into the soil every two weeks if the soil is alkaline. If the soil is neutral, apply it once a month but stop it after pH adjusts to the optimum range; for that, you can conduct the soil test again.
Do not use this solution on your Christmas cactus if your soil is already acidic. Otherwise, you may risk damaging your plant. In such cases when pH is already ideal, the slow growth might be the result of one of these reasons.
Step 3: Enjoy Beautiful Growth on your Christmas Cactus!
Sometimes, the slow growth also stems from poor water quality. As you probably know, calcium is alkaline, and Christmas cacti are sensitive to hard water, which has a high calcium content.
To address the issue, you should water your plants deeply with this lemon juice solution once every month, but only from spring to early fall. Don’t do it too much, or the soil might become too acidic for proper plant growth.
Lemon juice does more than making the soil acidic; it has antimicrobial properties that can help keep soil-borne fungi and bacteria at bay. It also promotes better nutrient uptake. Lemon juice can also do wonders for your other plants, like peace lilies; here’s how.
Try out this awesome lemon juice hack, and let us know how well your Christmas cactus grows in the comments below!
