Here’s a Christmas Cactus Pruning Guide for Beginners and Pros to help them learn about the most important part of caring for this plant!
Do you have a Christmas cactus at home and want it to look its best all year round, well, one of the ways to do it is by pruning.
Pruning might sound like something only plant experts do, but it’s actually easy, even if you’re new. Here’s why it is important for your Schlumbergera, the best time to do it, and the proper steps so your Christmas cactus grows healthy and whole.
Know The Right Timing
Let us start with the first thing: timing. You must prune it during the right window; otherwise, you can damage the plant and hinder its growth, but this is not all; you might miss its flowers the next season if trimmed at the wrong time.
Christmas cacti need to be pruned right after blooming. Usually during January or February, or early March, depending on when the flowering ends. Why? Because Christmas cactus blooms best on at least one season old hardened-off growth, and when you do this early, your plant gets ready for the most flowerful period in fall and winter.
Don’t worry if you skip the window; you can also do it when a bit of new growth appears during mid-to-late spring. You should also do these 5 things with the plant right after it flowers!
During this time, your plant will enter the growing period, and pruning will encourage it to grow new segments, which means bushier growth.
Find The Right Tools
You must also equip yourself with the right tools. Pruning is incredibly beneficial when done right, but if you are careless, you can damage your plant or infect it.
Sharp pruning shears or scissors or clean hands with sharp nails are perfect for a Christmas cactus. And remember, sterilizing tools before use is just as important to prevent diseases. You can use rubbing alcohol or a diluted bleach solution for this.
How to Prune Your Christmas Cactus
Just use the sterilized scissors to cut where the flattened, leaf-like segments meet. You can also twist off the segment instead of cutting it, but avoid cutting into the woody, leafless stems.
The segmented form of the leaves makes it easy to use your fingers for pruning, but as mentioned, the best method is to use the right tools. That’s because it minimizes the risk of damaging the delicate internal structures of the plant, which can lead to infections and hinder healing.
You can remove up to one-third of the plant each year or simply trim one to two segments from the end of each stem. Look for diseased, damaged, overgrown, or spent flower segments and cut one of the nearest joints that were attached to the faded blooms. This pruning will encourage the plant to branch out and grow more stems.
Pro Tip: To encourage bushier growth and more abundant blooms, try pinching off the growing tips of new segments. Pinching encourages lateral branching, resulting in a fuller, more compact plant with more potential flowering sites.
Benefits of Pruning Your Christmas Cactus
Pruning can help your Christmas cactus in many ways–the plant grows quickly, and getting rid of the older or damaged segments encourages the growth of new, healthy ones.
It also helps address leggy growth, which often occurs when the plant isn’t receiving enough light. Pruning helps take care of stretched and sparse Christmas cacti, resulting in fresh branching and new flower buds.
Many people don’t realize it but pruning also gives you a new plant to grow at home or to give to family and friends. All you have to do is collect the cuttings larger than 2-3 leaf sections and plant them in a new pot; they’ll grow.
Remember, looking at your plant for a couple of minutes before pruning can help you cut it strategically and avoid removing more than what is needed. And if you’re a true Christmas cactus enthusiast, here are things about the plant you should know!
