Hello, all! I'm new, so please go easy on me. :) At my office we have a lot of houseplants growing well alongside our desks under fluorescent lights. My boss has a lot of African violets, and I made a mini desert with small assorted cacti (unknown varieties) and some clippings from a jade plant. I put them into a 10" azalea pot and used cactus soil. Everything is seems to be going well, and everything is growing. The cactus that I planted in the middle of the dish is now four times taller than it was when I bought it a year ago. It's pancake flat, about 2" wide and very, very tall - and it keeps falling over! In the attached picture you can see that it is propped up by some small sticks, but it still falls over sometimes. The roots seem to still be the size of the little 1.5" or 2" pot that I bought it in, so there's no lateral support for the height. I've tried to tamp down the dirt around the cactus to provide more stability, but the sandy soil doesn't compact well. [OK, the jade plant bits aren't happy because they don't get enough water, but I'm more interested in getting the cacti to grow and be happy than the jade plant cuttings] Am I doing something wrong? It's growing so much that I assume it's healthy, but maybe 15-20 hours of fluorescent lights isn't enough light? Is it "leggy"? The African violets that are right next to it bloom constantly and vigorously, but they don't need as much light. I occasionally fertilize it (maybe once every few months) with a water soluble fertilizer - is that wrong? Did the fertilizer make it grow too fast and now it can't support itself? Please help! I'm afraid that one of these times when it falls over it will break, or get caught on someone's sweater and get ripped out. Thanks so much! - OfficeSpace cubicle two, sixth floor, elevator bank #3
Sorry, the fluorescent light isn't enough - the hours are adequate, but the intensity is way below that of sunlight, and cacti really need full sun.
I cannot see the jade plant (or is it behind the stone?), but I do see a Mammillaria matudae, some cylindrical things in front that I don't recognize (are they offsets from the Opuntia fragilis look-alike on the right side?), a Brasiliopuntia brasiliensis at the back, and another Opuntia (the tall one). Terribly etioliated. As Michael F wrote, this is due to low light, Opuntia pads should be almost round. (I included some names so you could look them up and see what they should look like) You should not compact the soil, it looks bad enough as it is ... (cacti need an airy growing medium, and collectors usually stay away from peat-based soils).
Thanks for the help! I'll move the dish garden to a window. Do you think I should cut the really tall cactus down and replant it so that it future growth will grow more normally? Or is that more of an aesthetic judgement call? Thanks again for the speedy replies!
Hello! I think I can figure it out from previous posts and threads. It sounds like I cut it with a sharp, sterile knife, let the end dry out for a week or two, and then push the dry end into the soil. If that's wrong, please let me know! Thanks again for the responses and help! - Cubicle drone
Yes. That approach is not wrong...:::))) I am sure Mandarin and others have talked about soil mix.... (very porous.) Good Luck!
Your opuntia is weird looking. It should have round prickly pads. Your plant needs a sunnier location because I guess its stretching toward light.
