how to force a christmas cactus to bloom

Force A Christmas Cactus To Bloom How To Do It

You also need to keep the surrounding environment as cool as possible.

The best way to make your Christmas cactus bloom is by providing the right conditions and here are the secrets.

The lovely flowering cactus is one of the few cacti species that originate from the forest.

While this is an attractive plant to have all year, its real magic is displayed when it starts to bloom.

Force A Christmas Cactus To Bloom How To Do It

Unfortunately, getting your Christmas cactus to bloom when you want it can be quite a challenging task unless you know how to do it right.

With the right conditions, it can take up to 12 weeks for the first blooms to appear.

The information contained here may also apply to other types of cacti as long as you tweak the schedule to accommodate for the different flowering seasons.

Some people love to call it the crab cactus thanks to its leaf-shaped stem segments that feature curved pointed teeth along the edges.

The Easter cactus is closely related to the Christmas cactus, but it has rounded edges on its leaf segments.

To be more specific, this plant is classified as forest cactus.

Never allow the potting mix to dry out if you want to keep it alive.

Also, once you notice that it is growing bigger and bigger, you should plan how to move it up to a larger container.

Avoid exposing it to direct sunlight because the intense heat can easily cause sunburn to its leaf segments.

Typically, the bloom season for this plant comes during fall- in the last days of October and the early days of November.

This information will help you understand when you should start preparing your plant for the blooming season.

The only thing you need to do is to keep the topsoil moist, not waterlogged.

Water the topmost layer of your potting mix, which is approximately one inch only when it is necessary.

You should only water the plant when the topmost soil layer (about one inch or 2.5cm) is completely dry to touch.

Minimal watering will encourage the plant to enter dormancy, which is a critical stage for getting your plant to bloom.

To bloom, your plant requires between 12 to 14 hours of uninterrupted darkness for at least eight weeks.

Exposing it to some indirect bright sunlight during the day is okay, but you have to ensure that it receives at least 12 hours of absolute darkness at night.

If you are growing your Christmas cactus indoors, do not turn on the lights at night even for a second because it breaks the dark cycle required.

How To Force A Christmas Cactus To Bloom