The Christmas cactus can grow quite quickly if cared for well. To ensure that the roots have enough space, you will need to repot it occasionally. Experienced gardeners even repot it every year and therefore avoid fertilizing altogether.
When and how should a Christmas cactus be repotted?
Repotting a Christmas cactus should be done immediately after flowering. Choose a larger pot with a drainage hole and use cactus soil or sandy garden soil as a substrate. Moisturize the root ball well and then do not fertilize for a year.
Repot Christmas cactus annually
When the old pot has become too small for the Christmas cactus, you should repot it into a larger planter. You can recognize this because the first roots are sticking out of the drain hole.
Experts even recommend repotting Christmas cacti every year and giving them fresh substrate. Of course, a larger pot is not necessary every year as the root ball remains comparatively small.
The right time to repot a Christmas cactus is immediately after flowering. Shortly before flowering and during flowering, you should never subject it to the stress of repotting.
How to repot
- Unpotting the Christmas cactus
- rinse old substrate carefully
- fill larger pot with fresh soil
- Insert Christmas cactus
- Wet the root ball thoroughly once
Repot the Christmas cactus immediately after purchase?
The substrate of freshly purchased Christmas cacti is often too moist, too compacted or too nutrient-rich. You can tell if the soil is too moist because the leaves of the Christmas cactus hang limply.
In this case, it makes sense to repot it immediately into fresh, suitable substrate. However, this is only possible if no flowers have yet formed.
If you can already see the beginnings of flowers, don't water the Christmas cactus at all at first and later only sparingly so that the root ball can dry out.
The right pot and suitable substrate
The pot must have a sufficient drainage hole so that irrigation water or rainwater can drain away. It is good to have drainage in the bottom of the pot to avoid waterlogging.
Cactus soil (€12.00 on Amazon) or garden soil that has been loosened with sand and gravel is suitable as a substrate.
Do not fertilize after repotting
After repotting, you must not fertilize a Christmas cactus for one year. Otherwise, you will over-fertilize the cactus and, in the worst case scenario, it will die.
Tip
The Christmas cactus doesn't just look good in a flower pot. It also looks very decorative in hanging baskets thanks to its drooping leaves.
