pot up flowering trich?

[2meke]

i've slowly been potting up my cacti over the last few weeks and just got down to the last few. one of them, a peruvinoid that i would've thought really needs potting up is aprox 1m tall and in a 30cm pot has a few flower buds emerging.

my instincts tell me that if i pot it up now theres a good chance the flowers will abort..

the fact that its flowering also seems to say that its quite happy...

what do y'all reckon just leave it in its pot and feed it heaps or pot it up?

[CβL]

It depends on how big the flower buds and how fast that plant is growing and when you want the flowers, I think. If the buds are really big, and it's growing pretty fast, then I would leave it in the current pot, and feed it, as well as seasol if you have any (if you don't, I highly recommend it for stressed plants).

If the flower buds are tiny little marble-sized things, I think you can definitely repot it without disturbing the buds, but the repotting will have to be very delicate (rootball very gently broken up, no harsh ripping huge chunks off) so that the plant doesn't get root shock, and this will delay the flowering, perhaps even until next year if the plant doesn't get re-established quick enough. So if you have no other buds forming, repotting it might give the other plants time to catch up. haha

Edited October 24, 2012 by CβL

[Halcyon Daze]

cacti, love pots and many plants (orchids for instance) flower best once they become a little bit pot bound.

I wouldn't be in a rush to re-pot it, cacti flowers are beautiful.

[2meke]

thanks for replies!

i think i'll leave it and give it the seasol treatment. i've got a scop flowering too and think they'll make good parents.

CBL you'll know the one, its CC's fat ass "cuzco". you got any buds coming through dude?

[Halcyon Daze]

here's an old pic of one of my potted scops. No fancy fertilizers or anything. It's in the ground now.

[Nemisty]

Haha I saw that one when I went to yours 2meke.

Yeah I agree with just fertilising it. I potted my one up a month ago into a nice spacious pot and its got two pups and the tips gone mad but I dont think I'll see any flower buds this year.

[CβL]

Hmmm, I don't know if I have any flowers to be honest. I will let you know if I do once I check.

[nitrogen]

I've found that when I up-pot, usually the next year there are no flowers - then when it gets rootbound again the flowers return..

[2meke]

very interesting, thanks nitrogen!

in past years my mix has been too sandy and gets big dry pockets, thats why i've been doing heaps of re poing.

do you think if i water in enough organic material it could correct the situation?

[GoOnThen]

If you use a soil wetting agent like wetasoil you will get rid of the dry spots in your pots. I use a wetting agent at least once a year on all of my pots as it ensures the mix always wets right through and It will also help in reducing the chance of root rot as you don't have any water pooling in the mix. My father did some tests a while ago and he found that by using a wetter the pot actually holds onto less water as it takes up as much as it can and the rest just flows straight through. I believe that because most people allow there mixes to dry out on a regular basis a lot of the potting mixes never fully hydrate when they are watered as the dry mix will repel water. I have also found that even soaking a pot ( in plain water ) for some time that has dried out still doesn't wet the soil all of the way through.

I have found that the liquid wetting agents that you mix with water seem to work the best in pots. You mix up a watering can full and give the pot a good amount so that it soaks in well and then water it well with plain water until it flows out of the bottom of the pot.

Cheers

Got