A while back I saved two lucky bamboo from Ikea that had been rotting in their containers - chopped the rotted portion off and stuck the healthy bits in some water … It is an excellent houseplant and provides an interesting silhouette. Hi, this is Nell Foster, and today I'm going to show you how to propagate a pencil cactus. Be cautious when caring for a pencil cactus; the sap is toxic and may cause problems in some people. Let the firestick cutting dry for a few days to callous over and plant in succulent soil. Once established, pencil cactus thrives with little water and tolerates extended periods of neglect, but doesn't survive cold temperatures. It will probably eventually become a winter houseplant. Water it normally, but don’t get any water on the graft area. Step 9 Factors such as size of cactus, size of pot, temperature, humidity and season will all affect how often to water cactus plants. Give water to your plant occasionally. I’ve propagated … Here are the 3 Pencil Cactus cuttings waiting to be potted up. let's make the world a more beautiful place. Copyright Leaf Group Ltd. // Leaf Group Lifestyle. eco-centric company inspired by nature & lovin' the great outdoors. About: gardening, gardens, crafting & creating. I usually let succulent cuttings stay dry for a few days after planting them but decided to soak these right away. It’s easy to grow cactus from grafts, seeds or cuttings if you know how. Offsets. When we talk about rooting a cactus, what we’re actually talking about is propagation. This is the mother plant from which I took the cuttings. Each year your cactus pad will grow new pads and get bigger and bigger. This means that although cacti usually grow only in dry soils, they can also be grown hydroponically. You can do something similar with succulents. I'm going to recut this one. The white marks that you see on them are bits of dried up milky sap along with some scarring. Rooting powder is a good investment if you propagate plants regularly. They’ve definitely perked up & the Pencil Cactus is even putting out a little foliage. -These cuttings are fairly heavy. As with all other plants, cacti require water and nutrients, taken in by the roots, in order to grow. Cacti are succulents and are designed to store water in their roots and … It's very light, drains very easily and I have worked a hole in there with the chopstick and then I just go and straighten that out and you might have to straighten it out from time to time until it roots. This is my pencil cactus here which I actually started from a cutting which was about this size here and you can see how much it's grown. Actually this plant you are seeing here is grown from a cutting from this huge mother plant. And some need to be rooted in water. The temperatures were consistently in the triple digits and these cuttings were looking a little bit sad so I decided to pot them up on June 29. All Rights Reserved. You can optionally use a rooting hormone if you have. The only difference is instead of putting them in water, after dipping the cuttings in rooting hormone you leave them out to dry for a few days. Lets learn how to grow pencil cactus … Cuttings from pencil plants root very quickly, and soon you’ll have a new succulent growing. After taking a cutting, dip it in fresh water to stop the flow of latex, then allow the cutting to dry for a week and form a … Understanding the water requirements of your cactus is important. Then you put the cutting directly into cactus soil. Here’s what I did: -I put newspaper over the drains holes so any of the light weight potting mix wouldn’t wash out with the 1st few waterings. It needed potting up too so into the pot it went too. Always remember that most cacti are found in natural desert environment where water is scarce and infrequent.