5 Things to Do with Christmas Cactus in September for More Blooms

19.09.2024 - 16:33 / balconygardenweb.com

Christmas cactus is a beautiful succulent all throughout the year, but especially during the winter, you can coax it to produce abundant festive blooms in red, pink, white, and lavender!

There are things you can do in September, such as mimicking its natural habitat as closely as possible. Let’s take a look!

Christmas cacti require a period of rest—where they slow down growth and metabolic activities—to initiate flowering. By slowing growth, they conserve energy and resources, which they can use to produce flowers.

Reducing the amount of water your Schlumbergera
receives from late September to October drives it into the flowering phase.

During this time, increase the interval between watering spells compared to summer and saturate the soil only when the medium looks slightly dry. However, it’s important not to allow the substrate to become completely dry.

Christmas cactus is rightly called a short-day plant because it needs at least 12-14 hours of darkness to form buds. The plant uses a complex internal mechanism to measure the length of day and night (photoperiodism) to determine when to flower.

Consistent prolonged darkness triggers the formation of flower buds. Come September, slowly reduce the daylight hours either from the morning or evening and ensure at least half a day without light for 6-8 weeks, with the help of blackout curtains, shades, or different locations. To understand it better,read this post!

Once the buds are set, however, you can do nothing to get more, and even photoperiodism won’t help. When you start this cycle, be careful not to turn on the light, even briefly during the dark period. This could interrupt the blooming process and lead to bud drop.

In September, you might also want to start adjusting the