Thanksgiving Cactus stop blooming! (flowers, growing, tree, how to)

[pslane]

I have a Thanksgiving cactus that is over 10 years old, it was a cutting from my mother's cactus. It has always bloomed during the holidays. But it has a tendency to want to bloom again after the new year.


Last Thanksgiving it bloomed a usual through Christmas, then it had almost stopped so I re-potted it to give it more toe room. It did okay but it's May and now it's blooming again with a washed out shade of red.


It needs more foliage! But as long as this blooming keeps up, it will never get rich foliage. Should I cut all the flowers off and see if it will stop this foolish blooming? And grow more leaves?


Any suggestions on how to stop the blooming and increase foliage would be appreciated.

[Zoisite]

It's known by other names as well, but the correct botanical name is Schlumbergera, of which there are (at least) 6 recognized species. So my first thought is that you should first of all identify which one of those species it is so you can study up on that particular species and determine exactly what it's unique needs and habits are, and what kind of soil (medium) conditions it requires to flourish. Here is some information to get you started on researching the individual species so you can try to identify your particular plant by its appearance and observable characteristic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlumbergera

More to the point to address your specific problem though, the schlumbergera plants are what are known as short day cycle plants. That means that in order for them to set blooms, short day cycle plants need a decrease in light for a certain period of time, and long day cycle plants need an increase in light. So if you want yours to stop blooming and encourage it to start growing new foliage instead then you could try tricking it by increasing the number of hours of daily light that it gets.

Don't cut off the blooms, let them expire naturally, but I would suggest that you introduce artificial lighting in order to increase its daily dose of light conditions to 18 hours per day until it stops blooming and starts growing new foliage. Don't give it too much direct natural sunlight because the UV will burn it. Keep in mind that they are classified as epiphytes because in nature they grow in shady areas up in the tree canopies, not in soil on the ground in direct sun. Once it has grown more foliage that meets with your satisfaction you could gradually start decreasing the light conditions again back to what would ordinarily be the more natural light requirements it needs under more normal growing conditions.

However, I'll caution you to not trick it for too long within the year, to eventually let it do what it wants to do, otherwise you might weaken and make it sick from preventing it from growing in accordance with its natural inclinations. It's never a good idea to trick and go against Mother Nature's designs for very long periods of time.

Here is some additional information about what makes schlumbergera plants 'tick' and what their normal environmental conditions and light and temperature requirements would be. Now the site is about how to get the plants to bloom but you can use the information to figure out how to get the plant to do the opposite of setting blooms:

https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/the_se...ture_and_light

If you try that I'd be interested in seeing your update in this thread at a later date when you know what the results are. I've done this kind of 'trickery' with other plants and other epiphytes but never with schlumbergeras.

Images of schlumbergeras:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=Schlu...w=1117&bih=541

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[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Zoisite

It's known by other names as well, but the correct botanical name is Schlumbergera, of which there are (at least) 6 recognized species. <snip>

Wow, great info! Thanks.

My wife got a Christmas cactus about ten years ago. As it grew, she clipped it and planted seedlings. It must have been a hardy stock, as they all grew like crazy. Blooming all the time, healthy, full bodied. Just amazing plants. Had about 8-10 of them going.

Then we lost almost all of them in the big Texas freeze this past February.

[Zoisite]

Originally Posted by astrohip

Wow, great info! Thanks.

My wife got a Christmas cactus about ten years ago. As it grew, she clipped it and planted seedlings. It must have been a hardy stock, as they all grew like crazy. Blooming all the time, healthy, full bodied. Just amazing plants. Had about 8-10 of them going.

Then we lost almost all of them in the big Texas freeze this past February.

Yeah, that freeze was a nasty affair alright. If you lost almost all of them but still have one or two that survived you get to start all over again with them. Good luck with that.

I once was at the house of an old couple I met that lived in the rainforest on the coast here, they had a 50+ year old Christmas cactus growing under their dining room skylight. It was growing in a custom built container that was as big and wide as the 8' X 5' custom built sturdy table that the container sat upon, and about 14 inches deep. The plant was just as wide and long as the the container and it was spectacular with masses of deep red blending to pale rosy pink and white flowers and lots of foliage that was self-rooting. The base trunk of the 'mother' plant was 17 inches around and was solid hard, gnarly wood like ironwood.

They told me that the plant set blooms and new foliage year round, there was never a time during the past 25 years when it didn't have flowers and new foliage growing on it. So I have a feeling that when those plants get to a certain mature age with the right growing conditions and care and attention, that they just go gang-busters with non-stop growth and no taking a break from it.

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[pslane]

Zoisite, That is a lot to learn. Like raising a child! lol The best I can do right now is bring it in off the porch and put it in the sun room with an artificial light and the room is bright, too. But nothing direct. The temperature is lower there, too.



My cactus is definitely a Schlumbergera truncate. I also have a small Schlumbergera x buckleyi (Christmas Cactus) Can't wait to see what that one does at Christmas time!



When I put this Thanksgiving cactus on the screened porch and re-potted it, that's when it began to bud out like crazy. So I am thinking I should put it back in the sun room where it was before. The temperature is cooler there. Now it is getting very hot on the porch, anyway. The flowers are anemic-looking.


Thank you for such good information.