How To Take Care Of Your Cactus- Easy steps

I am in no mean a specialist on how to take care of cactus. But my oldest one is about 7 or 8 years old and since then I learned a lot on how to take care of them. I made mistakes along the way, don't take me wrong, but like everything else in life you learn and progress by making mistakes.  Here's my few easy and simple tips on how to take care of your spiky (or not so spiky) friends and how to make sure they thrive and grow healthily.

Water I know sounds like the obvious one but very often people have the misconception that cactus need no watering or very little water once every blue moon (I used to believe that). The truth is far from that. Your cactus, like all living things, need water and I mean a good soak, especially during the growth period during Spring. To check if your cactus need water : Use simply your finger and check if the soil is dry on the surface and also just below the surface by digging the tip of your finger to about half your finger nail. If the surface and below the surface are dry give then give it a good soak according to the size of your cactus & pot. Always water your cactus when the soil is dry never when it is wet or slightly moist.

Light Also sounds like the obvious but cactus do love the sun so try to provide this as much as you can.  Although on very hot day (like the crazy hot summer we had last year in UK) cactus can get brown patch if they over exposed, especially if they are by a window that reflect and over heat the room. In this case move them to a place that is not in direct sun light. This never happen to my cactus but I though I would still mention it.

Soil Do not bother buying over priced special cactus soil. My tip its to mix 1/2 of normal compost and 1/2 gritty sand that can be find in any good gardening shops. Cactus love a good drainage soil but they also need the nutriments hence why I always provide them with both world.

Fertiliser I have to admit that I am still not good on the fertiliser wagon tip. I try to give them at least once a year during Spring  (when I don't forget, that is!) a boost of fertiliser high in phosphorous. Use a natural / organic one that can be found everywhere, better for your cactus and the environment. 

Pot Last but also very important its the size of your pot. I very often see people on Instagram, blogs etc. leaving their cactus for months in those brown plastic pot which very often come with your cactus. I have to say it break my heart as I know they won't survive like this for months.  Your cactus are not meant to stay in those pot. Those pot are just for the purpose to be transported from the cactus supplier to shops where you going to buy them. My advice, as soon as you buy one of those cactus, its to transfer them automatically in a bigger pot with some extra soil. Also as your little friend grow it is without saying that they need bigger pot as they grow bigger. 

Hope those few tips will help you. I was once someone, many moon ago,  who used to kill every living things in my home so being able now to have a better understanding and mostly seeing my cactus, succulents and house plants thriving give me lots of satisfaction. A cactus is for life not for a spring blog prop. Haha!