Scenario. In the village, dad told me last weekend a naighbor across the street (lady) wants to give me some cacti. I love succulents but am not into cacti. Went anyway. Got these two pots with huge cacti. I love the second one. I am planning with the first one, to remove the big one in spring and pot up all babies together as sempervivums grow. All clumped up. That'll be fun - repotting them! Ouch!
Calin this is what I've learned to do when repotting cacti. After trial and error I found this works and you don't get stabbed in the fingers. Use a newspaper folded into a narrow band to handle your spiny plants. Wrap the band around the plant like a belt or harness. Remember to use a fresh band for every plant as some of the spines will be attached to the newspaper. Gloves aren't satisfactory since the large spines stab right through and the small spines break off in the glove, making the gloves uncomfortable to handle and you'll spend ages picking the prickles out of your fingers too.
In addition to the newspaper band, tongs will be helpful. I have a pair of garden tongs used to reach under rose bushes, and to weed around the two yuccas we have. You can gently lift cacti with tongs. Between newspaper and tongs, you will survive the transplanting!
Thanks for the tips. I hope I can manage. It'll just be for this once. After potting in nice clay pots, they'll be in them 4ever! LOL I just hope the potting mix will be weed-free. Sometimes (most of the times) I get this obnoxious weed (oxalis corniculata)that somehow managed to get to parts of my flower garden (for sure when I emptied the pots in the garden). BIG MISTAKE!
Good evening, looks like an interesting challenge in front of you calinromania, we will all look for the photos of the finished product.I get that weed oxalis too and it hides in my cactus plants so I have a long pair of tweezers which can reach under thorns and in creases to grab it and rip it out! Remember to water the pot first, it will be easier for the weed to be pulled and it might come out in one piece which is the plan specially with that pest! :twisted:
Well, thanks Chocolate. Yes.... big challenge. Will see in spring. Guess I'll just remove all soil and use new one from a big bag
These look amazing! Be sure to use sterile blade when removing the large cactus. The worst thing is getting and infection in cacti that are grown in tight groups as things spread fast in crowded spaces! A girl I work with in our greenhouse used a garden knife to divide some of our cacti and some of them got an infection and turned to mush... not fun... Let us know how the transplant went as well! I am looking forward to seeing pictures of the smaller cacti divided up. (I have a small obsession with cacti/succulents)
