Help! I Have Mushrooms growing in my Christmas Cactus

[fuzziebutt]

Yeah, too much water. I take mine out every spring, and bring it in every fall before the frost. It buds every year, and when I have to bring it in, the buds fall off. This year, it is blooming!!!! Inside!!! It is a double flower, and some of the blooms are a very pale pink, white almost, and the others are a salmon color. It has been so long since it bloomed, it forgot what color it was supposed to be. And it must be a Halloween cactus, because it's not Thanksgiving or Christmas yet... poor thing is blooming while it can!!

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Most potting soil you buy in a bag is great for most plants.......but not cactus reason you need to mix with sand..


Oh my father worked with plants for over 50 years.........i also work at a greenhouse, potting and starting many plants and etc. So not all plants can use the same soil........which in case you didn't know very easy to start christmas cactus from cutting.

 

[JD4570]

Quote:
Shrooms? Shroooms!

Sorry couldn't resist. I'll behave now.

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

The soil I got to repot it was a specific mix for cacti and succulents.

 

[itsy]

I make my own potting soil mixtures with vermiculite, perlite, peat moss and sometimes sand. It depends what I'm planting. I don't rely on any of the "fancy mixes" that they have in the stores, including the cactus mix. I feel that the cactus mix gets too solid and allows for poor water retention - or gets soggy if overwatered. If you mix your own, you can decide how much of each you put in. In my own cactus mixes, I add more perlite and a little sand. With my own version of soil, I grow a multitude of house plants including several happy Afrian Violets and Christmas Cactus. Another nice thing about mixing your own is that you can better control how you'll be fertilizing the plants. Some of those mixes have really wonky fertilizer in there that has odd combos.

A great resource for those who like houseplants or are just starting out is houseplant411.com. You can buy the ap on your iphone, or go to their website. I actually did purchase it on my iphone and enjoy reading about all of the different plants. I also like to check out the toxicity levels of them so I know where to put them in my house (so they aren't near the dog).

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Very good advice........at the greenhouse we alway mix our own....the perlite is great to keep the soil from getting packed to hard.