A Comprehensive Guide On Firesticks Pencil Cactus Care! (SECRETS Revealed*)
FireStick Cactus Also called as Pencil cactus plant is One of The Most Unique Cactus That’s also low Maintainance. So In This Post, We Will Discuss all About Pencil cactus Care, Covering Its Soil Requirement, best Fertilizer, Sunlight & propagation Etc, So Keep Reading.
Basics Of Pencil Cactus Plantโฆ
Pencil cactus is a Very Common, ornamental House Plant, Native To dry Areas of Africa & india. Its a Hardy Plant Very Suitable For Dry outdoor Areas, But can Be Grown Indoors Too WIth Proper care.
Its Also Called as Milk Bush, Firestick cactus Or pencil cactus Plant, Its a Poisnous Plant, That not Edible at All, So keep It away from Kids & Pets. One Incredible Thing About pencil cactus is That Its a zero Maintainance Plant, which also Provides a Unique Look To Our Space.
How To Grow It at Home?
To Start Pencil cactus Plant at your Home, You Can Buy Them From a Local Nursery, During warm Months of Year, & Once Its Home, This is How You Can Grow Them With a Small Stem Cutting.
Simply Take a 4 to 6 inches Cutting of pencil cactus, Make Sure To Use Gloves, To Avoid This Toxic Milky Liquid, now You can Easily Put Them a little In Such a Water pot, Make Sure The Water is Clean, & Keep Changing the water Every Week.
With a Week Or So, You Will See Some of The White Roots Will Poop Out From The Base, Just Let Them Grow.
At This Stage, You Can Put This Plant into Soil, Choose a Loose Mix & Plant It. So That’s How You can Propagate The Pencil Cactus Plant, For Indepth details on Its Propagation, There is an Article Added Here.
What is The Growing Season Of Pencil Cactus Plant?
The First & The Most Important Thing in Pencil cactus Care is Understanding its Growing Season. In an ideal Season, pencil cactus Plant Grow very Well. Its Growing Season Starts In The Early Springs as Soon as The Temperature Starts Warming.
The ideal Temp range For This Plant is 18 to 29 degree Celsius, As Long As The Temperature is In This Range it Continues To Grow, like In Summers. But When The Winter Starts,, Pencil cactus Plant goes Under a Dormancy condition.
But The Good News is Its a permanent Plant & can Pass The Winters Very Easily, Just Keep It Under a Well Lit Shade. Overall It Likes a warm Area To Grow, So You Can Plant it, Prune it, Fertilize It Whatever In The Summers But Never Try These Thing in Winters.
Which Soil Works Best?
Another Important Thing in Pencil cactus Plant is its Soil Media. In Its Hometown, It Grow In Hard & unferile Type Of a Mixture, But It do get alot of Benefits From a Slightly Loose & fertile Type of Mixtures.
Ideally, The Soil Media For Pencil cactus Plant Should Be Very Well Draining, A Little Bit Loose & fertile. Water Blocking Mixture Will cause The Rotting of Its Roots & Stem, So Be Carefull. You can Try This homemade Recipe, For Your Cacti & Succulents, Detailed Guide On This Soil mix is Added Here.
How To Water Pencil Cactus?
Proper Watering is Another Important Thing in Pencil cactus Plant care. No Matter How Good Your Soil Mix is, Always Keep The Control of Watering in Your Hand, Simply Let The Whole Soil To dry, & Then water.
Dont Worry The Plant have Its Own Moisture, So It Wont Die due To Less Moisture For atleast a Few Weeks. But Overwatering is Very harmful For Its Health, So Water carefully .
Should We Place It In Sun Or Not?
One of The Most Confusing Thing in Pencil cactus care is Its Ideal Spot. Should We Place It In full Sun Or In a Shade, Where Do We Get The Most Growth. So In an Ideal Season, You can Place Your Pencil cactus Pot in a Semi Shaded area, Not in full day of direct Sun.
Because That Will Stunt Its Growth, & In Shade The Growth Will Be Very Leggy & Dull. So If You Choose an Area with 1 to 2 hours Of Direct Sun, With full Day of Indirect Sunlight, Then You Will get The Max Growth.
In Hotest Months of The Year, You May also See The Stems Turning Redish, That’s Just Due To Sunlight Exposure, Upto a Level Thats Good, But For a Container Plant, try to move The Plant to a bright Shade For Some Time. Hope You Got The idea.
It gets Root Bounded?
Another Important Thing in Pencil cactus care is its Pot requirement. as Though They have a Small Root System, But For Growing It in a Container, Make Sure The Roots Have Enough Space To Continue Their Growth, More Root Growth Means More Stem Growth.
Ideally a Medium Size Pot is Enough for a Medium Size Plant, You can Plant Them In a 6 to 8 inches of a grow Bag, That’s Enough For a Few Years, You can also Buy Them From This link.
Fertilize With Thisโฆ.
Another Important Thing in Pencil cactus care is its fertilization. Like any Other Cactus, Pencil cactus Plant can Also Survive In an unfertile Medium, But For Best Growth a Monthly Fertilizer can be very Helpful.
You Can Choose any Balanced Fertilizer, Like kitchen Waste Compost, But i have also made a Cacti food at Home, You can find That Guide From Here, Or You Can also Use any other fertilizer, But fertilize it Once a Month regualarly, Except In winter Months.
Pests & Diseases?
Pencil cactus Plant Dont Have As Such Many problems, if You Care It properly. Pests Like Mealybugs & Scale insects can Attack On It, For that Use Neem Oil Spray At The Early Morning Time, Detailed Guide on neem Oil is Also Linked Here, follow that.
So its all about Pencil cactus Care, Everything Is Great About Pencil cactus, except its a Slow growing Cactus Plant, Do you Wanna Know About a Fast Growing Cactus, Follow this guide About Bunny Ear cactus Plant.
