Problems with Hatiora /Schlumbergera gaertneri

[Mrs.Green]

Over the years I have had ( and still have) several gaertneri but they never seems to really thrive in my care. They survive yes but they either grow very slowly, loose stem segments ‘out of the blue’ , looks less than really healthy ( gets spots and or odd looking leasions) and when they do blooms, blooms very sparingly.

I do mist the plants on a daily basis and the recommended low winter temperatures isn’t a problem at all but the recommended 24-27 degrees celsius the rest of the year..well such temperatures isn’t common in my place.

The plants in question are all cheap, massproduced ‘holiday’plants, sold in stores.

The S.truncata’s they are kept together with , all do well as a comparison.

As I have understood after ‘self-studies’ it isn’t an unknown problem , since several sources mentions that the gaertneri is more difficult than the ither ‘holiday’ cacti.

But I do like them and would love to be more succesfull in growing them, so does anybody have any advice?

[Shane]

What kind of light are they getting?

[Mrs.Green]

What kind of light are they getting?

Natural light and the room / ceiling lights, but since these are more than 100 centimeters away from the plants, I don’t think the effect is overwhelming. The plants are placed in different windows/ rooms , so the access to filtered sunlight is a bit different for the plants.

[DaveW]

Mine seems to thrive on neglect and is just starting to bud having been in the house and largely bone dry over the winter. Maybe keep moving it around is upsetting it? As with all plants some suit the microclimate of your conditions and some do not. That can mean plants most consider difficult thrive for you and the common ones everybody else grows like weeds sulk for you. Mine seldom get misted.

Another possibility is the soil it is growing in. You could try it in an Orchid type compost or one with more organic material since they are not terrestrial cacti.

[Mrs.Green]

Mine seems to thrive on neglect and is just starting to bud having been in the house and largely bone dry over the winter. Maybe keep moving it around is upsetting it? As with all plants some suit the microclimate of your conditions and some do not. That can mean plants most consider difficult thrive for you and the common ones everybody else grows like weeds sulk for you. Mine seldom get misted.

Another possibility is the soil it is growing in. You could try it in an Orchid type compost or one with more organic material since they are not terrestrial cacti.

Thank you DaveW . I am not moving them around, they sit still in ‘their’ windows. I may have been a bit unfair in my description of them, since they do blooms every year but not as much as the Schlumbergera truncatas+ . The soil is a possibility ..I must admit I haven’t repotted them since I bought them but the S.truncatas haven’t been repotted either and they both grow and blooms better. I may have to repot them all, after all .

[Mrs.Green]

Update; I belive I may have found at least one answer to the problems mentioned. I treated them the same way as the Schlumbergeras regarding watering, since they are ‘neighbours’ ( placed in the same windows). Giving them more water than the Schlumbergeras seems to be beneficial. Even the very scrawny one with only a few stem segments have several buds now.