Christmas cactuses will grow the ‘most prolific blooms’ when watered with 1 item

It is that wonderful time of year when Christmas cactuses are being used to decorate homes and being bought as a gift for plant lovers. 

These beautiful houseplants not only look stunning but many people do not realise that Christmas cactuses can live for many years, and even decades, when cared for properly.

Tracey Besemer, a gardener from Rural Sprout, has shared that the best way to ensure a Christmas cactus stays healthy and also produces incredible flowers is to feed it the right fertiliser. 

She said: “After years of trying different fertilisers formulated for houseplants, mostly choosing what happened to be in stock at the garden centre each time I ran out, I stumbled across a great fertilising solution for my Christmas cactus quite by accident.”

It turns out the best fertiliser for Christmas cactuses is Schultz African Violet, a liquid plant food typically used for African Violets but will give other plants a boost as well. 

How to fertilise your Christmas cactus 

All you have to do is mix several drops of this plant feed with a litre of water and then pour it onto your Christmas cactus to give it a boost. 

Tracey said: “I had the most prolific blooms on my cactus that I’ve ever had; that’s what happened. From that point on, it became my go-to fertiliser for blooming houseplants.”

Fertilise the plant every second time you go to water it to prevent salt buildup in the soil, which means you will be feeding it every two to four weeks during its growing season. 

Why is this a good fertiliser for Christmas cactuses? 

When caring for houseplants a good rule of thumb is to choose a fertiliser that contains equal parts nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium as these are the three main nutrients plants need to survive. 

However, the reason this fertiliser does a good job is that it contains more phosphorus, which is the main nutrient plants need for flower production as well as keeping plants strong. 

Tracey said: “It’s such an important nutrient for so many different processes: cell division and growth (which increase during the blooming phase), sturdy root growth, energy storage and transfer, and even respiration – all of these plant processes require phosphorus.” 

When is the best time to fertilise Christmas cactuses? 

It is also incredibly important to fertilise plants at only certain times of the year, otherwise, you can risk overfeeding their newly formed buds and damaging them. 

Only fertilise Christmas cactuses during their active growing season, which typically tends to be in February or March. 

Do not fertilise it when it is about to go dormant and rest for six to eight weeks, which tends to be just before it begins budding. 

If you follow these fertiliser directions then you should be able to enjoy bigger and more prolific Christmas cactus blooms every holiday season for years to come.