Christmas handsome Decembrist: how to feed and how to care for it to bloom?

One of the most common indoor plants is Schlumbergera. This flower belongs to the cactus family and is an epiphyte plant, which in nature is located on the trunks or in the roots of trees. In addition to the botanical name, gardeners call Schlumberger a Decembrist, Zygocactus or Christmas tree.

But, despite the fact that the flower belongs to cacti, the conditions for growing Schlumbergera are the exact opposite of real cacti. The conditions are more consistent with the cultivation of ordinary indoor plants.

Why does a flower need top dressing?

During the flowering period, the Christmas tree looks very elegant, which is why flower growers prefer it to other indoor plants. Flowering lasts about a month, but for this the plant needs proper care - periodic watering, treatment with fungicides, as well as timely root and foliar dressing with complex fertilizers.

When is it needed?

It is necessary to pay attention to plant nutrition if the Decembrist ceases to bloom or gives very few flowers. In addition to assisting during flowering, Christmas may require additional top dressing and mineralization of the soil in case of transplantation.

What helps the plant?

Early feeding helps the flower to tie large buds in large quantities.

Important! To form a powerful plant with large and beautiful flowers, you must strictly observe the feeding schedule. Even if the Decembrist at some point stopped blooming, when special fertilizers are applied to the soil, flowering will quickly return.

What to use for plentiful flowering?

Since Schlumbergera belongs to the cactus family, the plant used for cacti is suitable for this plant. You can use a substrate for succulents.

The fertilizer should be a water-soluble mixture of potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen. high quality, in a ratio of 20-20-20. This well-balanced mixture, which is applied to the soil no later than a month before the formation of the buds. If we consider ready-made mixtures, then wood ash, a solution of mullein or "Ideal" are suitable here.

What time does the Schlumberger need fertilizer?

Fertilizing is needed by the Decembrist periodically, every two to three weeks. In spring and summer, nitrogen fertilizers must be applied to the soil, which are not used in autumn. Otherwise, the plant will stop flowering and will direct all its forces to increasing the deciduous mass.

After a dormant period, from November to December, phosphorus-potassium fertilizing is carried out. These fertilizers will "harden" the buds. A month before flowering, all dressings must be stopped without fail.

How to fertilize the plant at home?

Let us consider in more detail how it is possible to fertilize a plant during flowering or so that the Decembrist blooms in a timely manner. There are both ready-made purchased mixtures for feeding the flower, and fertilizers that can be prepared at home. Purchased mixtures include:

• "Ideal".
• Liquid fertilizer for flowering plants.
• Various top dressing for cacti.

All of these fertilizers have detailed instructions on the package, so that preparing a solution or feeding the correct consistency of labor will not be. Things are more interesting with household fertilizers, which include diluted mullein, wood ash or sugar. Let us dwell on them and learn more.

Wood ash

Make in the soil for Decembrist in dry form or diluted in water. The universal volume is two tablespoons per liter of water. The mixture is infused for 2-3 hours to obtain a more nutritious solution. This fertilizer successfully replaces any purchased mineral top dressing, due to the stock of trace elements and minerals contained in the ash. Decembrist should be fed with ash if the plant lacks potassium - the edges of the leaves are yellow, brown or have a burned appearance.

It should be noted that wood ash neutralizes nitrogen, so it is important to strike a balance between these two elements.

Sugar

This fertilizer activates metabolic processes in the soil. Glucose contained in sugar serves as a source of energy for the plant and is a building material for the formation of organic molecules.

But there is a nuance - with a lack of carbon dioxide, sugar becomes a source of mold and root rot. Therefore, along with sugar top dressing, any EM preparation, for example, Baikal EM-1, must be applied to the soil.

To prepare a sugar solution, it is enough to dilute a tablespoon of sugar in half a liter of water. You should not resort to this type of top dressing more than once a month.

Boric acid

Used for foliar plant nutrition. Boric acid stimulates the growth of the stem and improves the nutrition of ovaries and buds, increasing the flowering intensity. For top dressing, a 0.1% acid solution is used in a ratio of 1 g per liter of water. The plant should be sprayed with a solution at the stage of budding and flowering of Decembrist.

Spraying should be done early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid burns to the flower.

Bred mullein

To prepare this top dressing, you need to make a solution in the proportions of 1 part mullein to 4-5 parts of water. In addition to mullein, pigeon or chicken droppings are used for this purpose. Schlumberger is fertilized with the extract 5-6 weeks after the transplant, when it is well rooted. A bred mullein accelerates the onset of floweringtherefore, in the phase of vegetative dormancy, the plant does not need to be fertilized with this solution.

Hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide helps keep plant roots healthy. In addition, this affordable fertilizer helps to accelerate the flowering and growth of Decembrist, saturates the earth with oxygen and prevents decay, strengthening the root system.

It is not difficult to prepare the solution, it is enough to dilute a tablespoon of peroxide in a liter of water. It is not difficult to feed the Schlumbergera with a solution, it is enough to water the plant once a week with hydrogen peroxide.

This is a basic fertilizer and you do not need to irrigate the leaves with a solution of hydrogen peroxide.

Fresh apples

For Schlumbergera, an infusion of fresh apples is superfodder. A kilogram of sour green apples must be cut and infused in five liters of water for at least two days. If the plant is small and planted in a small pot, then you can use less water and apples.

The big plus of this infusion is that it can be used much more often than other fertilizers - several times a week, regardless of whether the dormant period is now with the Decembrist or is going to bloom. This type of feeding does not have any negative effect on the plant.

Tea dressing

This type of fertilizing is the real secret of gardeners. The fact is that when watering the plant not with water, but with brewed tea, Schlumbergera lays much more flower buds. Not one fertilizer purchased, even the most expensive, will give such a result.

Many gardeners claim that “Tea ceremonies” allow the flowering of problematic and never-blooming plants to resume. With this type of fertilizer, root watering is used. Pour a glass of dry tea with three liters of boiling water. After the infusion has been infused for several hours and has cooled, it is consumed in the same way as ordinary water.

Schlumbergera is not demanding on growing conditions at home and that is why it is so popular among gardeners. The rules for keeping the Decembrist are easy. Knowing how to care for a blooming Christmas cactus, how to fertilize it so that it blooms profusely and in a timely manner, you can grow a beautiful and healthy plant.

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