Echinocactus

Florists have been growing cacti for a long time, and echinocactus is the most popular with them. The fact is that such a plant is undemanding to growing conditions, has a rather spectacular appearance and has medicinal properties. It is quite simple to care for Gruzoni's echinocactus grown indoors, but you still need to know several important rules, which will be discussed in more detail below.

Features of echinocactus

Echinocactus is part of the Cactus family. Under natural conditions, it can be found in the southwestern United States and in the desert areas of Mexico. There are many types of this plant, but Echinocactus Gruzoni is the most popular among flower growers, which is also the most common species in nature. This perennial is notable for its slow growth, and the locals call it “hedgehog cactus”. The fact is that the needles and the shape of this plant are very similar to this animal. This type of echinocactus was named after the German cactus collector and inventor Hermann Gruzoni.

Under natural conditions, such a cactus can reach very large sizes. Moreover, Gruzoni's echinocactus in nature can be gigantic: in width it can grow up to about 100 centimeters, and in height - up to 150 centimeters. It is a long-lived plant that can grow for an average of 200 to 500 years. While the bush is young, it has a spherical shape, which over the years is replaced by a barrel-shaped one. That is why such a plant is also called the "golden barrel". Over the years, the appearance of such a cactus has undergone significant changes. When the bush is 3 or 4 years old, its small tubercles turn into sharp ribs that cover sharp and strong thorns. The upper part of the bush gradually grows, and at first it is covered with a "down", which is actually not coarse thorns.

The stem of Echinocactus Gruzoni has the shape of a ball, and its surface is covered with vertically located sharp ribs, and there can be 35–45 of them. The shining stem is green. The needles grow in bundles from the areoles, which are located on the ribs of the plant. Each areola has 1–4 central spines and about 10 radial needles.Their length can vary from 30 to 50 mm, and the radial needles are shorter than the central ones. The growing upper part is decorated with a spectacular "cap" consisting of young spines that look like a downy. The needles can be painted in a variety of shades from pale yellow to white. Please note that Guzoni echinocactus with green, red or rich yellow needles does not exist. These cacti are grown specially for sale using dyes. After some time, they acquire their natural color. However, if harmful paints were used to grow such a bush, then it can get sick and die.

Under indoor conditions, such a plant can reach 0.4 m in diameter, and from 0.4 to 0.6 m in height.However, a cactus can only reach this size after several decades. Echinocactus blooms very effectively, but the first flowers appear on it only after he turns 20. Flowering occurs in May – June. First, in the upper part of the bush, a bud is formed on a long stem, and a yellow flower opens from it. There is pubescence on the outer surface of the funnel-shaped tube. Glossy petals are rather thin, closer to the edge their color becomes darker with a brownish tint. The corolla is about 50 mm in diameter and up to 70 mm long.

Echinocactus care at home

Below we will talk about how to care for Gruzoni's indoor echinocactus. In order for this plant to be as effective as possible, you will need to follow the simplest rules for growing it.

Illumination

Since the homeland of such a plant is the desert area of ​​Mexico, it is considered photophilous. In indoor conditions, he needs a lot of bright light. In this regard, for such a cactus, it is recommended to choose a south-facing window. He is not afraid even of the direct rays of the sun. In summer, the bush can be taken out into the garden, on the balcony or in direct sunlight. In order for the stem not to bend it must be regularly rotated relative to the light source. If the lighting is too scarce, then the needles will begin to crumble, and new ones will grow very thin. In the cold season, such a plant must be provided with additional artificial lighting. Experts recommend using phytolamps rather than simple bulbs for this.

Temperature regime

Echinocactus grows best at a temperature of about 25 degrees. If the room is very hot (above 30 degrees), then the bush has a suspension of growth. In winter, this cactus has a dormant period, during which it should be cool about (12 degrees). However, make sure that the room where the plant is located is not colder than 10 degrees. Because of this, the cactus can freeze, as a result of which specks of brownish color appear on the surface of its stem. This can lead to the death of the cactus.

Watering

The frequency and abundance of watering is influenced by the air temperature in the room and the season. In the spring and summer, the soil mixture in the pot is moistened only after it is completely dry. To do this, use well-settled water, the temperature of which should be close to room temperature. If in winter the bush is in a cool place, then it is not necessary to water it at all. However, if it hibernates in a warm place, then watering is carried out 1 time in 30 days, using warm water for this.

It is not necessary to moisten echinocactus from a sprayer. In order to remove dust from its surface, in the summertime it is arranged with a warm shower; for convenience, you can use a clean paint brush. Remember that if the cactus is watered very abundantly or often, then rot may appear on its root system.

Substrate

This plant, like all other cacti, grows well and develops only in a substrate that is neutral and breathable well. If desired, ready-made soil mixture for cacti can be bought in a specialized store, and it is imperative to add a small amount of brick chips or fine gravel to it. In order to prevent the appearance of rot on the root system, crushed charcoal is added to the soil mixture. If you have the opportunity, then prepare the soil mixture with your own hands. It is very simple to do this, for this you just need to combine fine gravel (crushed brick), coarse river sand, leaf and sod soil (1: 2: 2: 4). A little charcoal is poured into the finished soil mixture, which is crushed in advance.

Suitable pot

In order for Echinocactus Gruzoni to grow normally, he should choose a suitable flower pot. In diameter, the container should be slightly larger than the diameter of the stem. Also, it should not be very high and quite stable. The root system of Echinocactus is superficial, and it is not very developed. Containers made of plastic are best suited for this plant; ceramic pots can also be used, but their surface should be covered with glaze. If the ceramic pot is unglazed, then moisture will evaporate through the walls, which causes the root system to cool. Remember that echinocactus react extremely negatively to hypothermia of the roots.

It is by the size of the root system that the height of the planting tank is determined. Don't forget to add 20 millimeters to the height of the pot, which you will need to add to the root collar of the plant. It should also be noted that after the bush is placed in the pot, its roots should not bend up.

Planting and transplanting

For seedlings and young bushes, the substrate must be sterilized before planting, for this it is placed in the oven for at least 30 minutes. While the cactus is young, it is transplanted regularly once a year, they do this in February before the start of active growth. As the cactus matures, it is subjected to this procedure less and less.

Before proceeding with transplanting a bush, it is imperative to take care of protecting your hands from sharp needles; for this, use a thick towel or wire loops. Grab the stem with them, pull the bush out of the old container and transplant it into a new pot. At the bottom of the new container, make a drainage layer 10–20 mm thick, for this use expanded clay. Do not forget to cover it with a thin layer of soil mixture. Place the bush in the container so that its roots reach the bottom, but at the same time they are not bent upward. If you are replanting an adult cactus, then it will definitely keep a clod of earth on the roots intact. Carefully fill all the voids in the pot with fresh substrate, and it needs to be tamped a little. The root collar must be covered with a layer of sand. The transplanted bush is watered with a little water.

Reproduction

For the reproduction of echinocactus Gruzoni, the seed method is most often used. You can buy seeds at a specialty store. Their germination capacity is quite high, but only if you subject them to pre-sowing preparation. Place the seed for 2 hours in water, the temperature of which should be 40-50 degrees. The planting pot must be filled with river sand, which is pre-disinfected by placing it in a heated oven for 30 minutes and cooling it down. Take a small container and cover the bottom with a thin layer of expanded clay. Then it is filled with sand. Sowing is carried out in the middle of the spring, and the seeds are distributed over the surface of the sand, without sprinkling the substrate on top and without deepening. From above, the crops should be covered with glass (film), after which they are removed to a well-lit warm place.Do not forget to remove the shelter from the container every day for some time to ventilate, and you also need to timely moisten the soil mixture in the container from a spray bottle. Grown up seedlings should be sorted out into individual cups filled with sand. Seedlings will need several transplants: before the first thorns form on the bush and after the stem reaches 50 mm in diameter. For the last transplant, use a special soil mixture for cacti (see above).

Sometimes this plant is propagated by children, which can form on the stem of an adult bush. The grown baby is carefully separated from the parent plant and planted in the sand for rooting, and on top it is covered with a transparent bag or glass jar. But before dropping off the baby, leave it outdoors for several hours so that the cut can dry out, and a thin film appears on it. Also, the place of the cut both on the parent bush and on the child, experts advise, should be treated with coal powder.

Diseases and pests

Diseases

Echinocactus Gruzoni can get sick only if its root system is hypothermic or due to excessive watering. Due to root rot, the bush may die. In order to avoid hypothermia of the root system during a cool winter, it is recommended to put a flower pot with a cactus on thick cardboard or folded newspaper.

Pests

Most often, such pests as settle on echinocactus: cactus mites, scale insects and worms.

Shield

If scale insects have settled on the plant, then this can be understood by brown plaques on the surface of the stem. To make sure that the appearance of these plaques is associated precisely with the occupation of a cactus by a pest, it is necessary to knock it off with a sharp object. If you see a whole non-decayed tissue under the plaque, it means it is a scabbard. If there are a lot of pests, they will cover the surface of the plant with sticky secretions. It is possible to cope without pesticides only if there are few scale insects on the bush. Take a cotton swab, moisten it in alcohol and wipe the pests with it. If it is impossible to carry out such treatment because of thorns or pests are very many, then the cactus is sprayed with a solution of Confidor or Aktara.

Cactus mite

The body of the cactus mite is colored brownish-red, and it does not produce cobwebs, which distinguishes it from the spider mite. If this pest settles on a plant, then specks of a pale brown color can be seen on its stem. It is impossible to see the pest with the naked eye, since it is very small (from 0.1 to 0.3 millimeters). To get rid of the tick, spill the root zone and the substrate, and also spray the bush itself with a solution of an acaricidal preparation, for example: Oberon, Actellik, etc. You will need 2 treatments, which are carried out with a break of 7 days.

Worms

First, the worms settle on the root system and in the root zone of the plant. Over time, they spread over the surface of the stem. You can see them in the areoles and between the ribs. Outwardly, such pests are similar to a whitish bloom, which outwardly resembles fine salt or flour. To save a cactus, treat with a solution of Confidor or Aktara, and soil mixture is spilled with it. The pesticide absorbed by the root system will make the entire bush inedible for this pest. In the event that you find bugs on the root system or root collar, you will need to transplant the bush into a fresh substrate. Remove the affected bush from the old pot, remove all the soil mixture from its roots and lower them together with the root collar in hot water (about 50 degrees) for a quarter of an hour. Instead, the root system can be immersed in Actellic's solution, only it is kept there for a short time. Plant the bush in a new pot or in a sterilized old one.Pour a couple of packs of crushed activated carbon, which is necessary for disinfection, into the fresh soil mixture.

If you have several cacti, then after finding pests on one of them, all specimens are processed.

Types of echinocactus with photos and names

Echinocactus Gruzoni is the most popular in indoor floriculture. The rest of the species, of which there are not so many, differ from Gruzoni in the color of flowers and needles, as well as in the number of ribs.

Echinocactus Gruzoni

Its spherical stem is decorated with pale yellow spines. The stem becomes more elongated over time and resembles a barrel in shape. This type differs from the rest in the number of ribs - there are at least 35 of them.

Echinocactus flat-prickly

This species comes from Mexico, and in nature it can reach a height of about 200 cm, and a width of about 150 cm. There are no more than 25 ribs on the stem. From the areoles, gray spines grow in bunches with transverse stripes of a dark shade, their length can vary from 35 to 45 mm. During flowering, the bush is decorated with yellow tubular flowers. Compared to Gruzoni's echinocactus, this species blooms more often indoors.

Echinocactus Parry

This cactus is small in size. In nature, a bush can reach a height of about 0.3 m. The number of ribs varies from 13 to 15 pieces. Over time, the shape of the stem changes from spherical to cylindrical. The plant is bluish-gray. The needles of this species are very long and can reach a length of about 100 mm. As they age, the color of the thorns changes from brownish pink to white. Indoor echinocactus Parry reacts extremely negatively to excess moisture, as it can cause rot on the root system.

Echinocactus horizontal

This species was named horizontal due to the shape of its stem. As it grows, it does not stretch upward, like in other species, but becomes flattened. He has 10-13 ribs, and they are twisted in a spiral. Each areola has 5 or 6 curved spines. The needles are colored red, which changes over time and becomes amber. The color of the flowers is reddish-purple. This species is also sometimes called "echinocactus red".

Echinocactus wide-spined

The bush is decorated with numerous gray wide needles. In nature, the height of the bush can reach 150-200 cm. If you take care of the plant correctly, it will delight you with funnel-shaped yellow flowers.

Echinocactus multi-headed

In indoor conditions, such a cactus can reach a height of about 0.7 m. Its needles are colored, and they can be painted brownish-red, yellow or pink. The stem has 15 to 20 ribs.

When purchasing such a plant, remember that there are types of echinocactus with colored needles, but this does not apply to echinocactus Gruzoni. In order not to buy a cactus with dyed spines, it is imperative to check the number of ribs and needles in the areoles. By these signs, you can determine the type of such a plant.

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