Distinctive features and tips for growing aporocactus in rooms, transplanting and reproduction, problems in cultivation and their solution, interesting facts, species. Many growers love to plant cacti, their love is explained, in all likelihood, by the fusion of the beauty of inaccessible thorns and delicate buds that delight the eye with bright colors. The plant, which is called aporocactus, is quite often found in private collections, and compares favorably with all its representatives with ampelous shoots, which so resemble the long tails of individuals of the rat family. And over them, like a hat, buds of charming flowers unfold.
Aporocactus (Aporocactus) belongs to the genus, reckoned among the numerous family of Cactaceae (Cactaceae). Up to five varieties are also listed there. The plant can be considered its native habitat in the American territories, in which the tropical climate reigns supreme, but this cactus is most common in the southern and central regions of Mexico.
For its growth, it often chooses rocky surfaces that are located at an absolute height of 1800-2400 meters and holds there, firmly grasping any ledges on the stones, as well as branches of nearby shrubs or trees. That is, the plant is an epiphyte (using for the growing area of other, more powerful, representatives of the planet's flora) or is a lithophyte - adoring rocks and mountainousness. Often, whole thickets are formed from the shoots of aporocactus, differing in powerful and impressive sizes.
The name comes from the ancient Greek words: "a", which means the prefix of absence and "poroc" translates as "time". The old name, which is more familiar to ordinary people, is Disocactus. And among the people, because of the pubescent shoots, aporocactus was impartially called "rat's tail" or "snake's tail". The stems of the plant have creeping outlines and can grow up to 5 meters in length, measuring 2 cm in diameter. There are usually a lot of shoots in the bush and they are covered with aerial roots, which help aporocactus to obtain moisture and nutrients from the air. The color of the stems is bright green or rich emerald, but towards the top their shade changes to grayish, then a muted silvery appears and a reddish tone may appear. In young plants, shoots first grow vertically upward, but over time, under their own weight, they lean towards the soil, resembling green lashes. If the shape of the shoots is flattened, then they may have branching.
The stems have a ribbed surface and there can be from 8 to 12 such faces. They are low in height, with very little tuberosity. Areoles (highly modified buds located on the lateral surfaces and inherent in representatives of the Cactus) are very densely located on the shoots. They are so dense that a prickly surface, like "clothes", covers the shoot. The number of radial spines is 6–22 pieces and they resemble bristles, their color starts from light brown and ends with reddish brown tones. They are thin and not prickly, measuring 0.5–1 cm in length. The spines growing in the center (usually a couple or two of them) are distinguished by a brownish-yellow color and they are also thin and straight.
With the arrival of early spring, aporocactus begins a period of lush flowering. The color of the flowers is bright, eye-catching, there may be raspberry, red or pink colors. The buds are zygomorphic - that is, asymmetric and only one plane can be drawn along the flower to reveal symmetry. The length reaches 6–10 cm with a corolla diameter of 4–6 cm. The flower shape is elongated bell-shaped or tubular, and as if several corollas are nested into each other, forming rows of petals. From the center of the corolla, light legs of stamens peep out, and the petals of the flower are bent back to the stem in the form of tongues. When the bud changes color, it gives way to a new flower.
After flowering, fruits ripen in the form of a spherical berry, which is also covered with bristles. In diameter, the berry can reach up to 2 cm and its color is mostly reddish.
An inexperienced florist will be able to cope with the cultivation of this bright representative of the flora, since the aporocactic does not require any special conditions. It can grow as an ampelous culture, hanging by shoots from a pot.
Recommendations for growing aporocactus, care
- Lighting and site selection. Most of all, the disocactus likes a good bright light, but he can hardly tolerate direct sunlight, the pot with the plant must be placed on the windowsills of windows looking to the west or east side of the world. In the southern location, you will need to shade the bush using light translucent curtains. During the autumn-winter period, the flower does not need additional lighting, but as soon as flower buds begin to be laid, then the flowerpot must be rearranged closer to the light.
- Content temperature. Aporocactus gets along well under indoor conditions. In the summer months, it would be good if the heat indicators fluctuate within 19-25 degrees, but with the arrival of autumn, the temperature must be reduced to 12-15 degrees. From May to September, you can take a pot of cactus out into the fresh air or grow it in a winter garden.
- Air humidity. "Rat Tail" is very fond of high levels of environmental humidity, so it is recommended to carry out regular spraying, especially in summer. To do this, use soft warm water and a finely dispersed spray bottle. But these procedures are carried out before the first buds appear. Subsequently, it is necessary to place humidifiers or vessels with water next to it, you can also install the pot in a deep pan, on the bottom of which a layer of expanded clay is laid and water is poured so that it only covers the drainage material. The liquid level should not touch the bottom of the flowerpot. To do this, you can use an inverted saucer, which is placed on expanded clay and a pot is placed on it.
- Watering Aprocactus is carried out abundantly and regularly in the spring and summer. The soil in the pot should always be moist, but it should not be poured. With the arrival of winter, especially if the plant is kept at low heat values, then the moisture content is reduced. And watering is performed only when the top layer of soil in the pot dries out a little.
- Fertilizers. From the beginning of spring to the end of summer, you will need to make top dressing with regularity every 14 days. You can use fertilizers for cacti or solutions for indoor flowering plants, but here the dose is taken half as much as recommended by the manufacturer.
- Transplantation and selection of soil. While the plant is young, it is necessary to carry out an annual change of the pot and the soil in it, and only later, when the bush grows enough and it becomes difficult to manage with it, then such an operation is performed every 2-3 years. During transplanting with shoots, you must be extremely careful not to damage them. It is better when there is an assistant who will support the whip shoots, preventing them from breaking off. In the pot, it is necessary to twist the holes for the drainage of moisture, and also 1-2 cm (1/3 of the total volume) of the drainage layer is laid on the bottom. The capacity will need to be taken wide, but not of great depth, since the root system does not have a large volume.
The substrate needs light, with a sufficiently high air and water permeability, with a slightly acidic reaction. For planting, ready-made soil mixtures for cactus are used, or you can compose the soil yourself from the following components:
- leafy soil, sod, river sand (equal parts);
- mole soil (sifted sod) peat soil, coarse-grained sand, fine brick chips (1-3 mm), fine gravel or granite chips with a diameter (2-3 mm) (in accordance with the proportions 1: 1: 1: 0, 5: 1).
You can add pieces of birch charcoal to the soil composition.
Tips for reproducing a flower at home
It is possible to replenish the home collection with a new aporocactus bush using cuttings or planting seeds.
For grafting, you will need to cut pieces up to 7-8 cm long from the top of the shoots. Broken daughter branches can also be used. After that, the cuttings are dried for 2–6 days. In a wide pot, you will need to pour the prepared substrate (peat-sand mixture from equal parts), and sprinkle the soil a little (5 mm layer) with fine gravel on top. Bamboo sticks are inserted into this soil, and then a woolen thread is tied to each of them, vertically, with a cut downward, to a depth of 1–2 cm (or it is possible not to deepen it). Sometimes twigs are installed just next to the edge of the container, but so that they do not tilt. No more than 5 pieces of cuttings are placed in one container.
The pot is placed under a glass jar or wrapped in plastic. It is not recommended to water, only occasionally the soil is sprayed with a fine spray, but it is important that the liquid does not fall on the stalks of the aporocactus, daily ventilation will be required. The temperature during germination is maintained within the range of 20-22 degrees. After 14 days, the cuttings develop roots. The supports should be removed if the plant is already standing on its own and does not fall on its side. Many growers do not tie the cuttings vertically, but simply lay them horizontally on the substrate, then the roots will appear from the middle of the branch, and this is not very beautiful.
As soon as the cuttings are rooted, they are transplanted in separate containers with a substrate suitable for adult disocactus.
Seed propagation is rarely used. At the same time, seeds are sown in peat-sandy soil, the container is covered with a piece of glass or plastic wrap and kept in a bright and warm room. Seeds should be planted with grooves down. Germination takes 3 to 4 months.
Difficulties in cultivating aporocactus
Most often, all the problems that arise with the cultivation of aporocactus are closely related to the inadequacy of the growing conditions:
- if root rot appears, it means that the soil has been flooded - it will be necessary to adjust the irrigation;
- the flowers are reset, then it will be necessary to additionally moisten the substrate or feed the disocactus;
- when the stem began to rot, it is almost impossible to cure and it will be necessary to destroy the plant so that other green inhabitants of the room do not get sick;
- in dry indoor air, the plant can be affected by spider mites, scale insects or nematodes.
The pests are clearly visible by their secretions and the state of the plant: the shoots-whip can begin to turn yellow and deform, a plaque will appear in the form of a thin cobweb or a sticky sugary substance. In this case, it is necessary to treat the plant with insecticides.
Interesting facts about aporocactus
It has long been customary to grow aporocactus as an ampelous culture and even use pieces of cork oak or driftwood bark instead of pots; some growers, knowing the plant's love for rocks, use porous stones instead of the usual containers. You can plant a "snake tail" on Pereskia, the grown plants will then delight you with more lush shoots and abundant flowering.
Aporocactus species
Described are three varieties related to disocactus, which have rounded shoot shapes:
Aporocactus lash-shaped (Aporocactus flagelliformis). It is this variety that is popularly called the "rat's tail". This cactus is native to tropical rainforests and is an epiphyte. Its stem is long, branchy with a light greenish or deep green color. In length, its indicators can reach meter values, but in nature it can easily grow up to 2 meters, with indicators up to 1.5 cm in diameter. The number of ribs on the shoot is 8-13 units, they are weakly expressed. They are covered with short 5 mm radial spines, numbering from 8 to 12 pieces, their color is yellow-brown. Those spines that grow in the center are completely similar to the radial ones (color and size), 3-4 of them appear.
The flowering process lasts from early to mid-spring. The color of the buds is bright pink, the diameter reaches 9-10 cm, they are attached with thin pedicels to the shoots, they look spectacular in large numbers. When the flowers dry out, red fruit-berries appear.
On the basis of this variety, many new varieties have been bred, for example, a frequent visitor to the collections of florists is the Aprocactus Mallison species (Aporocactus mallisonii), which appeared due to the crossing of the Aporocactus whip and Heliocereus spesiosus, this variety is found under the synonym Aporoheliocereus Aporoheliocereus. Here, 5 ribs are distinguished at the stems, they are deeper than that of Aporocactus lash-shaped and are dotted with hard spines of small sizes. In flower shops you can find Aporophylum, which is a hybrid obtained by combining Aporocactus whip and Epiphyllim.
Aporocactus Conzattii. Differs in stems with whip-like or creeping outlines, painted green. They are completely covered with small light brownish spines. The inflorescences are collected from flowers of red brick or red color (which differs from other disocactus), large in size (the diameter can reach 9 cm). In natural conditions, this species prefers to settle on trees growing on the sea coast.
Aporocactus Martius (Aporocactus martianus). Previously, this variety was considered a variety of Aprocactus Conzatti, or as they are also called Dizocactus. The native habitat is in the highlands of Mexico. The stem has a rather long and thin, with branches, the ribs are hardly distinguishable (there are 10 of them), covered with thin gray spines (up to 1 cm long) and tubercles (they give the shoots the appearance of a patterned coating). The background of the shoots is grassy green. The length of the stems can reach 60–80 cm with a diameter of almost 2.5 cm. The flowers appear large, dark pink in color, equal in diameter to 9–10 cm. The buds of these varieties when closed are similar to candles. Flower petals are elongated lanceolate, in the middle of the corolla is a bunch of yellow stamens.
There are aprocactus with flat-shaped shoots:
- Aporocactus ackermannii or as it is also called Ackerman's Disocactus. Shoots grow surprisingly very strong, resembling belts in outlines. Their edge is scalloped-toothed, along it there are halos decorated with thorns. The variety is the basis for breeding many hybrids, in which the segments of the shoots can reach 10 cm in length, since the stems themselves have the necessary rigidity. Flowers are also measured in length 10 cm, their shape is tubular, fluffy, the corolla is perfectly open, the color of the petals is red or pink.
- Aporocactus biformis (Aporocactus biformis). The shoots of this variety are leaf-shaped, flattened with a spectacular jagged edge. They have branching and beautiful bushes grow out of them. Unlike other representatives of this variety, the size of the flowers is not large, only 5 cm in diameter. The color of the petals is pinkish or red.
About the care of aporocactus. See this video for watering and preparing for flowering:
