Easy Method - Reproduce Cactus for FREE

Hi, i'm German from Mexico. I live in Veracruz, a tropical zone where in Summer we have experienced top temperatures of 113°F (no kidding).

Here is hard to get a nice garden, with beatifull flowers, because they suffer.

A friend even call me "plant killer", because i go to greenhouses and buy nice flower plants, and they never live more than a month.

So, you may have saw another Instructable where i made a PVC pot, for cactus. Let my update that.

Here in Veracruz, to relieve the heat, we have a rain season that can become a hurricane season pretty fast. The cactus i planted on my other Instructable where varied, so they needed diferent cares.

Some of them did not survived on rain season; they got drown on the roots (i explain this better root aeration on my Hydrophonic Instructable).

But not everything is bad, some other ones GREW so much, that i needed to do somethig about it.

I started replanting them, until i found a quick and easy way to reproduce them, and here i give you my method.

When this particular cactus GREW, it started to get taller and heavier.

It began to bend and became a threat once it almost hit my face, with those sharp thorns extremely close to my eyes.

I had to cut it, as you can see on image, and then i asked to myself. ¿What do i do with the excess? ¿Can i plant it? ¿Will it grow as new cactus?.

I put it on soil, as you see it in image, and it died.

¿What did i do wrong? Keep reading...

What happened, was this.

Cactus are highly specialized to save water, they live with almost non.

When i cutted it, a locking process began and the exposed part dried fast and prevent water got out, BUT it also avoided water to get IN. Once i planted it, the conditions where not ideal.

So ¿What are ideal conditions for a cactus to grow?. Stay tuned.

What i did was a super rich and concentrated water, full of nutrients.

I learned form hydroponics, that plants in an artificial environment need help to grow.

I prepared a mudy water but no with dirt, instead i used Vermicompost.

Good news is Vermicompost is cheap (in Mexico), i got a bag of 4.4 lb for about 75 cents (on todays exchange).

Vermicompost is like soil on steroids, it's like super composting made by worms. In fact, it's so rich that for you to use it, must add a little on regular soil in order to enhace it. You can not plant any directly on Vermicompost.

At least, not regular plants, but ¿what about a tough plant, like a cactus?

So i first prepared a water like a Vermicompost coffe, and chose better a piece of cactus.

If you want to grow cactus, look for thorns, they are amazing.

Seek for a piece of cactus that look badass, full of thorns, the harder the better. They not only protect the cactus.

Carefully, pick up that piece and cut it, and just threw it on the solution made before, the Vermicompost with water (it must look like coffe).

And select good spot, a medium shadow is the best. The cactus must receive indirect sunlight, in order to grow, because the water solution must keep fresh.

If the solution gets hot, it will kill the cactus (harsh experience from hydroponics, thats why you don't see pictures of tomatoes on my Instructable).

You'll just have to wait for the magic.

In an amazingly short time, roots gonna grow where used to be thorns. In just 4 days you can plant on soil a brand new cactus, and use the rich solution to water it.

You can regrow some veggies with this method.

I used it on carrot and onions. Heard that pineapples can do the trick.

Not hydroponic super nutrient solution, no Vermicompost, just using tap water.

Rain water is the best for any method.

Super easy, so that's it, hope to see pictures of your own grows on comments.

I tried another Cactus variety, and just for fun i went to an art and architecture supply shop, bought an eagle devouring a snake and made my version of the Mexican flag shield.