Hate to pour any cold water on this, but in my view, you have the wrong soil, the wrong pot, and not enough light for your Opuntia cuttings.

Christopher

Well yeah not enough light. They're still rooting and that's cactus soil- it's sifted. They'll be fine for a couple more years.

I don't think so, but anyway, good luck with them.

When you say, "sifted," what do you mean?

Oh I put some cactus potting soil in a screen sifter thing- like the kind you'd use for flour or straining tea.

I have to agree with Christopher. I have no idea what purpose sifting cactus soil serves, but ordinary cactus mix will not treat your cacti very well - and judging by that photo it will be sooner rather than later you start noticing the effects of it.

-Erica

That type of Opuntia is very easy to grow. I have 16 of them. All from one origional plant. Gave away a bunch too. They're all healthy and growing new pads all the time. There are different brands of cacti soil. Maybe you bought the wrong kind for your plant.

They do look like clones. Very cute.

I think the other members are simply trying to share their experiences with store bought "cactus soil" Unfortunately, most of it is not actually good for cacti or succulents. I am surprised yours are doing well. We all have different habits and maybe it is working for you for now. And I hope it continues to - but if you find that you are having issues with rot or generally degrading plant health, we would suggest a soul that does not retain so much water. Good luck!!! And thank you for sharing your picture

I should have been more clear. After you sifted, which part did you use? Did you use the material that fell through the sifter orthe material that was left in the sifter?

I just wanted the fine stuff that sifted through. You don't really need it it's just that with very small plants sometimes a piece of bark or a twig can get in the way. Not something I always do but for seedlings or really small cutttings it's kind of easier that way.

I think that is the exact opposite of what you should do for cactus. Using the sifted fines from commercial cactus soil sounds like a rot disaster waiting to happen.

Well they don't rot that often- after you break off the pads you let them dry on some newspaper for a few days first. Then you want the soil to be pretty wet. And you can't let it dry out completely or the roots can die- that's when you get rot.

Pardon me for saying, but what you said makes absolutely no sense at all.

Christopher

I have to agree with Christopher. Opuntia are adapted to extensive periods of drought when the soil dries completely and the roots dehydrate to minimize water loss.

CooperDr, those don't happen to be from an Opuntia that grows wild in Colorado or somewhere similar, does it? I was always amazed by the "prickly pear" cacti that grew in wet, snow-covered woods and fields around Boulder, Golden, and the Denver area (I grew up with AZ desert opuntia). Im just thinking a species like that might be more tolerant of the wetter environment you seem to be growing in. Maybe that explains your apparent success where many of us would expect rot.

Hello please tell me what would be the best cactus and succulent soil to buy.

Ideally, none. I think a lot of us use a more gritty mix that we make ourselves. You can use things like pumice, granite, perlite, DE, Turface, etc. If you must use it, it is recommended you mix at least 50% perlite to it.

Reply to:

"kalley77

Hello please tell me what would be the best cactus and succulent soil to buy."

I use Miracle Gro Cactus. Palm, and Citrus Potting Mix because it drains well and is easy to get at my nearby Home Depot store. In fact, I use it for all of my house plants except for the orchids. If cultural directions for a plant imply a sandier mix is preferred, I just add an equal amount of coarse sand to the potting mix. My one year experience with growing small succulents in a sunny window sill shows me that this mix works fine. I do not over-water these succulents:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1781028/lithops-hawthoria-fenestraria-and-pleiospilos?n=56

Frankly, the last thing I would do is try to concoct one of the endless "gritty mix" recipes discussed in this forum.

Great everyone scared cooper from the post :)

Oh, no. I hope not. Come baaaaaaaack, Coooooooper!

Cooper didn't seem willing to take helpful advice, in any case.

How people take advice often depends on how it's given. If someone is doing something successfully, but someone else says he or she is doing it all wrong, the first person might find the second person hard to believe. After all, he or she is having success, so they must be doing something right.

Also, no one really enjoys being ganged-up on. I think sometimes we do scare people off. The OP just wanted to show off some interesting cacti, but kind-of got jumped on (by a lot of people). I don't think anyone meant to do that, but I can see how the OP might've felt.

...or maybe Cooper just has a life, and had to tend to it for a while. One never can tell. ;-)

It's unfortunately a fine line between correcting information and ganging up. Since many people search the forums for valid information just leaving something that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to some of the very experienced people around here lie unanswered or unquestioned seems like a recipe for more beginner mistakes than we already see. We already have a hard enough time correcting the terrible information that comes out of the garden blogger world.

Agreed, Nil. Looking over the thread, I think we could all take a lesson in PR from Deva33. I certainly could. She makes the same points easier to swallow.

BoulderGrower and Kalley, I have to agree with you, BG. Apparently grit requires some finesse and experience that I have not yet acquired. My experience with it so far has been frustrating. Soil might have issues for succulents, but there is something to be said for "the devil you know."

Personally, so far, I'm happiest with a soil:pumice or soil:perlite mix. I use more pumice than soil, but 50:50 works unless you tend to over-water. Any perlite will help avoid that pitfall with succulents.

Kwie, I agree with you about the soil, and we'll everything you said...

I do use the gritty mix but that's because It works well with my technique for caring for my plants. I just don't think it's best to buy a soil and use it out of the bag and then go on watering it. I've done that when I first started and realized that it didn't work.

I don't think anyone was intentionally ganging up on Cooper, but the picture he posted drew us to this thread. If using that mix works for him and he knows how to prevent the plant from rotting, then that's great for him, and something I couldn't accomplish myself.

Thanks Kwie :)

I just think that it is very easy to infer attitude when reading text, and the writer may not always mean it that way ( I have been guilty of this myself, on both sides). And I don't want anyone to have an unpleasant experience on this forum.

I think most of us on here would not use cooperdr's mix. It is against everything we have learn through OUR experiences. Obviously his experiences are very different. Cooper, you did say "that is when you get rot" is your final post. If you ever do find that you are having problems with rot please come back to this forum, we are always willing to help.

I do not think anyone here, myself included, took the time and effort to reply to this post to 'gang up' on the original poster. We only chose to offer advice, which was basically blown off. We were all inexperienced in this at one time or another, but speaking for myself, I always welcomed the advice instead of thinking I, as a newbie, knew better than those trying to be of assistance.

Christopher

The Gritty Mix Gang will make friability a household term known nationwide.

Jeff
...but wouldn't you agree that using sifted (just what went thru) soil would be just too fine?

Rina

I know, Christopher. I didn't mean to imply anyone intended anything except to help.

Cactusmcharis, please define "friability".

Rina,

How right you are - it wouldn't do to have just the sifted soil.

Kwie,

The quality of being friable, i.e. easily crumbled.

Doh! I was thinking you had a special meaning. <Blush> I could've looked it up. (The same term is used to refer to damaged tissue in veterinary medicine.)

Not to derrière in out of topic but---Kwie, damaged animal tissue actually becomes crumbly? That's not just a little bit Stephen King.
Pagan

And here I thought it referred to eggs' ability to get cooked in a pan....

Ok, I am leaving now...

Oh- the point was that I thought it was funny that they looked like twins. For some reason it's just that one species of Opuntia that's really easy to root in pretty much anything. The whole sifting thing isn't really recessary and might not work for other kinds.

Glad to see we didn't run you off, Cooper!

Pagan, thanks for the visual. That made me laugh out loud. "Crumbly" usually implies dry, but in medicine, friable refers to tissue that's easily broken or fractured, like some cancers that constantly break and shed bits of tumor as they grow. Stephen King enough.

Breton, that's kind of what I was thinking. I'd just been on another thread with a fried jade. Was thinking "the ease of which a plant fries," or some such thing.