I have the same question,nap thanks for putting it out there. Will you have to soak it anyway, just to liberate the roots, or does the soil seem it will crumble easily enough?

ez

Do it now - they're ready to wake up and they'll appreciate the better home they'll be in.

I repot now. First weaken half the clumb in a bath; carefully remove some of the peat trying not to damage the roots to much. I use a wooden pin for that. Finally scratching everything out and repot. With some plants part of the clumb I cannot remove; so somewhere midsummer I will repeat this action.

Harry

Harry, clumb = clump? In other words the root ball?

ez

Thanks ez. Yes rootball.

Help me please every time to improve my English.

Harry

No problem, we're just lucky I'm not trying to communicate in Dutch. That would be a disaster!

ez

As the warmth of the season progresses your cacti will be prompted to grow and will form roots. Many are even flowering at this point, so take encouragement that your plants will appreciate the better mix at this time.

I'm doing the same thing for my dormant succulents. Expect to lose a fair amount of roots, but as Harry recommended try to minimize the damage.

Follow-up question - when breaking your cacti out of dormancy, is it recommended to water sparingly at first?

I have such a hard time seeing the response of cacti, I find it quite difficult to decide what to do! (My only cacti are a Mamm and an Astrophytum.)

Well, I do water them during winter, just very infrequently. Once or twice a month. Bud formation is my signal to start watering once a week and goes to twice or 3 times in summer heat. However, they sat through one day of heavy rains this last winter storm. Pots were saturated. I assume they were dormant. If it rains for more than a day, I bring the smaller ones under cover. I think it's important they receive the most light possible in winter. Helps dry them out faster if you accidentally over-water.

Thank you all, so nice to wake up to so many replies. Tomorrow I will try to get the ingredients for a nice gritty mix for my cacti and succulents, and a 5:1:1 mix for some others. I am really excited about the project. When I was in high school, some 45 years ago ;-), I had a cactus collection. That was in Holland, hallo Harry! I laboriously found all names and care instructions in books, and made my own cactus soil, individually prepared for whatever the books said they preferred. I got out of the cactus world when we moved to other countries, but last year I found a store with many "old friends", and I could not resist bringing some home. Last year I bought many of them blooming, so I could not take credit for those blooms. Now I hope to have some home grown ones soon.

Aztcqn, I winter my plants in an unheated room with little sunlight. The best I can do. In the soil I have now, they would stay soaked for weeks once the soil gets saturated. Certain death... Next year I might give a some an occasional sip, but on the whole, they are safer dry, I think.

A little update: I have transplanted all of them into a gritty mix of 60% chicken grit and 40% Oilsorb ( calcined DE). They look very happy after a month or two now, many are showing growth or buds.

All of them on their little table:

The big pots. Does anyone know what the one top left is? I thought maybe Lobivia, but now I am thinking some kind of cereus? It never bloomed yet, though there were what looked like dried up buds last year, with black and greyish hair. Furry lines along the ribs.

Fairly random group of succulents. Does anyone know what that 'stacking stick' behind the Haworthia with the buds is?

Yes, a long time ago I grew a Chinese elm bonsai from seed. It may be too shallow for these? We will see.

Top left guy.. The one that you said may have had furry grey buds.. Could be echinopsis oxygona. :)

gdinie

Beautiful plants, good to hear they like new mix.

You may want to double check on watering and light needs of individual plants in blue-green dish.

gdinie, I like your lithops planting a lot. It really illustrates their camouflage capability.

ez

Violet, thank you for the suggestion. I do not think it is an Echinopsis, but you did not have much to go on. Here are a few better pictures. Maybe the fuzz on the buds was more whitish than I remembered.

Rina, you are so right. I just put them together, but several are complaining loudly about too much sun and too little water. They are now on a brick patio in front of a brick house, with full sun from 12-6. I will see what happens on a mulch path under an apple tree, morning sun till 12 or a little later. If that is not a success, I will have to move the malcontents to their own container, and fill up the empty spaces with more sun lovers. Yeeeehaaawww!!! Ummm, I mean: what a chore ;-).

Breathnez, that was so much fun. I will be on the look out for a collection of stones that match even better.