Mine is doing the exact thing. It's has surprisingly bloomed beautifully twice so I don't want to repot until that's over. But I'd like to know also why it's dropping segments

I have a Christmas cactus doing something similar I think in my case it's from too much light. I'm curious to see what people on the forum tell you.

Seems healthy enough to me. The mix is well drained and dry. And then I found this on the floor:

Do you think it's over or under water? Do you fertilize yours at this time?

Hi Folks,

I'm new to these (EC), but experienced w/ Xmas & Thanksgiving cacti. Based on that, it's tough to say if under or overwatering, but likely to be drainage issues.

To the 1st poster, sorry but rocks down in or under the mix don't actually help & may make things worse, so I'd take them out. I'd add 50% perlite to the mix to improve drainage.

To the others: do any of you find the rootball hard to your touch? If so, that's the hardened off peat & impedes the plant's drinking.

Do you all remember these are tropicals & water them well when you water? Perhaps a bit more often that other C&S?

To the gorgeous one blooming orange, agreed, I'd leave it be 'til done blooming.

Hi Ryan,

I sure enjoyed touring your C&S collections, just marvelous. TFS.

When these Tropical Cacti get too much sun, the segments get redder / more red purplish. They just change color, not drop or shed.

Agree with Karen - do not think it is because of sun unless plant got burned. I don't have CHC, just Thanksgiving and Easter, and leave them outdoors whole summer long. TC is in full sun - since it happens to be in same pot with Euphorbia milii...so it gets what EM gets (meaning light & water). It gets reddish segments, but always looks best while outdoors.

Re-pot to a bark-based mix, like an orchid mix, and then put in bright outdoor shade. Water regularly and thoroughly.

Josh

Thank you. If it drops more next week, I'll re-pot.

S

Letsgobird7b,

The segments in your hand look thirsty (the wrinkles).

Thank you Karen. I'm going to repot. My soil is gritty but it does get hard almost caked . It doesn't seem to help to water more frequently, seems it still has a caked together issue

When watering hard and caked soils the water can just run straight out bypassing the soil, you think it's been wetted and it's draining, but it hasn't. They are jungle cacti so like moist tropical conditions as they grow on tree branches in rotting vegetation, leaves etc, spraying overhead to create humidity and not in a fast draining, drier grit based media. Quite the opposite of regular cacti and succs if you think about it. Josh nailed it!

Gill

Karen you nailed it with the hardened off peat! I checked and it's a problem. It's almost as if sand added to the mix has caused a kind of concrete! These were donated to me last Christmas and I haven't re potted them. Looks like I'm going to chop them up and make a propagation project out of them!

Thanks!

Glad to nail it Ryan & that it helped.

I too learned that the hard way yrs. ago when my BFF gave me some gorgeous white TC. They bloomed, I kept watering & they kept not thriving, 'til I saw the water going down btwn the wall of the pot & the hardened off rootball.

In emergency cases or when I can't repot, or the plant's not mine, when I find this I sometimes use a pencil or dowel to poke a channel directly down into the rootball & mix to water straight down into it.

You could either crumble all the mix off w/ your fingers or soak it & then re- plant into bark mix.

I've recently started using bark on some Anthuriums & maybe next a Spath. Recently I bought a small white EC & divided it up into 2 parts, putting it in just bark. It sulked a bit, but is coming around nicely now.