The soil for cutting of Opuntia tuna plants must be very loose.
Opuntia tuna can be propagated by cutting.
The time of rooting is different with different varieties.
Generally, young plants and strong growing tissues can root in about one week.
Aging or dormant tissue is not easy to root.
If the temperature is below 10 ℃, they do not root.
If the temperature is between 10 ℃ – 20 ℃, some cold resistant varieties can still root.
If the temperature is between 20 ℃ – 25 ℃, the general varieties can have roots.
If the temperature is between 25 ℃ and 35 ℃, the hair root is the best.
We should pay attention to:
1. There must be a certain humidity when rooting, but the basin soil is too wet, which is easy to cause incision decay.
2. The soil for cutting must be very loose.
We can use coarse sand, sawdust and other materials.
They have large gaps and are permeable and breathable, so they are conducive to hair roots.
3. We will cut off the part of the plant for cuttings.
Cuttings need to be dried in the shade for about 10 days, and wait for a layer of callus to grow on the surface of the incision.
This layer of callus can play a protective role.
If the callus is cut before it is formed, the incision is very easy to be infected and rotten.
4. After the cuttings are rooted, we should keep the basin moist, but the watering should not be too much.
We should pay special attention not to fertilize.
After a month of rooting, we can enter normal management.
How to cultivate Jinhu?
Jinhu is a representative species of strong thorn ball of Opuntia tuna family.
Its service life can reach 100 years.
It is spherical and round, and the thorn is golden yellow.
It can grow into a large specimen ball with a diameter of 1 meter, which is very beautiful and spectacular.
Its varieties include Baici Jinhu, crazy CI Jinhu, naked Hu, nuhu and Jinhu brocade.
The same genera include dajinhu, Yan, Chunlei and guitouqiu.
When we cultivate Jinhu, we should choose the culture soil with good drainage and air permeability.
The soil should be fertile, and the nutrient soil requires rotten leaf soil and coarse sand, as well as some rotten manure.
In addition, some calcareous materials should be added to the nutrient soil.
When we use potted Jinhu, we can mix 2 parts of rotten leaf soil, 4 parts of sandy soil, 3 parts of garden soil and 1 part of rotten chicken and duck manure.
Stop driving, we can put a small amount of broken bone powder or shell powder at the bottom of the basin as base fertilizer.
Jinhu likes sunny, warm and dry environment.
In its growing season, we need to put it in the sunny place for maintenance.
If we put it in the environment with insufficient light for a long time, the ball will grow longer and lack vitality.
This time, it reduces its ornamental value.
But in summer, we should put it in the semi shade for maintenance, because it is easy to burn it under direct strong light.
We can use spray to increase air humidity.
This is conducive to its growth.
In winter, we also need to put it in a sunny place indoors and keep the room temperature at about 8 ℃.
At this time, the minimum temperature shall not be lower than 4 ℃.
Opuntia tuna is drought tolerant but not fertilizer tolerant, so water and fertilizer should be appropriate.
In spring and early summer, we can water properly and apply a small amount of rotten thin liquid fertilizer and compound fertilizer.
During its growth period, we apply fertilizer once every month.
In addition, during the pot changing period, we should apply enough organic fertilizer.
When the temperature reaches above 38 in midsummer, the plant will enter the summer dormancy period.
At this time, we should control watering and stop fertilization.
After the autumn is cool, we can resume normal water and fertilizer management.
In winter, we need to strictly control watering.
At this time, we can keep the basin soil not too dry.
The propagation of golden succinate can be used by grafting.
When grafting, we should choose 2-3-year-old dragon fruit (elenicereus undatus) as rootstock and use golden succinate ball with a diameter of about 1 cm as scion.
The grafting method is the same as that of echinopsis cactus (echinopsis tubiflora).
After grafting and survival, after several years of cultivation, the golden succinate ball will grow very large.
When the rootstock cannot be supported, we can cut a small section of rootstock (about 3-5cm) from the ball belt and dry it slightly before cutting.
After it takes root, we will plant it in a flowerpot.
Then it will become a very beautiful echinopsis cactus (echinopsis tubiflora).