How to Propagate Your Thanksgiving/Christmas Cactus in 5 Simple Steps
Do you have a Thanksgiving or Christmas cactus? These cool, low-fuss little succulents are some of the easiest houseplants to grow and maintain. In this article, succulent enthusiast Liessa Bowen walks through five simple steps to successfully propagate your holiday cactus.
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Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) and Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi) are native to the rainforests of Brazil. These popular houseplants are easy to grow and adapt well to various indoor conditions.
You’ll find an abundance of holiday cactus in nurseries, garden centers, and even grocery stores. They’re usually purchased in full bloom with their dramatic white, pink, and red flowers cascading down along the sectioned green stems.
These reliable bloomers are daylight-sensitive. Their blooming phase is triggered by a shift in seasons and shortening days. They are also long-lived, and a well-cared-for cactus can live and bloom for many years.
While Christmas cactus and Thanksgiving cactus are two different species, they can be propagated in exactly the same way. In this article, I will use the term “Christmas cactus” to refer to both species.
Are you ready to divide your plants? Let’s walk through these five easy steps to make many more of these cheerful holiday houseplants!
Start With a Healthy Plant
The first step in propagating your Thanksgiving or Christmas cactus, or any other houseplant, is to start with a healthy specimen. If your plant shows signs of pests, disease, or stress, consider addressing these issues before propagating it. You don’t want to start a new plant from diseased vegetation materials.
Always select healthy stems for taking cuttings. The vegetation should look clean, fresh, firm, and fleshy. Avoid sections that look weak, limp, discolored, or soft. You’ll always have better success with plant propagation when working with healthy plant materials.
I’ll offer an exception to this rule, however. If you accidentally overwatered, and your plant is suffering from root rot, you can propagate it by stem cuttings to save it. You can’t save the rotten roots, but any healthy stem sections can be salvaged and used to make new plants.
Propagation Timing
Don’t try to propagate your plants during their active flowering phase. During this time, they are directing all their energy into flowers and will have less energy available to develop a healthy root system.
The ideal time to take cuttings is when the plants are growing new leaves, typically in late spring. During this time, they are in active growth mode, which is ideal for developing new roots. The new leaves will be small and possibly reddish-tinged. They will start to grow from the end of the last leaf section. The emergence of these tiny new leaves signals the start of new growth and the plant is full of energy.
Take a Cutting
Actually, don’t take a single cutting, take several. Not every cutting will be successful so they may not all take root. If you want a more “full” look to your potted plants, you’ll ultimately want to grow a few cuttings together in the same pot. So take several more than you think you may need. If you end up with extras, you can always give them away.
When you look at a Christmas cactus, you’ll notice that each stem is divided into different short segments or sections. Each cutting you take should ideally have between two and five sections. You can root a Christmas cactus with a single segment but since part of this will be buried in the soil, it’s nice to have at least one segment that’s fully exposed.
Identify a healthy section you want to use as a cutting. Using your fingers, gently twist the section apart from the stem below. You can also use scissors to carefully snip the sections apart at the joint. I prefer using the twist method to separate sections because they always come apart perfectly at the joint.
Once you’ve collected the stem pieces you want, allow them to cure or heal for a day or two. Simply let the cuttings rest in a protected, dry location and allow the freshly cut end to dry. This will help prevent rot when you give them moisture again for rooting.
Rooting the Cutting
Here you have a choice. You can propagate Thanksgiving and Christmas cactus cuttings in water or in a substrate, such as moist soil or sand. Both methods work well and it’s ultimately your choice which method you want to try. Feeling experimental? Try rooting some cuttings using each of these two methods.
Regardless of which method you choose, place them in a warm location with bright, indirect sunlight while you wait for them to take root. They should start to root within three to eight weeks. They will usually start to show fresh growth at the tip when they have successfully rooted.
Rooting in Water
With the lower end facing down, place your cuttings in a small jar or cup filled with about an inch of fresh water. For a little extra support, if needed, place some small gravel or sand in the bottom to help anchor the cuttings in place so they don’t fall over. Only the lower half-inch or so of the cutting should be in the water.
Check the water level every day to make sure the lower tip of the cutting is still in the water. Refresh the water every few days so it doesn’t stagnate and start to smell bad. Keep just the lower tips of your cuttings in the water and within a few weeks, you should start to see the beginnings of tiny white rootlets forming.
Rooting in Substrate
Fill a small pot with fresh cactus soil, peat, or a mixture of sand and soil. Make sure the pot has good drainage holes so extra water will run out into a saucer rather than pool at the bottom of the pot. Moisten the substrate and place the lower quarter to lower third of the lowest stem segment into the mixture.
Keep the soil mixture moist but not wet. If you’re doing side-by-side rooting with some cuttings in water and some in soil, you’ll probably notice the water cuttings rooting first. Rooting in soil may be slightly slower, but don’t worry; they will eventually develop roots. There’s no need to pull them out to check. Instead, watch for fresh growth at the top of the plant.
If any cutting starts to soften and becomes mushy, throw it out. Not all of them will be successful and some will probably develop rot. This is why it’s a good idea to take a few more cuttings than you think you need. You may also get lucky and they’ll all take root.
Replanting
Type of pot: Christmas cacti don’t like constantly wet roots and can easily develop root rot, so choose a pot with ample drainage. The drainage holes should be large enough to prevent water from pooling in the bottom of the pot. The pot’s material doesn’t matter as much. You can easily and successfully grow Chrismas cactus in plastic, terra cotta, or glazed ceramic pots, as long as they have good drainage holes.
Pot size: Start with a small pot for your small cuttings. As they grow larger, repot them and slowly increase the pot size. When the cuttings are still small and fresh, three or four cuttings easily fit within a four-inch pot.
Type of soil: Christmas cactus need well-drained soil. You can create your own soil mix or buy pre-made soil formulated for cacti and succulents. This mixture should contain nutrient-rich potting soil and components to increase drainage, such as sand and pearlite. I like to buy pre-made succulent mix because it’s quick, easy, very convenient, and I have limited storage space. Making your own well-drained mixture allows you to buy several soil supplies and customize soil mixes for all your houseplants.
Spacing: If you plant a single Christmas cactus stem, your cactus may look a bit scrawny. Most people will prefer the look of several stems planted together to better fill in the pot. Plant three or four cuttings together in the same pot just space them about one to two inches apart so they have enough room. As they grow, they will create a bushy little garden of green foliage, including more flowers for you to enjoy.
Long-Term Care
Congratulations! You now propagated a new Thanksgiving or Christmas cactus, and hopefully, you took multiple cuttings and you now have a new forest of Christmas cacti! So, how should you take care of your new plants?
Once you’ve repotted your newly propagated cuttings, you can treat them the same as your other Christmas cacti. Since their roots start very small and short, you may want to give them a little extra water for the first few weeks after transplanting, making sure they don’t dry out completely.
After the initial period of settling in, treat your Christmas cactus as you normally would. Place it in a sunny window and enjoy it. Allow the soil to dry between waterings and fertilize it lightly during the active growing season. Repot your plants when they’ve outgrown their current pots or need fresh soil. You can expect your healthy plants to have a long and vibrant life!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I grow Christmas cactus from seed?
As a flowering plant, Christmas cacti do make seeds. These plants need to be cross-pollinated in order to make seeds, so you would need at least two different plants blooming at the same time, and then you need to hand-pollinate them. This is why you’ll almost never see fruits forming on your houseplants. While this can be a fun experiment to try, it’s much faster and easier to propagate a Christmas cactus by taking stem cuttings.
Should I fertilize the cuttings?
There’s no need to fertilize cuttings. They will readily form new roots in pure, clean water or fresh, well-drained potting soil. Save the fertilizer for when the plants are larger and enter their next active growth cycle.
Do I need rooting hormone to help the cuttings make roots?
Some plants benefit from rooting hormones to stimulate new root formation. Christmas cactus doesn’t need rooting hormones. Like most other easily propagated succulents, these plants will form new roots quickly and easily. They just want to grow and when presented with an opportunity, stem segments will take root and form new individual plants.
If a Christmas cactus can be propagated in plain water, can I just keep it growing in water?
Not for long. Water is a fine medium for rooting Christmas cactus. The roots get the oxygen they need from the fresh water. Ultimately, however, these plants are adapted to growing in soil. Once they develop roots in the water, they should be transplanted to a pot filled with soil. Here they will grow, gather nutrients, and thrive in an environment that more closely resembles their natural habitat.
Do Christmas cactus spread and form new stems from the roots?
No. If you plant a single stem of a Christmas cactus plant, it will remain a single stem. The stem will become thicker and tougher looking. It will develop many branching sections above the main stem section, but it will never multiply from the base. Christmas cactus can’t be propagated by division, only by stem cuttings and seeds.
Do Christmas cactus have leaves?
Although the stem sections may look leaf-like, Christmas cacti don’t have leaves. They have only flattened, green stems and flowers. When you propagate them by cuttings, you are technically taking stem cuttings rather than leaf cuttings.
