Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Mid Atlantic Chit chat December, 0 by Gitagal

Gitagal wrote:
Sally--

The ultimate sacrifice is to break the pot off of the plant. Just hammer it off....OUCH!!!

Then you can remove the plant and knock some (most) of the OLD soil off of it--and refresh
it with nice, new potting mix. Some slow-release fertilizer mixed in would help..."Osmacote"?
Maybe--You could also, just pull the plant up?

CC have shallow roots. You may loose more soil than you want to if you remove it--but it will
be OK. Just try to keep the existing root-ball as intact as you can.
When you re-pot this plant--you should brace it from all sides with some short bamboo sticks--
just to keep it from moving around as it re-roots in the new pot.

Maybe you could wait until spring to do this. That is when they go into their growing phase.
Right now--they are, or should be, in their dormant phase...Dry and cool......Until beg. of April.

Take them outside and keep them in filtered light all season.
As the seson progresses and it gets really cold (NOT freezing)--keep them outside
a couple more weeks. By this time--all of mine are showing buds at the end of all the tips...
Then I bring them inside--and they go "POOF!"--and bloom.

Gita


Here is a picture of some of my small pots with X-Mas cactus cuttings rooting in them.
These are on the top of the mid-sash of my window above my kitchen sink facing North.
I also have these on my DR window sash...