Finding the Right Light

by Em
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Last year my Christmas cactus plants were a little stingy with the blooms. I’m pretty sure it’s because I had too many forced tulip bulbs hogging all the space in the South-facing window, and I had to move the Christmas cacti to a North-facing window. They just didn’t get enough light.

This year, even though they were back in their original spot, my plants had only a few buds on them. I was perplexed. Then I read an article that said that a Christmas cactus really needs 12 hours of darkness a day for 6 or more weeks before it will be encouraged to set buds. Other than last year my plants have bloomed enthusiastically every year, and they’ve never received that much darkness each day. And the only way they would get that kind of light treatment would be if I took them to the basement every evening and brought them upstairs every morning. Nope. Not gonna happen.

But a thought did occur to me. In September I placed a new lamp in that room and connected it to a timer that went on for a few hours in the early morning and late evening. Could that be screwing up the Christmas cactus plants? I removed the lamp in early November and within a few weeks the plants were full of buds.

Maybe the buds would’ve set eventually anyway, but I’d like to think removing the lamp made all the difference.

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