How to repot cactus plants
Prickly cacti can be tricky to repot. Follow our step-by-step guide to repotting them with ease.
Cactus plants make the perfect, low-maintenance house plants and are perfect for a sunny windowsill. However they need repotting every few years, especially if they’re growing happily, or if they’ve become lop-sided and need straightening up. That said, their prickly nature can make this a tricky job, so you need to take care.
Watch this practical video guide with Kevin Smith, BBC Gardeners' World Magazine, to find out how to do it:
You Will Need
- Free-draining compost or cactus compost
- Small plastic and terracotta pots
- Horticultural grit
- Newspaper
Step 1
Fold up a piece of newspaper into a thick strip and wrap it around the barrel of the cactus, gripping the two ends together so they can be used to hold the plant steady.
Step 2
Tap the cactus out of its pot and gently scrape away most of the old compost from around the rootball, but try not to disturb the roots too much.
Step 3
Repot the plant in cactus compost, which is a gritty loam-based compost that won’t shrink when it dries out. Make sure the plant is central in the new pot and standing vertically.
Step 4
Top-dress the surface of the compost with sharp grit to set off the plant and prevent it from being splashed with compost when you water it.