Feeding cacti?

G'day guys,

Here's a bit of a topic I'll love to hear opinions on... what's the best fertilliser for cacti? What do you guys use? Slow release or liquid fertilliser? What feeding regime do you use? Any particular regime that you've found that works either particularly well or particularly badly? How does your approach to feeding vary between plants?

I know it's a very broad topic, but sometimes I feel that a lot of the cultivation info out there is focused on when to water the plants - and I can't help but feel that solid advice on feeding our babies is somewhat more scarce and needs to be addressed.

I now open the thread to opinions...

i give mine charlie carp.

seems to work just fine but i havent sone a controlled comparison or anything.

i dislike liquid fertilizers now. so easy to over/under do things.

i use organic pellets and mix it in the susbtrate. for teh last 3 years i done this, and this year i have switched all my cacti to this method, i am happy with it

I never use organic feed for my Ariocarpus & Astrophytum (and other similiar slow growing cacti) as I feel the less OM in the mix is the best stratedgy. Other cacti will get half strength seaweed feed or half strength miracle grow alternatively on a fairly regular basis. I don't feed my cacti that much anyway, most of my cacti get a small amount of slow release high potassium feed at potting time, then later a liquid feed when the slow release leaches out.

one thing some farmers here use for more expensive and sensitive cacti (like astros/arios/crests etc) is dog poo.

the poo is set ou tin the sun for a few months until it is white. then they fry it in a big pan to kill anything in it. if comes out as big light puffy chuncks. great fertilizer if you don't mind working with poo! i dont, so i buy mine done

Hideous! Am sure it works well though. A good use for an otherwise useless and polluting element put to good use.

Still, it's hideous...might go for a bit of a dog crap hunt now lol

Miracle grow, its cheap, easy to find and works very well IMO, i use it on the trichos throughout the summer, the other more delicate ornamentals get a wee bit aswell but nowhere near the same amounts. I dont really have a timetable for feeding i just do it when i think they mite need a boost. This is for plants in pots, the ones in the ground seem to grow like mad and find enough nutes for themselves.

Dog crap huh?!? i think ill stick to miracle grow.

Dog poo?!?

Mate, I love my cacti but I ain't goin' near no dog poo for them!

Personally, I add a little bit of slow release fertillizer to the potting mix, and give a little seaweed emulsion at growing time. Obviously, the faster growing cacti varieties get fed more than the really slow ones.

yes, i agree. i only use it in the cacti i buy from him that already have it in it. but it is so far cooked you cant tell it is anything. it looks, feels and smells like dirt. but i did get a bag of it from him, he swears by it and has some very large fast growing cacti with it...as are mine that have it (5 cm a year on a loph crest is not slow!)

but normally i use slow release as well (in the form of bird poo pellets)