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Haworthia retusa-how to grow and care for star cactus

Written by Maggie

Feb 23 2021

Haworthia retusa-how to grow and care for star cactus

Haworthia retusa, also called star cactus, is a fleshy perennial herb. Haworthia retusa is short, no stem.

Haworthia retusa picture

Haworthia retusa

Morphological characteristics of Haworthia retusa

Haworthia retusa (star cactus) is a fleshy perennial herb. haworthia retusa (star cactus) is short, with no stem. Leaves are hypertropic, arranged in a wheel, semicylindrical, triangular apex, relatively flat cross-section, slightly transparent, with straight veined green stripes, smooth leaf margin, no thorns. Pedicels of Haworthia retusa (star cactus) are very long, small white florets tubular.

The ecological habits of Haworthia Retusa

Haworthia retusa (star cactus) is a shallow-rooted polypulp plant, which should not be too deep when potted. It likes a warm, dry and semi-shady environment, is not cold-resistant, and is afraid of high temperature and strong light. Haworthia retusa (star cactus) requires loose and well-drained sandy loam soil, preferably well-drained leaf rot soil and coarse sand mixed soil. Keep the Haworthia Retusa slightly moist during the growing period, but do not allow water to accumulate in the basin. When the air is too dry, it can spray water to increase the air humidity and make the leaves full and full. Fertilizer 1 time a month, fertilizer can be dried cow dung processing granular organic fertilizer. Summer, winter (winter temperature is not less than 10℃) and dormant period should be dry, strict control of watering. If the light is insufficient, easy generation is vain, when midsummer light is too strong, should shade appropriately.

Haworthia retusa

Haworthia Retusa propagation methods

Haworthia retusa (star cactus) is propagated mainly by ramets and cuttings:

Ramets, all can be carried out throughout the year, often in spring 4-5 months when changing the basin, the mother plant from inside the basin, peel off the surrounding young Haworthia retusa, potted namely.

Cuttage, mainly to leaf insertion, cutting leaves after slightly dry cuttings, otherwise the incision is easy to rot, affect the survival rate. It can also remove the top of the growth point to promote the leaf axillary germination of new seedlings after cuttings.

How to grow and care for Haworthia retusa

Light: Since we mentioned earlier that you can’t have any light, too much light, or too much light, Haworthia retusa (star cactus) should be placed in a location with good light but no direct sunlight. In winter, its need for sunlight is relatively high, so it can be exposed to a little more light at other times than in the middle of the day.

Soil: In order for it to thrive, we need to pay attention to the quality of the soil when planting Haworthia retusa (star cactus). We can choose peat soil as basin soil, and also choose some drainage media, such as pearl stone, snake sawdust and so on. In addition, we can also turn over the basin regularly, one to two years or so once.

Fertilizer: the stage of nutrient demand is its vigorous development, this stage can be applied every ten days or half a month. We can choose animal dung, we can choose other organic fertilizer. But it doesn't need much in the winter when Haworthia retusa (star cactus) grows very slowly.

Haworthia retusa