Care of Epiphyllum hybrids

Epiphyllum Hybrid Care

Most Epiphyllum species are night blooming white flowering cactus which came from Central and South America. They live in tree canopies with very few nutrients, save leaf mold and bird or bat droppings. They are not paracitic, as they do not use their host tree to provide their food. They mostly have white flowers, there are few exceptions to this rule. While the night blooming epis are beautiful, people tend to more often grow the hybrids since the flower colors are more showy. They gee in many shades of pink, red, orange, white, yellow, and purple. How did they get from night blooming white to day blooming colored flowers? They were hybridized with other cacti like Heliocereus and Nopalxochia and also terrestial cacti were used. Most hybrids have less than 20% true epiphyllum in them any more.
Care of cuttings:
When your cuttings gee, put them aside for a week or two up to a month to cure or callous, this helps prevent rot. The longer they are left to cure, the quicker they seem to root once planted. They will look ugly once cured, but they bounce back. When you're ready to plant, make sure you plant one variety to a pot, two cutting to a 4 in pot will cause it to bloom quicker. You can use rooting hormone, however this is usually not needed. Plant about an inch to an inch and a half deep, making sure there are at least one or two areoles on each side. Your plant will get it's best growth from under the soil. A good mix of 1/3 perlite, 1/3 vemiculite, 1/3 sterile potting soil w/o peat can be used for rooting cuttings. Keep an eye out for fungus gnat larvae at this time, they eat cuttings that are too wet, and seem to breed in peat based mixes. Label the plant and pot, I use a sharpie marker to mark the plant and pot, and also use a DYMO embosser labeler. You will want to keep track of the hybrid names in each pot. Keep the soil moist, not wet or dry, too wet will cause rot, too dry will kill any feeder roots it's established. Mist daily or use ice cubes to moisten the soil. If for any reason your cutting begees mushy or turns yellow, it's probably because of too much water, cut off the bad part, set your cutting aside to cure and start the process over. It can take over 6 months for roots to develop, be patient. After about a month give your cutting a slight tug, if you get resistance, you're probably rooted.
Rooted cuttings can be potted in the below mix. put your cutting in a small pot and gently put barely moist mix around the plant. carefully tamp down the mix around the plant, you want it just tight enough to hold the plant up, not congeal around the plant when watered. Wait about a week before watering and gently until you see new growth. cut off any growth geing from the tip of your cuttings as this makes an unsightly plant. You want new growth to gee from the root line.
Care of established plants:
Once rooted, you can switch potting mixes to 1/3 perlite, 2/3 gemercial C