Pencil Cactus; How To Care For This Eccentric Succulent
The Pencil Cactus is a must have plant for plant lovers of any skills!
Whether you are just starting with plants, or are a busy person with little time to care for them, the Pencil Cactus is an extremely low maintenance plant with a unique look.
There is just one potential issue with this plant; its milky sap is highly toxic to humans and pets. So, if you have young children and pets, I strongly recommend you skip directly to the last section on Pencil Cactus Toxicity.
The Euphorbia Tirucalli, also known as Pencil Cactus, Pencil Tree, or Milk Bush, is a shrub or small tree with succulent branches native to North-Eastern, Central and Southern Africa.
When the Pencil Cactus reaches the shrub or tree size, is considered a mature plant. Mature Pencil Cacti have brown, thick trunks with green, succulent stems.
Caring for the Pencil Cactus indoors is quite easy.
Let’s see how!
light
The Pencil Cactus requires a lot of bright, direct light to thrive.
Close proximity to a South Window is ideal for this plant. 6 hours of direct light from a South facing window is better than 6 hours from a Western facing window, as the hot afternoon sun rays tend to be scorching for any plant.
If you do have a West facing window only, place your Pencil Cactus far enough from the window so that it can still receive enough light without burning its stems.
Humidity
The Pencil Cactus is an ideal plant for dry homes.
However, it is an extremely adaptable plant and does really well in any average home humidity levels.
watering & fertilizing
This plant is quite drought tolerant, which means that it doesn’t need too much water.
Depending on your climate and the conditions of your home, the Pencil Cactus needs to be watered anywhere between once a week or every two weeks in the Spring and Summer, (its growing season), and every three weeks or once a month in Fall and Winter.
Despite its fast rate of growth, the Pencil Cactus is not a big feeder, only requiring fertilizing once or twice during its growing season.
I fertilize my plant once in the Spring and once in Summer with liquid plant food.
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repotting
As mentioned, this is a fast growing plant, but that doesn’t mean you need to repot it every year.
As much as this plant likes to grow, it also enjoys its roots slightly packed in its pot.
You’ll know it’s time to repot when its roots start to stick out of the drainage hole at the bottom of the pot.
When repotting your Pencil Cactus, you need to wear gloves, and protective eye wear.
It may sound ridiculous to you, but as you’ll read in the next few sections, this plant is quite toxic. If the sap touches your skin, you can get seriously irritated, and if it reaches your eyes, you can be temporarily blinded.
In general, when repotting plants, the rule of thumb is to use a pot that is one, max. two sizes bigger than the existing one, (for example; if your plant is in a 8″ pot, you’d upgrade it to a 10″, max 12″ pot).
This is because the bigger the pot, the more soil goes in it. The more soil goes in, the more water is absorbed and retained. The more water is retained, the greater the chances of root rot, especially when the volume of soil is much bigger compared to the volume of the roots.
Check out this article on repotting plants for more details.
The Pencil Cactus is no exception to these “rules”.
Pick a pot that is one size bigger. Ideally a terracotta pot with draining holes. Terracotta allows excess moisture to evaporate, and is the ideal pot for indoor plants.
Draining pots are essential for plants’ health as well. Without proper drainage plants cannot thrive and survive, especially plants like the Pencil Cactus that require dry and draining soil.
Since drainage is critical for Pencil Cacti, I recommend mixing a cactus soil with perlite to add draining properties to the mix. Add one part perlite to 4 parts soil.
I’ve only repotted my Pencil Cactus twice since I’ve had it, which is now four years.
As your plant grows, you’ll notice its main stems will start to be heavy and lean over. I chose to support my plant’s stem to give it a clean look, but you can let it cascade and grow naturally.
propagation
Propagating a Pencil Cactus is quite easy, provided that you protect your eyes and skin from contact with the toxic sap that the plant will secrete when cutting the stems.
As you do when you repot the Pencil Cactus, make sure you wear gloves and protective eye wear before you proceed with the cutting.
The best way to propagate this plant is to cut a stem with a sharp knife, without damaging it, at its connections with other stems.
Place your cutting in a dark room for a few days so that it can form the callous, (which is the scar from the cutting. You need to allow the stem to dry out its cutting).
Once the callous is formed, place the cutting in water. It will start to root within a month. The Pencil Cactus rooting process is much slower than other plants such as Pothos and Monsteras. Just give it some time.
After a couple of months, when the roots have developed, you can plant your Pencil Cactus in a pot of soil.
Remember, you will have to water this new plant more often than its mother plant in the beginning, as it is coming from water as its medium, so it’s used to be “wet”.
This is one of the Pencil Cactus stems I rooted in water.
This stem has actually been growing in water for almost 3 years now. I had to cut it off from the mother plant as a damaged and bent stem, so I decided to try and root it! It turns out this plant is happy growing in water!
toxicity
As mentioned several times throughout this article, the Pencil Cactus is a toxic plant for humans and pets.
It’s no surprise I included it in my list of Poisonous Indoor Plants.
This plant is no joke!
If you have pets and small kids, make sure you keep it out of their reach!
If you have cats that you cannot keep away from plants, you should consider a different plant! Take a look at these non-toxic indoor plants and non-toxic succulents that are safe for cats and pets in general.
The Pencil Cactus produces a poisonous latex, (often mentioned as milky sap), that can cause temporary blindness if in contact with the eyes.
This sap is corrosive over time and extremely irritating to the skin, causing redness and a burning sensation.
Please don’t let these warnings scare you away from this plant though!
I’ve had this plant for quite some time. I have a dog and two kids.
I repotted it twice and propagated it a couple of times.
Nothing bad has ever happened.
I just keep it out of reach and I am cautious when I handle it.
It’s an eccentric plant that is incredibly low maintenance!
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Hey Plant Loving Woman!
Are you a middle age mom?
Do you constantly feel overwhelmed and anxious?
Do you believe in the healing power of nature?
To reveal your #1 Personal Houseplant that best
helps you reduce your anxiety.