How do you all repot your cacti without being pricked by thorns?!!?!

[Mrstumbletap]

I have loads of cacti 🌵 that started from my dear Nans giant cactus many many years ago.

My giant one (about the size of a grapefruit) sprouts a handful of baby cacti and I repot them and they do fabulously. I have about 10 that need new pots as they are getting too big. But every time I end up with cactus thorns in my fingers despite wearing gardening gloves.

I ordered some 'thorn proof' gloves from Amazon last week that are meant for rose bushes and the cactus thorns went straight through those too.

So how do you all repot your cacti without pricking your fingers?

A friend who has giant cacti (some of them six feet tall!) says he was advised by a professional gardener from Kew to scrumple up loads of old newspaper into thick balls, then, wearing gloves, press a newspaper ball against each side of the cactus to lift it. It protects your hands, but is soft enough not to damage the cactus.

Absolute genius!-my DD has a green thumb inhertited from her gran-she has a bunch of succulents&cacti-one the size of a honeydew needing repotting had completely stumped us-I cant wait to tell her this piece of wisdom : )

There are many ways to repot cacti, advice above re: newspaper is a good one. Some people use polystyrene offcuts each side of the plant, which shouldn’t damage the spines too much. Others use tongs or chopsticks. Also, pushing up the whole rootball from the drainage holes underneath, and then holding by the rootball beneath the plant is another method. You could also make a collar of folded newspaper around the plant to protect your hands.

I have a huge collection of cacti, which I have grown for over 40 years, so repotting is a major job each year, and you get used to handling them so that you don’t get spiked too often, but it’s an occupational hazard!

This is great advice, I have newspaper and polystyrene!

Thank you

the secret is to get someone else to hold them as you remove the old pot, and then to carefully place it, under your direction, into it's new home.

The only downside is you'll have to find someone new to do it each time.

For most I don't worry - it's a bit like holding a hedgehog - one spine hurts, but if you cup your hands round the hedgehog so its body weight is spread evenly over hundreds of spines, it's fine.

Otherwise - small cacti - kitchen tongs. Heavier cacti - either newspaper crumpled and fashioned into a loop I can put round the cactus. Or a heavy leather glove on my left hand. Hedgehog principle applies - let the cactus rest gently on the glove, don't try to grab it.

Put the cactus into a pot which is 1cm wider than cactus+spines so you have space to firm down the soil around the sides, using the blunt end of a pencil if necessary.

There are two sorts of cacti which need more care 1) those with small hooked spines - you can get them out of yourself easily with the edge of a plant label, but doing it without the plant shedding the areole (from which the spines grow) is more difficult. So I always avoid touching those 2) Opuntias, which have, as well as big spines, little clumps of tiny spines, finer than a hair, which once they have got into your skin somewhere, over the course of the day transfer themselves to every bit of your body. I don't repot Opuntias.

I don't have as many cacti as NanTheWiser and I'm not as knowledgeable about them as she is, but like her I've been repotting them for decades - about 60 years in my case.

I will think about the hedgehog analogy today when I do my repotting!

Have about 10 to do 😬