These are pretty easy to root, I have some rooting right now. Get yourself some small pots (2" for one or two segments is good) and some loose fast draining soil - a mix of african violet and cactus soil with some xtra perlite thrown in is good. I use a rooting hormone but you don't have to. Stick the segments into the soil, about 1/3 of the way in. Keep them in a place where they will get a bit of light, no direct sun, and don't let them (the soil)dry out. I mist a few times a day. They will usually root within a week or so, maybe longer. After a week, pull up very gently on them, if you feel any resistance, they are rooted. I usually leave them in their rooting pots until they are putting out significant new growth. With the ones I have rooting now, I may wait until early spring to move them into bigger pots. It depends on how fast they grow.

Some people root them in water, but since they will be going into the soil eventually anyway, I just start with that. Drop into Epiforums, they have some good hoilday cacti info - look for the schlumbergera and rhipsalidopsis headings.

ps - some will say to let the segments dry out for a week before planting to prevent rot, I have done this and not done this with the same results, no rotting, but it wouldn't hurt to do it, just to play it safe. I'm not big on playing it safe, I prefer to live life "on the edge, if you know what I mean! As a beginner though, let them dry out a bit. It's not like you have the mother plant and can go pick some more segments if these rot.

I have a 20 gallon aquarium where a few plants are living. Since I've extra room, whenever I need to root something, if I don't do it in water, I use the aquarium..Ive rooted several Christmas Cactus/Thanksgiving cactus in there. I just stick the bottom tips of plant in the soil..because they are succulent I let the soil dry out, but this plant enjoys humidity, so the glass around it provides humid air. If you have an old aquairum, or reptile house, just add soil on the bottom, and root.
BTW, I agree w/the above poster but wouldn't let the soil remain wet..it needs to dry out..Toni

My segments arrived!!! They are looking well and looked like the separation point was already dried out, so I planted them in cactus/av mix soil in a little 2 gallon fishtank I had in the basement. I'm going to keep them in my bedroom (2nd floor, east window) for now and hope that they'll take.
Thanks a bunch for the advice!
Britta

Britta, you didn't mention watering..did you give them a drink? Toni

I only misted them with a spray bottle, since I'm still working on my habit of overwatering. Is that enough? There is still water on the sides of the aquarium.

How did your cuttings do, mccaba? I'm trying to root some now.

I don't water my Schlum cuttings until they have rooted. If they have no roots they can't utilize the water. Misting will give them enough to survive and help them root faster. This time of year they can take several weeks to root. One and two segment cuttings root faster for me than large cuttings. If you get large cuttings you can twist them apart into smaller pieces. This is what works best for me not the gospel.

The white and the red are rooted, but show now sign of growth. I lost the orange one. Another one I have (which was just blooming) is starting to look really dry and limp. Any idea what that could be? They are not too dry or too wet, and are standing in a SE window.
Britta

mccaba, I gotta throw a wrench into your thinking; that two-gallon fishtank is about a gallon a half TOO BIG.

Your sections will grow much better given less room. The little bit of soil in a 2" or 4" pot is quite sufficient.
There is a big problem in removing a plant from a small pot....thinking it could do that much better if given a big pot....that is a sure-fire way to kill a plant.

You can buy a 4" plastic pot for about 49¢ ...or less.
This is quite sufficient to get at least 2 or 3 sections into it. It should be kept moist and it must drain properly. Give it good sun.
A rooting hormone is not really necessary but if you choose to use ....say a powder, be sure to blow off all the extra.

If you choose too, you can place more than one series of sections in the same pot....make a plant of it.
I have quetioned the mixing of colors together in the same pot and have come to the conclusion that one becomes dominant and takes over the color of the others. I have no proof that this is the case.

If you think this might be true, you might choose instead to use one pot for each section pieces.

Got a dollar store near you---you know, a store that sells everything for a buck or two. They have undoubtedly much stock of small clay pots....(2" & 4") These are ideal for beginning plants. Just be aware that clay pots absorb water into themselves...they should be soaked overnight before being used. Clay pots are ideal for beginner gardeners because they often will prevent overwatering.

Cuttings like warmth too, it speeds up their metabolism and helps them root faster and fight off infection. I have much better luck in a warm propagator than on a windowsill at this time of year.

As an alternative to a small aquarium, you can put the little pot/plantlets in a ziplock bag of the appropriate size. That makes a nice high-humidity mini-tropical environment for them. Once they start rooting you can open it a crack and it will stay more humid inside than out. In direct sun a closed ziplock (or aquarium for that matter) can turn into an EZbake oven, so be careful.

Um, I guess I forgot to mention that I had moved the segments out of the aquarium a while ago. They are now in small plastic pots. I've been haning out in the AV forum a lot and learned quite a bit about plants in general.

Today I was at HD to pick up some fertilizer for my AV's and they had Thanksgiving cactus for $3.99 in 4" pots. They were beautiful, so I took three home with me. A bright magenta/pink one, a yellow, and a red. Now I have some blooming while I wait for my segments to grow.

Should I repot the ones I just bought right away? My white one (a large blooming cutting a got a month ago) isn't doing so great right now, so I'm a little worried. The white one is in a plastic hanging pot with a saucer, hanging in a East/Southeast facing bathroom window. It looks a little leathery and limp. The blow flowers it had have come and gone already.

Hopefully somebody will still read this, even though it's on an old thread. Otherwise I'll have to start a new one.

Britta

I would leave the new ones alone until spring. If you repot now it will likely drop its buds. After blooming TC usually rests for a few weeks. By then it will be the dead of winter anyway. About late February the TC will wake up and begin to grow again. Then would be a good time to repot.