Cactus rooting

Nov 17, 2005 4 Replies
J

When I brought my cactus in for the winter this year, it fell over and broke into 3 sections. With other cactus', I would just clean up the wound, let it dry for a few months and then stick it in soil. THis cactus is not behaving that way. It refuses to dry out. Instead it just developes this big ugly wet moldy rotting spot across the entire botton. It was a big enough chunk that I could try again by cutting off the rot but its doing it again. I have it sitting in some kitty liter to try to dry it out but its not looking good.



How do I get it to dry out so I can root it?


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C

What is the proper scientific name of this "cactus"?

It appears the reason your cactus broke into pieces is because it has been rotting away from the inside for some time now.

If so, you cannot save it.

You should dispose of it before the other plants get infected.

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J

Sorry, don't know the name but here is a picture

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's the one on the right. The other one was one that I trimmed at the same time. It is nicely dried out. but you can see the brown rot on the one on the right. It was a 4 ft high columnar cactus and was in perfect health. No interior rot to begin with.

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M

get a very sharp knife and dip it into bleach. then cut the cactus about half an inch above the rot. Look at what the core looks like, if it's not mushy, you might have a chance. but like Cereus says, if it broke into three pieces, chances are it has a fungal rot and you need to give up on that particular cactus and root the one on the left and buy another cactus.

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C

Its Espostoa lanata.

From the dark cortex, you can tell that the rot has penetrated far into the cortex. The fungal hyphae penetrate deep into the cortex long before you see the actual soft rot.

If you cut all the all the stems with the same blade without sterilizing it, you may have already spread it to the other plants too.

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