The cactus was doing well for about a year. A few days ago, when I wanted to water it again, I saw this. One of the branches (is that what they're called?) had fallen off. A few days later, the others did too.
Until now, I had been watering the cactus every 7-10 days, and everything had always been fine.
Does anyone have any tips for me on what might have caused this and how to avoid it in the future?
by FancyShirtGuy
8 Comments
Don’t water on a schedule, water when the soil is dry for the first inch or so
Looks to me like either over watering or an infection
I don’t know, but I’m curious to find out.
definitely overwatered, root rot. I have one of these I water about once a month. and does your pot of drainage holes?
Looks very mushy and I’d guess it has root rot. I killed my first ever succulent by watering it weekly in a pot with no drainage. Anything already rotting cannot be saved, but the firm, green stems can. If you want to try saving it, remove it from the pot and grab yourself a sanitized blade/scissors. Cut just above the rot to separate the remaining healthy stem and let the cut stems callous over for about a week. While you wait, ensure you have a pot with drainage holes and that your new soil is well-draining. You don’t want to use the same soil that all that rot was festering in. You can either create your own succulent soil mix from a recipe online, or just buy a premade succulent potting soil mix. If the old soil was holding water for long periods of time, like still being wet after a week, that’s likely why your plant rotted. Drainage is very important for any plant, but especially succulents. They can withstand dry soil for weeks, even months, and don’t want constantly wet soil. If you can remember the last time you watered your succulent, it’s probably not thirsty yet! Once your cactus cuttings are calloused, place them in *dry* soil for about two weeks to let it establish roots before watering. Good luck!
Dying and rotting from the bottom up.
Propagate asap, or lose it all. 😛
Too much watch
Is that a cholla?
Yeah it definitely looks overwatered. I water all my cacti/succulents once or twice a month. You want to make sure the soil is DRY before watering. It’ll need less water as it gets colder outside too. You might lose a few of the branches but you should be able to save it as long as you give it a break from water. It might be helpful to transfer it to some dry soil, but some plants don’t do well with being transplanted so do what you think is best there. You might want to check for root rot as well, if it has root rot you’re less likely to be able to save it. If so, I would cut away the rotten roots and if there’s not enough good root left then hopefully it will reroot. Cacti are pretty good at that. Good luck!