Rot? or dried out? or other?

[nickcoil]

I purchased three cacti about 10 months ago, and one of them (notocactus) is having some problems. It is "hunching over" in the direction of the sickness, and the tissue seems dark and possibly dry.

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It is kept inside and has very little sun exposure. The woman who sold them to me said to water them once every 5 weeks (and by water, she said just a drizzle). They are sitting in cactus soil with a rock shallow rock layer on top. This looks like it may be rot, but it also seemed to my like it could be drying out. The brown surface is not very soft like I've read of rot. I have also read that if the cactus is not getting heat or sun that I really don't have to water it at all. Any help I receive will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Nick

[iann]

This plant does get ugly at the base and it does lean, but soft brown is not good.

Watering for these, like almost all cacti, should be enough to wet the whole rootball, then allow to dry until it needs water again. That could be a lot longer than 5 weeks in winter, or of the plant gets little sunlight. It is difficult to grow most cacti well without direct sun.

BTW, "cactus soil" is almost universally unsuitable for the job. At the very least it needs to be mixed with some sort of coarse material to improve the drainage.

[nickcoil]

Thanks for the advice! So, if it's not soft, I shouldn't cut it out, correct? I assume rot would be noticeably soft. I'm attempting to figure out what to do to the cactus, if anything.

[Rod Smith]

If it's rot, the whole area will be soft enough to push your finger in. If so, you can probably say goodbye to the plant. If it's not soft I would de-pot it and look at the roots. Post a picture on here if possible and we can give you some advice.