Mamillaria senilis roots snapped off

[MadridPeter]

Hi all! Hope you all keeping well! My child was playing and managed to knock over my senilisand in the fall its whole root system snapped off..what can I do? Is it possible to save it?

[jmoney]

you should be able to root it again I would think.

[MartP]

It's worth giving it a try... but we can't know for sure

[greenknight]

It should re-root, sure. Just give the wound time to callus over, then treat as a cutting.

Stick the roots in a pot, maybe that will grow.too. Not much chance, but worth a shot.

[jmoney]

Stick the roots in a pot, maybe that will grow.too. Not much chance, but worth a shot.

Didn't think of that!

[iann]

Just a thought, but were the roots rotting. It is really quite hard to break off an entire healthy root system. I'd expect something else to be damaged before the plant gives way.

Next, a piece of advice. Get someone else to repot it. That will save all sorts of trouble getting those hooks in your skin

[MadridPeter]

Yeah Ian your thought was accurate I didn't notice until I washed the soil away that the base was rotting...so I performed surgery cutting until I saw no more discolouration and luckily it wasn't too advanced..now the patient is sitting waiting for a callous to form..funny how an accident helped me catch it...must have been the abrupt change in weather over last few days ..well I suppose it's also a sensitive species with very small roots..can't help thinking it's not a great demonstration of my growing skills..if this plant recovers I'll give it an even faster draining soil mix

as for repotting i think no other plant comes near to the nightmare spines m. senilis has ..only ones i have that come any way close to a potting nightmare are the echinopsis aurea i have that has incredibly long black spines that pierce most gloves and when it matures an echinocereus engelmanii/fendleri hybrid (super spiny)