Health on a scale of 1-10

[Shell_Lenane]

Hi. I've had a cactus for years that admittedly through my own lackadaisical care is probably not in very good shape at all. But that's all changing as of right now.
Can you tell me from looking at my pictures how bad she is and if I can help her? She used to be kept on top of an overhead cabinet with no direct sunlight and the only water she got was steam from cooking .
She is now being kept on a south facing windowsill that gets good sun and I plan on soaking her maybe once a month, or when needed, in collected rain water.
She does have some new growth since the change to care routine but I was wondering what the scaling on the trunk was and if there is anything I can do to stop it.

I'd really appreciate any help you guys can give me.

[hoteidoc]

1) Health looks "good" - 7-8; 2) Not cactus, succulent Euphorbia; 3) "Scaling" on trunk called corking -- normal, but sometimes indicates stress. If you have the "heat" 80f/28C+ & sun, you could H20 every couple of weeks. I'd also repot & add at least 50% coarse material - pumice, decomposed granite, "coarse" grit/turkey grit, Turface, NAPA 8822 -- whatever you can get to loosen soil up.

[Shell_Lenane]

Thanks very much. From some research this morning I came to the conclusion it's a "euphorbia triangularis" Would I be correct?
I will most certainly re-pot with better soil and yes the poor thing was very stressed I think. The new growth gives me hope I'm not too late to save it thankfully.

[hoteidoc]

Probably, but I have never figured out the diff (if there is) between triangularis & trigonis.

[teo]

Looks more like E. triangularis and not trigona.

[Shell_Lenane]

So I went to the garden centre today and got an 18cm pot (she was in a 12cm), new peat moss and some perlite.
I've re-pot her in a 50/50 mixture. The old soil she was in was very compact in the pot but I loosened
the roots up as much as I dare.

I also couldn't help picking up some little ones for my kids, they didn't have to beg too hard

[hoteidoc]

I'll let others respond to appropriateness of 50/50 peat/perlite for the Euphorbia -- It might do OK, altho I have mine in my "standard" cactus soil recipe. But your newly acquired cacti I'd let dry out for a 7 - 10 days & definitely repot them, because in all likelihood they are in a peat "soil". To keep it simple, I'd use a "quality" (no chunks) potting soil (or "cactus soil") with either very coarse sand/perlite in a 1:3 or 4 ratio, i.e. potting soil no more than 25%. Others have their favorites (with even lower organic levels!), but this is KISS principle until you get more CG under your belt! If you choose to repot your Euphorbia, (since it just got repotted), I would worry about redoing over the next few days, because it hasn't gotten re-established anyway!

[Shell_Lenane]

Thanks hoteidoc for the advice. So you're saying I would be better off with a lot more perlite in the mix, ie. 1:3 soil to perlite, correct?? I still have plenty of both so a repot in a few days/weeks is definitely possible. Should I do it sooner or later?
The small cacti don't appear to have any drainage material in the soil at all and are very wobbly in the pots so I will be repotting them later today.

[hoteidoc]

Correct on both questions.