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My once healthy Cleistocactus strausii started to look like this since last week. what's wrong with it? And what can I do?

You can cut off the dried out part. It is dead tissue. It probably was too dry. This cactus can take a lot of water when it is not dormant.

Looks like your plant is etiolated, meaning it has stretched out because of a lack of light intensity.

Why don't you place the plant outside for spring and summer? I do that with Cleistocactus strausii up here, in the Netherlands, just letting the rain pour onto it every time. Surely you even have better weather up there with much more sun!

I water every week or 10 days and it is outside 24/7 getting direct sunlight from 7am to around 2pm.

This is my setup

Will it grow back if I cut it?

friedrich03 wrote:Will it grow back if I cut it?

Cutting off the dead part isn't going to hurt its chances any. If that's all one plant, you've already got a new shoot growing - whether the stump of that old stem puts out any new growth only time will tell.

friedrich03 wrote:This is my setup

I greatly approve of the way you have everything up off the ground ... even though it's only a couple of inches of wood between pot and ground, this will help insulate your plants from pests.

I find that (healthy) C. strausii plants rapidly put up new stems when the tips die on existing ones, otherwise only when they get pretty tall.

My C. strausii did the same thing last winter. During March and early April the two tallest stems began to shrivel about ½ way up and eventually dried up completely. I cut off the shrivelled bits and the remaining parts of the stem have both produced flowers this year. Four other shorter stems are growing vigorously. I believe this species needs to be watered occasionally during the winter and that's what I'll do in future.

Thank you all for your helpful replies. this is the plant now after cutting the dead part. Should I cut more or leave it as is?

You can alway cut more later if it dies back farther, I would just wait and see.

I recently brought one of these into my apartment which is bright but with indirect sun. One of the “pillars” or “tentacles” completely broke off at the base. The bottom half of it turned yellow too.

It’s only been a few weeks, and the journey in the car was very stressful, he fell over in the car. I watered once I got him home since I wasn’t sure of the care he had before.
Am I over watering? If yes, what would be a sign that I need to water if I stop watering for a while