Fully buried offsets with new cactus

[Ilvin]

Hi all,

I recently bought a new cactus, which I believe is Echinopsis ancistrophora subs. arachnacantha from looking at Llifle.

I immediately repotted the little cactus in better soil, only to find two mini cacti buried among the roots. They weren't attached in any way to the main cactus, so I'm not sure if they are in fact offsets or just wayward seedlings. Now, they both have roots of their own. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the roots, but there's basically more root than cactus.

Neither of them look unhealthy, however I'm not sure if they'll survive having been fully buried. And if they are offsets they're a little small to have been removed (I do wonder if I knocked them off the mother plant's root system). I'd like some advice on if they're likely to survive and exactly how to treat these things. Should I act like they're fully grown cacti and water accordingly? Full light even though they were buried? Here's a picture of the 'offsets':

offsets1.jpg (148.49 KiB) Viewed 631 times

And here's the mother plant, in case species will help determine if the offsets will live. Also this plant came with scale (I should have checked it in the store, but I only checked for mealies), none visible on the offsets.

plant1.jpg (156.41 KiB) Viewed 631 times

[DaveW]

Some cacti do produce offsets attached to the roots by underground stolon's. Notocactus (Parodia) ottonis often does this, but unless you unpot they often look like normal offsets from lower areoles. As you say you are not sure they were originally attached they could be seedlings coming up around the plant as seed always seems to germinate better around the mother plant than set separately.

When they arise as a stolon being initially buried underground makes no difference as they grow quite normally once they break the surface of the soil.

Echinocereus stolonifer gets its name from its stoloniferous method of offsetting from the roots.

https://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/taxa/ ... axon=31240

[Nino_G]

I'd like some advice on if they're likely to survive and exactly how to treat these things. Should I act like they're fully grown cacti and water accordingly? Full light even though they were buried?

I don't expect you'll have any problems with the young plants of that size whether they are offsets or seedlings. At first, it would be advisable to be somewhat cautios with sun exposure - best to expose them to the morning sun for a few hours every day and gradually extend exposition period over time. You can water them same as adult plants: as soon as the soil is thoroughly dry you can water them again.
Also, I agree with you - it's most likely Lobivia arachnacantha.

[greenknight]

Agreed - introduce them gradually to full light, and go easy on the water until they've grown into that pot, they should do fine.

[Ilvin]

Thanks guys, great to know - Gradual increase in light and fairly normal cactus watering. Looks like I've got three plants instead of one!