How to safely and quickly dry cactus soil.

[Steve-0]

As the title states, my query is to dry out, quickly and safely. The cactus in question is pictured below. Species: Ferocactus acanthodes. 11" diameter, 6" height. The pot is a 3 gallon nursery plastic pot. It currently weighs 44#'s. In other words the soil is saturated and should be quite dry during the winter months, right? Some unknowing person drowned it recently.

I purchased this yesterday from Star Nursery in St. George, Utah, a city 305 miles South of me. Pretty much the last city in Utah before crossing the Nevada line en route to Las Vegas.

The link if you're interested: https://www.starnursery.com/product/fire-barrel

There were ten to choose from and the price was marked down $30 off. They also had a variety of other landscape sized cacti including Saguaro at a good price and huge Fig cactus, Opuntia ficus-Indica @ 5 feet tall for $19.95 among others.

But back to the issue. The Fero. acanthodes is currently indoors, by a south door window, next to a heating vent.

I feel it needs to dry faster. My idea, dump it out, clean the roots, dry it a few hours or a day, mix new soil, repot it, no water for a long while.

Is there an option to this solution, besides let it evaporate or do nothing and see how it goes?

[Shane]

I have two ideas. First, a towel under the pot will wick water out of the soil. This works better than you'd think. Also a fan blowing in the area would help dry things out

[SoilSifter]

That looks like it would be a bear to unpot. You might be able to pop out the whole root-ball and wad of dirt, or whatever is in there, from the pot without it falling apart and put a fan on it. Sometimes when I've wanted a potted plant to dry out quickly I've used a bamboo skewer to poke some deep holes in the surface of the potting mix while the plant is potted. I'm not sure it really does any good at speeding up drying out but I like to think it might help. Really, I like the nonstop fan idea that Shane mentioned.

[Steve-0]

Thanks, Shane, idea implemented . It's sitting next to the HVAC vent now and the heat is running. No warm Cali air here. South window will get bright sun for 3-5 hours daily. I put a thick towel underneath it, too. The pot holes drain mostly on the side of the bottom but with towe contact it might work.

If I don't see a marked loss of weight/moisture by tomorrow afternoon, I'm considering repotting it.

I'd rather dry it if I can.

Another idea just popped into me noggin....instead of REpotting it....would just UNpotting it work? As in lift it, have someone grip and slide off the pot. Then wrap a towel around it like swaddling a baby. Which is really only a few steps away from repotting it...but much quicker and easier.

My concern is not knowing how long it's been this wet...or is their 30#'s of rock and not much soil? The nursery had one person at the front and maybe one other in the yard out back. The cacti and succulents were under a shade screen roof....maybe 5,000 sqft. I should have taken some pics. Next time in late February I'll go back and do that.

[SoilSifter]

Another idea just popped into me noggin....instead of REpotting it....would just UNpotting it work? As in lift it, have someone grip and slide off the pot. Then wrap a towel around it like swaddling a baby. Which is really only a few steps away from repotting it...but much quicker and easier.

That's basically what I meant. Though, I don't think you will need to wrap the dirt in a towel. Instead just have the air blowing on the ball of dirt.

[SoilSifter]

I've heard St. George has a lot of cacti. I know a guy in Pocatello, ID who went there and came back and began trying to talk me in to planting some cacti for him in front of his business. Though, I've not had experience with trialing larger cacti in southeast Idaho. Whatever he saw in St. George really impressed him. I mention all of this because this thread has me curious about what might be on sale down there.

[Mrs.Green]

I use toiletpaper to dry out overwatered or rather drowned plants. Surprisingly often bought plants are either bone dry or soaking wet.. Put folded toiletpaper underneath the pot and be prepared to use at least a whole roll, you will have to change it a lot the first day. I also put rolled paper around the plant directly on the substrate but I can see that will be difficult in this case. It’s amazing how much water you can get rid of in this way.

[anttisepp]

Heat mat works very nice, it will let the plant to take some water before long rest and safely dry the soil.
Then you'll move it to some cool storage untill spring.

[Mrs.Green]

Taking a second look on your pics..the pot seems to be rather large? My concern would be that such a large volum will not be easy to dehydrate, quick enough?

[greenknight]

I've used paper towels for that. It can help to insert some little twists of paper towel or toilet paper in the drain holes for wicks. Just need to be long enough to make good contact with both the potting mix and the towel under the pot.

<edit> Should add that while the towel or whatever won't completely dry the soil, it will take it from saturated to merely damp - which is a big improvement.

[keith]

I feel it needs to dry faster. My idea, dump it out, clean the roots, dry it a few hours or a day, mix new soil, repot it, no water for a long while. '

You don't even have to re-pot it until Spring. What I do is place the bare rooted cactus in a empty pot supported by two pieces of wood placed across the top of the pot supporting the cactus so its hanging the roots in air and the top about where it would be if it was planted in soil. What i would worry about is you bought this cactus and I'm almost positive it was pulled out of the ground. you have no idea if it even has roots that are alive ?

If the roots were good and it was growing well which you have no way of knowing ? Then you could just dry out the plant using any method already described.

Its planted way too low in the pot anyway . Maybe it was planted higher and its in pure organic which has settled and the plant is lower because of that ? IDK ?

[Steve-0]

@ soilsifter-That looks like it would be a bear to unpot. Exactly! Which I why I included the weight = 44 pounds total. Either it's full of water or heavy rocks. I can see wet soil and gravel in the holes at the bottom. I'm not sure what the climate Zone is in St. George but it's certainly warmer in winter and HOT in the summer there. There were palm trees in town as I drove through. Lots of huge mature trees, also many species of Yucca and Agave are planted everywhere, plus the Joshua trees. I didn't see many cactus in town as landscape plants though..but I wasn't looking either. Before I drove down I called last week and asked about their inventory. The guy who helped me said they had 3 locations in St. George and inventory was actually low due to COVID issues. Altman Plants is one of their suppliers. Somewhere in Nevada is another. My cactus actually came from Nevada with a State Tag attached to it.

This morning I had to head to work a few hours to receive a truck delivery. Heading home to see what I can accomplish with it.


@ Mrs. Green - good Idea with the TP. Just not much access. I had thought of either drilling holes into the pot (cheap nursery plastic) or cutting the entire bottom off. But removing the pot is still the better plan.

@ Antisepp - I'm hoping the heating vent will do some good but I heating pad is available to stick under it for a night.

@ Keith - You don't even have to re-pot it until Spring. What I do is place the bare rooted cactus in a empty pot supported by two pieces of wood placed across the top of the pot supporting the cactus so its hanging the roots in air and the top about where it would be if it was planted in soil. What i would worry about is you bought this cactus and I'm almost positive it was pulled out of the ground. you have no idea if it even has roots that are alive ?

The Nevada State Tag does seem to infer this and all the others at the nursery with yellow tags attached came from a commercial venture the next state over, Nevada. Without removing the plant from the pot I won't know what I have. The tag is heavily sun faded on the printed side and bright yellow on the back which makes me think this has been in a pot for some time or at least has had the tag attached while in the ground maybe. All the others looked like they have been in pots for some time. The girl at the register didn't know anything about them. She just works there. I feel the owners or managers were on holiday vacation leaving the employees running the place during the holidays.

I think I'm going to lay down a tarp and remove the pot this evening to - see what I have and to dry it out.

[Mrs.Green]

Steve-O; what did you decide to do and how is the cactus doing now?

[Steve-0]

Mrs. Green ...before I answer....I was searching this evening for threads on "making pots" looking for ideas...and came across a post by a gentleman which I read.

The person is : Mr. Crimson of ....wait for it...Norway! He posted ten years ago. What are the odds?

So ...Short answer - repotted the cactus the next day.

Longer answer. First I called the nursery from where I purchased it. The 'right' person took my call and we discussed at length my purchase and their return/refund policy, plus care and other details.

The soil is still in the nursery pot, still VERY wet. The fellow on the phone said they water these cacti only once going into winter and it must have been that day or the day before my purchase. He recommended my repotting it if I planned on keeping it. I am as Ron assured me of their success rate with them.

So it's in a new pot...16" at widest point....in proper soil mix. Sitting indoors until frost is done, soaking up many hours of sunlight in the south facing door side window.

Hoping for blooms in 6 months....or maybe next year.

[mikethecactusguy]

Hi All
I have to ask this question Steve-O
Whenever I buy a plant from a nursery or grower the first thing I will do is unpot it and check the roots. Then repot it in fresh mix. If this had been my plant I would have replaced the over watered soil with fresh dry soil. i don't understand the why you just didn't remove it and then repot in fresh dry mix?
Mike M