How to root offset

[fanaticactus]

Last year I posted a photo of a large, mounded Echinopsis oxygona with a ton of offsets. It is in a 6- or 8-inch pot and has never bloomed in the approximately 5 years I've had it. I finally decided to root some of the offsets, and when I twisted some off, there is a large dried brown area where they attached to the parent cactus but was hidden by all the other pups.

My question is: how should I proceed going about rooting them? Do I leave them as they are and just bury the whole brown area in the rooting medium, or do I cut it off as close as I can to the 'healthy' green part and let it develop a callus before putting it in soil?

I've also read differing recommendations for the rooting medium. Some say it should just be small gravel and sand with some soil thrown in the mix. Others say it should be rooted in the same soil where it will eventually grow. The offset in the accompanying photo is 3.5" top to bottom, and the dried brown part is 2.25". Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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[greenknight]

E. oxygona is about the easiest thing there is to root, whatever you do will probably work. No surprise that the part that was shaded out inside the clump has corked, perfectly normal.

Usually I'd say there's no need to go to any special trouble with these, just stick them in a pot of cactus mix. They will root faster if not cut, too - but that's an awful lot of stem to have buried. I would be inclined to try some each way, cut and not cut, see how they turn out.

Mine failed to bloom again, so I decided to give it a bigger pot, Probably will just make it grow faster.

[fanaticactus]

Thanks for this info, 'greenknight'. I sure have enough offsets to try some both ways, although the parent plant might look a bit strange missing so many of them. But I'm sorry yours has never bloomed--yet, I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one who's got a 'dud'!

[7george]

I'd cut at least some part of that corky base and then after drying the surface put the cutting into (any) soil you use for adult cacti. Shouldn't be long to root, now is the right time. Some watering might help.

[fanaticactus]

A lot of what appears to be corking is really just completely dried out 'stem'. There's no actual 'flesh' in there, which leads me to believe that part is completely and irretrievably dead. I guess cutting into it is the only way to discover how far down some of the real cactus body is...because I doubt any roots can develop from a dried up 'woody' section.

[greenknight]

It probably has vascular tissue in the center that's alive, I don't know if roots would develop from that.

[fanaticactus]

I decided to cut off the dried, brown part where it attached to the body and was surrounded by other offsets so it got no sunlight. Lo and behold, there was some nice succulent flesh hiding in there. So I am letting them dry and callus over with hopes of setting them in some soil and having roots develop. I have friends who would like some small cacti to try to raise.