Repotting without falling to the sides.

[cactiask]

Hi,

I want to repot some cacti that I grew from seed. Since they are grown from seeds, the cacti stay firm in its original soil and are growing straight upwards (most of them). But if I plant them in new soild, they will loose their steady ground and will fall to the sides. Do you have any advice on how to keep them straight up? One solution is to bury the cacti a bit into the soil, but I think there are better solutions than that.

Before repotting (looking good, brought up from seed)


After a previous repotting, cacti are tilting to the sides.

[One Windowsill]

I don't do cacti but for similar plants I pin them between three largish pebbles until they root in and the soil compacts a bit.

[greenknight]

Yes, supporting them with pebbles is a good technique. But what species are they? If they're a trailing species, which is what it looks like, they will droop no matter what you do. These look an awful lot like Echinocereus pentalophus, which is a trailing cactus (which produces wonderful flowers).

[DaveW]

Put a small stick in right to the bottom of the pot and tie them loosely to that temporarily until the roots take hold.

[cactiask]

Put a small stick in right to the bottom of the pot and tie them loosely to that temporarily until the roots take hold.

Thanks, I think this is the best advice so far.
I have this problem that I want to feel the soil to see if it needs to be watered, so everytime I do it I distort the soil and loosen up the ground, but I try to avoid this habit.

[7george]

We can put a layer of top dressing (rocks or whatever available) but if that cactus has crawling habit nothing would help as long term solution. What is the species we can see above?

[cactiask]

We can put a layer of top dressing (rocks or whatever available) but if that cactus has crawling habit nothing would help as long term solution. What is the species we can see above?

No, no crawling habit whatsoever. Top dressing would make it hard for me to see if I need to water the soil.
But I will go with temporary supporting sticks.

[RichR]

I tie a piece of string around the cluster-firmly, but not too tight, then they will stay together while I clean the old soil off the roots and then place them in the new pot. Occasionally a use a 1/2" strip of gardening velcro on cacti with shorter and/or tougher spines. The string works best with some of the more fragile-spined plants such as Echinocereu enneacanthus.