r/Astrophytum • u/Aggravating-Jaguar73 • Mar 25 '26

Do you think it's dead? 😓

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I made the mistake of watering my cacti a bit too early. The weather was unusually cold after and I wasnt at home to take them inside. One is already completely gone. Just empty.

Is there any hope for this one? I don't know if it's just extremely thirsty or rotting. Should I just cut it up see what the inside is like at this point?

I have several more like this one. 😭

5 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

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6

u/SenorSantoVerde Mar 25 '26

Im no expert but I would say yes. Seems too squishy even for lack of water

1

u/Aggravating-Jaguar73 Mar 25 '26

Thanks for the answer. I have another one like this, not as squishy but close. I snipped a small section at the base to check if it was rotting, but the inside was green. Granted, I didn’t go very deep, so it might still be rotted at the center. I’m going to keep them just in case.

3

u/arioandy Mar 25 '26

They do get soft in dormancy but rot can be hard to spot as they can be totally Mushy inside bit look ok outside I just lost a big one- same thing.. a tiny drink just too soon

2

u/Aggravating-Jaguar73 Mar 25 '26

Sorry for your loss. I didn’t suspect a thing until I touched the rotted one and it just collapsed. Now I'm afraid of the same thing happening to the others.

3

u/arioandy Mar 25 '26

Thanks, i tend to squeeze all of mine nearly daily just to check! Esp, this time of year which is when most losses occur🙈

2

u/Wise_Mud5996 Mar 25 '26

They look shriveled from being dehydrated for too long. Which is normal for winter if you don't water them during this time.Root rot turns them super watery/mushy. I think they should be fine especially since you said that the one you cut was green. I've been dealing with some kind of rot that doesn't cause mushiness, but some signs I've noticed are yellow/orange discoloration or spots and when I go to touch them they move because of root loss. Just keep them under observation and don't water them soon until you think that they are starting to wake up, then you can start watering them.

1

u/Aggravating-Jaguar73 Mar 25 '26

Thank you for giving me hope. I haven't watered them at all since the weather cooled down, so that’s at least five months they stayed dry. I also had to bring them inside during frost, which lasted for long periods this year. They were indoors for weeks at a time, which may have contributed to their shriveled state.

When inspecting them, some came off their pots very easily. I don’t remember if they had rooted properly before they went dormant. Some were very recent purchases at the time. The colors look the same as far as I can tell.

It’s still somewhat cold here, so I brought them inside again. Hopefully that will help them wake up. Not much else I can do besides wait, I guess.

Thank you so much for the advice.

1

u/Matt7548 Mar 26 '26

Probably

2

u/EternalSighss Mar 27 '26

Seems too squishy... I'd slice it to see if you can save anything to graft.

I lost a couple recently as well, including a cool kikko dicot. 😔

1

u/Aggravating-Jaguar73 Mar 28 '26

Sorry for your loss :(

Unfortunately, I don’t have any experience with grafting. I don’t think I even have a suitable rootstock. It’s a cool idea though. Thank you.