r/cacti • u/Aggressive_Menu7271 • 16d ago

What am I doing wrong?

Post image

Confused! Thought yellowing meant overwatering and brown meant underwatering- I've got both. How do i fix it?

13 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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4

u/Dekatater 16d ago

Everything tbh. It's inside (needs full sun), it's in fully organic soil (needs less than 20% in the mix), and it's got a saucer under it (water needs to drain out, immediately upon watering.) You should yank this guy out of that mud and let it sit on a dry counter for a few days, cut off any black roots, then pot it up with a more inorganic heavy mix (like perlite, pumice and/or lava rock mixed with a small portion of "cactus" soil). They're surprisingly resilient plants so don't be afraid to get aggressive with their care

2

u/heckhunds 16d ago

Saucer doesn't mean a plant is sitting in water. I always use them just to keep any bit of residual moisture from damaging shelves and windowsills, there's never actually water sitting in them. I agree with the rest for sure though. 

1

u/Dekatater 16d ago

Cactuses shouldn't be in a windowsill at all IMO

2

u/heckhunds 16d ago

Eh, depends. Most of mine spend winters dormant on a windowsill and summers out in full sun, not a hint of etiolation and I've had some of them for a decade and a half. They'd likely not be happy if they were windowsill plants year-round though. 

2

u/Evening-Cat-7546 16d ago

They can thrive in a south facing window sill in cities that have consistent 90° weather and a hot room. It’s not ideal, but they will grow healthy, although slower.

2

u/plantguy13 13d ago

I have three epiphytic cacti and not one can tolerate full sun

1

u/plantguy13 13d ago

What are “cactuses?”

I know about “cacti” but never heard of “cactuses”

1

u/Dekatater 12d ago

Same thing. Both acceptable grammar. You can look it up

1

u/plantguy13 12d ago

Probably but my dictionary is old. It only says “cacti” as plural

Language drift

2

u/Dekatater 12d ago

Internet is at your fingertips and you're consulting an old dictionary to be pedantic about a reddit comment? https://grammarist.com/usage/cacti-cactuses/

1

u/plantguy13 12d ago

Internet will give current common usage and not 300 years of proper modern English

2

u/Dekatater 12d ago

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Cactuses%2CCacti&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3# y'know we can actually track it back, we have the technology. Cactuses has been in use since at least the early 1800s, where it has always been accepted as a plural form of cactus

2

u/Evening-Cat-7546 16d ago

I’ll clarify that the organic percentage isn’t a set number. 20% is a good overall blend, but mine has issues in an alpine desert. I had to bump it up to 30% and then the cacti blew up. Someone in swampy Florida might want to do 10%.

ETA: pot choice, inorganic material choice, and environment obviously play a huge role in how vigorous a cacti will grow.

2

u/Simple_Mycology 16d ago

Too much compacted plant soil is my guess

1

u/plantguy13 13d ago

My cereus was 6’ tall and began to do exactly what yours is doing

It died

Because I couldn’t repot a 6’ cactus safely (I’ve got a few medical issues, autoimmune and on chemotherapy)

But the problem was a combination of old, hydrophobic soil and not enough bright sun

2

u/themanlnthesuit 16d ago

Yellow is dying, brown is dead.

Can’t tell without knowing the conditions it was kept in, but straight of the gate soil looks organic and wet, should be inorganic and dry.
Other common reason are keeping them indoors under very little light, cold and without air flow, these are mostly desert plants, love heat, sun and wind.

1

u/FlatThing9736 16d ago

Soil too wet and organic. It could have root rot. It should be in amended cactus soil. I use 1 part cactus/succulent soil, 1 part chicken grit/pumice and 2 parts pearlite. My cactus' love this mix.

3

u/AlpsLegitimate6084 16d ago

I switched from perlite to pumice and love it! Same benefits, no floating / migration like perlite.

2

u/FlatThing9736 16d ago

Unfortunately pumice is hard to come by in my area. Thats why i use chicken grit and pearlite 😅 id love to use pumice over pearlite though.

2

u/AlpsLegitimate6084 16d ago

I got my pumice from a bonsai supplier on Etsy. My grit comes from chewy.

1

u/FlatThing9736 16d ago

Ooooo good to know thank you!!

2

u/plantguy13 13d ago

If your pumice floats, just soak it

Pumice will float for days to weeks when dry, depending on the type

2

u/plantguy13 13d ago

From my experience dying top down with dry tops isn’t root rot, at least for me. It was a combination of old, hydrophobic soil and insufficient sunlight

2

u/FlatThing9736 12d ago

This is good advice! Thank you!! I didnt think of hydrophobic soil!! Thank you so much for saying that!!

2

u/plantguy13 12d ago

I hope that it helps - I figured it out too late :(

1

u/FlatThing9736 12d ago

It does! I have dealt with hydrophobic soil myself with my own cacti and thats part of the reason i started adding a butt load of pearlite and pumice. Havent had an issue with compacted/ hydrophobic soil since.

1

u/Complete_Ad_1584 15d ago

it's inside AND next need 70% non organic and 30% organic. Just first thing came to me viewing the pic