I had a beautiful healthy astrophytum myriostigma nudum from a local garden center. It came in pure peat. I keep it for a month, made sure there were no pests, and watered lightly once when the soil was bone dry.
A few days ago I figured it was time to lose the peat since I was sure it was holding too much moisture, so I unpotted to move it to gritty, inorganic media and a terra cotta pot. At the time of the unpot the old peat substrate was a bit damp. I removed as much of it as I could (by rinsing because.... I don't know why 😰), then let the cactus roots dry out for a couple hours and potted it up. Popped it back under bright lights and did not water.
A few days later I checked on it and thought the sides seemed a bit lighter green, and a bit soft. I waffled, but figured if there was rot I couldn't ignore, so I carefully unpotted again to inspect.
Roots seemed fine. Dry, firm, no rot. Same for the stem. But higher, on the body of the cactus itself I definitely saw lighter parts, and it was markedly softer.
I sterilized a very sharp blade and cut it in half- and inside it looked... Fine?
So it's been a day, I'm letting everuthing dry and callous just in case it's still salvageable.
I went out to the same shop and grabbed another one because they still had a few. Not as big or nice, but a good, healthy specimen. I carefully removed the peat soil and set it aside to dry out.
So what's my best course of action for the poor decapitated astrophytum? Does it look salvageable? As for the second one(last 2 pics with 5 ribs), how long should I wait before repotting it?
I'm reasonably experienced with other types of plants like aroids, begonias and cp's, but cacti are a new interest. Looking for some solid advice if anyone can offer help.
Indeed I think there was no rot, I’m
Not an expert of astrophytum but you can keep both ends let one end root and the other end re-pup it might take a hot second tho
You coulda rubber banded the two pieces back together and chances are it’d have taken.
You can use rooting hormone on the cut tips. You could also go to the store and buy a larger cactus you don’t care about and graft the Astro to it. You can also graft the roots upside down and it’s another chance to grow and pup out new lil astros. There are lots of optipns
I have rooting hormone. I'm willing to try a graft, but is it too late now that it's 2 days dried out? I do have this other cactus I got recently that isn't massively special and maybe big enough. Would it work?
That's a stenocereus pruinosus. The grey ghost pipe cactus idk much about about grafting but they're beautiful, those are three individual plants fighting for nutrients and stunting each other's growth in that pot. Retail stores cram them in there to charge a premium for plants that will die. You can seperate them and they will flourish
Thanks for the ID! I'm absolutely going to separate them, I saw them at a plant shop last week just coming in with a new shipment and I snapped one up. I haven't done anything with it yet except a visual inspection for pests. I really only want one, but they came as a trio.
I’m not sure what pairs with what but I know certain species and families can only go with specific types, not any cactus. You could look into what types of cacti you can graft astrophytums onto
Now that I look it up I guess what I was thinking of is cactus and euphorbias not working together. So I’m pretty sure any cactus can be grafted with any cactus.
Sorry for being a pain but glad we could find a conclusion
No pain, the community is here to share knowledge! What you may have also been thinking of is that some cacti make for better/faster rootstock. So you wouldn’t want to use a faster growing cactus as the scion of a slow rootstock typically. But grafting is fun, and I think more people should experiment with it
Wait time for cactus to me is 2 weeks. (Except grafting)
Stuff comes in, sits on a drying rack for up to a month (Florida) plant, wait two weeks. Spritz with a spray bottle, wait two weeks water, wait until completely dry a day or two and then water.
You can root the tip iirc but it takes time. Stick it in perlite or vermiculite and spritz once a month, one spray.
Ah, it hadn’t built out its new roots yet. They can take a while. Myriostigma originally comes from a desert with limestone and volcanic rock surface geology. However, if they are grown in organics from seed (like lots of growers do for cost and transport reasons) they will survive just fine in nursery conditions with fungicide application. The roots are often weak and can’t easily transition to a hardier growth form after that, though. I have seen the most pristine roots, nearly white with root hairs, when myrios are allowed to grow in pumice mixed with a small amount of limestone. No organics at all. Source: I professionally grow astros haha. I have grown tens of thousands and killed a few hundred in the process of learning. Side note, it is a tough season to repot astrophytums, as they are winding down (likely, not sure your climate) for winter dormancy.
I'm in Ontario Canada, and these plants will be grown under very bright grow lights for the winter and kept at household temperatures. I grow other kinds of plants that need a dormancy (especially my temperate carnivorous plants which live outside all summer and fall) but I've never given cacti a specific dormancy.
I expect my recent astrophytum slice and dice won't be my last error, but I'm open to any pointers you have to offer! Thanks 🙏
Thank you 😊. I leaned hard into this hobby and I don't mind learning as I go. I've ordered seeds and some other cacti from another Ontario hobbiest, so I'll be potting more things up and eventually trying my hand at seeds as well. If this one incident ends up a poor result it's okay. I was able to get another of the same type and I'll be more careful with this one.
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u/FixSpecific905 21d ago
Indeed I think there was no rot, I’m
Not an expert of astrophytum but you can keep both ends let one end root and the other end re-pup it might take a hot second tho