I have two cacti that are very unhappy with me. The first one is 2 in one and one has died, should I remove it somehow? From the roots or just cut it down? The second actually just grew out this new stem on the left as you can see in the picture but the flower is clearly dying off. Should I do something about that? Seems like the plant itself is still salvageable? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I’m terrible with cacti but these were gifts!! 🥲
You can cut the pink tops off and keep growing the cactus underneath! These cacti are two different ones grafted together, so the top colorful piece dies off eventually. It won’t grow a new one because it doesn’t naturally grow that part anyways. I’d probably give it a slightly bigger pot too! For the two in one, I’d take them out the pot and untangle the roots, then repot the living one. Use gloves or tongs if you can though, because the cacti tend to drop thorns in the dirt too. Unless you’re okay with moving carefully and using tweezers later!
1 gilla You could also cut off the arm, let it callous, and then repot it as a new plant!
3 gillningarI read 2 cats and I was so confused 🤣
0 gillningarTo figure out how the one died, touch the stem (use tools if prickly). If it's stiff and crispy, you may have gone too long without watering. If it's squishy, it rotted, likely from poor drainage. You can also check the roots. Dry and crunchy is an underwatering issue; weird colors, squishy, or mold is root rot. The live graft (the pink top bit) on the one in the same pot looks like you can rescue it with proper care, but those grafted ones are a delicate variety to begin with (which is why they're always on a stronger root cactus)
1 gillaThe single one (with a new leaf) looks a lot like one that I had that died, it didn’t have any drainage holes so it started to root rot
1 gilla