Took the first 2 pictures 5 hours before the arm fell. Couldn’t believe it when my wife and I heard a loud thud. Could tell it was about to drop tho glad the shed broke its fall! Please give me advice on what to do with this beautiful arm bwill it be healthy enough to just plant in the ground?
by Thebakers22
2 Comments
Guessing the monsoon storm got him?
It’s possible to root saguaro arms, but I think it’s a bit of a crap shoot. You’ll want to cut the base of it until you see all healthy flesh, then let it dry in a dark spot for about a month. Then plant it shallowly with some sturdy supports to keep it from falling over, and hope for the best. Even if it takes root it’ll need supports for about 2 years. It might honestly be best to cut most of the bottom portion away and only try planting the tip, to make things more manageable and prevent its own weight from crushing the soft tissue at the base.
It’s also recommended to keep the soil dry for a while after planting, which will unfortunately be even more of a crap shoot with the monsoon weather unless you cut it so short that it can fit in a really big planter. I think with how thick that arm is though, even a stump will be too heavy to easily bring inside if it rains.
University of Arizona has [a pamphlet about Saguaros](https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/extension.arizona.edu/files/pubs/az1932-2021.pdf) that can probably be roughly applied to your arm cutting.
Edit: also, be sure to note which direction the arm was facing on the cactus and mark that direction somehow. They grow more calloused on the side with more sun exposure, so you want to make sure the calloused side is facing the right way.
Based on the 5th picture, it looks like that saguaro has some serious rot. It looks very hollow where there should be flesh.