We’ve had this cactus for years. Previous care taker for years before that. It’s always had sporadic watering with indirect but consistent light across the room. I think I watered it too much before letting it dry out and now it’s slowly dying/rotting. I ran a dehumidifier in the room to help dry the soil out, but i think it’s too late, can parts of it be saved? Would it be best to pull an arm off of it to propagate that? Or is it even possible to cut off one of the taller stalks at a healthy part to save a larger chunk?
by YorgeyCorgi
6 Comments
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The top part looks healthy still, I wonder if you cut it and plunked it in soil if it would grow roots and be ok. Hopefully someone can confirm that.
Immediately cut any green off which seems to be a lot luckily. Chop and wear gloves because these plants have a white sap that can be an irritant. I’d cut a few inches above any rot to assure there’s no rot left where I want to prop. You can easily prop these in water and soil! I’ve done both but water is more successful and quick for me. After you see a few inches of roots transfer to soil and it should be good! You could also try both methods since you’ve got a few branches lol. Also when you cut let the cut dry before you put it in water or water them! You don’t want to encourage more rot!
No need to stress out, this is very easy fix… because these are *drum rolls* actually NOT cacti!
These are succulent plant called Euphorbia trigona, these are extremely easy to propagate and usually encouraged to propage as they branch out very easily as well. I highly recommend youtube channel “Our House Plants” and “OnlyPlants”, as they have great videos covering this. Although it does look suspicious, not all “brown/beige” at stem means its rotting, as a lot of houseplants as they mature, their stems starts hardening to support the plant, its called “corking”. This happens a lot with cacti and succulent plants. I would cut back to the base about 10cm, and if its not rotten, keep it where its sunny and it will start produce new growth points, if its rotten just toss it away. Rest you can chop it up, toss away the rotten parts and make bunch of new cuttings with the healthy parts. Make sure to let it callus etc, but you will find all the information you need on youtube. Good luck!
I’d cut and re-root. Wear gloves because it’s sharp and also because of milky sap. Place a cool wet washcloth on cuts for a minute to make them stop “leaking”. FYI that’s a euphorbia, not a cactus.
Euphorbias are super easy to propagate in soil no need to worry!