Hi Everyone, This is my first time on and I'm trying to find a site that could help me identify what kind of cactus I have. Why is it starting to turn pale green? What is growing out the bottom sides? More cactus? I've had it about 4 years. My brother found it growing out of the pavers that went around the pool. I suppose it was from a bird dropping. That's how I acquired the cactus. I know I need more soil and I'm sure a bigger planter. The questions above are the ones I'm hoping to find answers on. Thank you for all your help and advice on this matter. :-) the top middle is what it looks like now and the 3rd pic in the 2nd row was about 2 weeks ago. Also, It does get sun just about all day. Could that play apart in what's going on? Why did it twist like that? Thank you again. I know it's a lot. Sorry
If you are giving the pot enough water for the leafy plant, then that's too much water for the cactus and it's probably why the cactus is going yellow. Those two need to not be in the same pot. The pot looks plenty large to me, but you can wrap something around the trunk (to protect yourself) and try to lift the pot away from the soil to see if the roots are filling the pot. The cactus can go without water until the pot feels quite light. The things at the bottom are new shoots (not sure of the proper word). Someone else will have to do the ID and comment on whether it should be branching out that low or if it's doing that thinking the main trunk is in trouble. I would think the twist is not a problem.
Thank you for getting back to me. The picture with the flowers is from the first few months I had it. It's by its self now. I just watered it a few minutes ago. The soil goes really dry in a few days I water it 1x a week cause of soil being dry. I just took new pics. The back side of is still a nice green but the front that gets the sun is turning pretty pail. Do you know how much water I'm suppose to be giving it? It also looks like the trunk is turning like a brown. Do you think if a transfer it to a bigger planter & fresh soil would help it? I'm sorry for so many questions it just has sentimental value to me and I don't want to kill it. Lol!! I've never really had a green thumb. Thank you :-)
Possibly, since you wrote that the yellowing appears only on the side facing the sun. It is not uncommon to see cacti with minor damages caused by exposure to sunlight. There are a few other possible reasons for yellowing of cacti, but I suggest you place it in a more shaded position and see if it turns green again. Twist? Do you mean why the number of ribs decreased to just 3? At the base? That is normal. I doubt it, the pot looks more than big enough (but only an inspection of the roots can give a definite answer). Can't help with the ID, I don't grow columnar cacti.
Water once per week seems like a lot. Next time, before you water it, lift the pot to see how heavy it is. Water it until the pot is heavy, then remove any water standing in the dish. Lift the pot and feel how heavy it is. If it's not all that different in weight than before you watered it, then it was way too soon to water it. When you think it's time to water again, feel about an inch or two below the surface to see if it's dry. If dry, then lift the pot again to feel the weight. There should be quite a difference in weight when it's dry. But that also means that when you water it, water will run right through and not soak into the soil; I'm not sure how people deal with that. I don't grow cacti successfully because I usually overwater them. So I shouldn't be giving advice. But those things go for very long periods with no water, and they survive no water much better than overwatering.
Thank you very much for the info. And yes, why did it grow from a around cactus 5 ribs to a twist with on 3?
I have 3 cactus plants in a small pot that have been left alone for at least 20 years. They are only watered 3 or 4 times a year and have not grown much in that time; however, they look as healthy as ever. Since they are located at a south-facing window, the soil is totally dry most of the time.
It looks to me as it went from a juvenile to a more mature stage. It is still a young plant, and most of these "cereoids" can grow much bigger than that. It is not uncommon for them to add or remove ribs later on as well. Something similar is seen in e.g. the genus Rhipsalis, where juvenile plants often have spines and stems with ribs, while mature plants lack both spines and ribs, and the stems become flat on some species.
That's what they do. It increases their surface area - maybe they're trying to make a place for all that water.
The 3 little ones at the base are likely to be clonal baby cacti, a form of asexual reproduction. They will probably form their own roots and can then be used for propagation. I get many of these on my Echinopsis cacti.
The offsets seem to be a normal alternate method of reproduction. My Echinopsis cacti do this a lot and are growing quite robustly; I use the babies to replace the parents after they get larger than I want. The parents also flower quite often; so they are using both forms of reproduction.
The fact that you propagate your cactus by rooting offsets does not mean that that species reproduces vegetatively in nature (cacti usually do not have a human available to cut off and distribute offsets), and definitely not that other species do so. Some cacti, for example Opuntia fragilis, are known for reproducing by offsets that are very easily detached from the mother plant and transported to another location by various means (e.g. animals), but there are other cacti where the offsets are so firmly attached that they must be cut off and also are very difficult to root. So offsets are not automatically there for the purpose of asexual reproduction. I don't think I have heard of any columnar cactus that uses that method.
Hello tnm1071, I just watered my cactus and remembered your post. As you can see on the picture my cactus resides in a tiny 5 x 5 x 5 cm pot and itself is about 8-9 cm in diameter and about 10 cm tall. I water it when it starts like getting smaller, maybe once a month or may be less than that, I can't say. It regains its size after a good drink. I have it sitting on the railing of my stairs, close to the N-W facing window, it never receives direct sunlight. I have it since the time immemorial, probably for about twenty years. I have never transplanted it. It looks like we are both happy as things are.
