Hi all, I have this cactus that is becoming very unwieldy. This summer is sprouted a second arm and a third section to the first arm. It's also blooming like crazy. This is great because it's obviously healthy but the arm is getting so long, I don't know what to do with it. Any thoughts? I would love to either cut it and repot but I'm not even sure if that's possible. I don't even remember what kind of cactus it is so I can't really look it up. Any help on how to deal with this weird little guy would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Cut off both "arms" and allow to callus for a few days. Then pot up in another container of cactus soil mix. The sprouts if left in place can cause the blooming portion of the plant to die-off. http://www.cactuscollection.com/info/cacti/grafted.html
Cut off the sideshoots, they will soon grow far too long and heavy. The grafting stock (Hylocereus undatus) is a very large plant and the grafted plant (the scion) would soon be buried in a mass of large stems. I am not sure that leaving them in place could kill the scion by drawing resources from it. I have never seen any evidence for that so it could even be a myth. I have grafted cacti on multi-stemmed plants of semi-epiphytes like Hylocereus and Selenicereus without negative effects. They have actually grown at least as well than grafts on single-stemmed stock plants. Sometimes the scions just die whether the stock has branched or not, and these Gymnocalycium grafts are prone to do that. Anyway, your plant did not need to be grafted, it contains chlorophyll and is able to grow on its own roots, if you dare to try that. They grow faster when grafted though.
