I bought a pencil cactus about 6 months ago. It had four main stems. Two of the stems have died. The other two seem to be stagnent in growth. Almost all the branches of the two stem are pointing down. It makes it a very uninteresting plant. What am i doing wrong.
they don't require a lot of water to begin with (most cacti don't) and if i have my info correct, they go dormant in the winter and don't need any watering at all. do you have it in a spot where it may have gotten chilled? that might be why part has died off. could you post a pic of it?
thanks for the reply joclyn, the plant is in the warmest part of the room, with the most lite. i can't send a pic cause i don't have a digitel camera
if you have a regular camera, when you get the film developed, just tell them to put it on a cd and then you can upload the pic from that. did you repot it after you got it? if so, what kind of soil did you use? does the container it's in have drainage holes? how often have you watered it?
This plant likes sun, or at least some sun during the day, a small snug pot, fast draining soil and to dry out completely between waterings.
Joclyn, I will try to get a picture as you suggested. I did repot with cactus soil. The pot does not have holes on the bottom. Can this be corrected? When I got up this am I found a branch on the floor. So sad!!!
you really should have it in a pot that has drainage holes. and the pot should be unglazed - inside and out (one of the orange clay pots). if it's glazed on the outside only and has a few drainage holes that would probably be okay. you could drill holes in the pot you have - take the plant and the soil out first, though!! the piece that fell out, was it buried in enough soil? sometimes, their weight will cause them to tip over and if they're not deeply enough in the soil, they'll fall out of the container.
