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It was a birthday present from last year, so it’s quite sentimental. I’m not sure what species it is, and I’ll post pics when it’s daylight again, but parts of it seem to be wilting and dying. I’ve been careful with watering it....maybe too careful, but I’m starting to think that despite being by the window it’s not getting enough sunlight. It is coming into that time of year again.

I’d hate to see it perish, so I’m hoping it can be saved.

Hmmm.. I'm trying to remember if there was anything special with cactus plants.

Do you have the right soil?

Unfortenately I know nothing of taking care of cacti, but this does remind me that I need to water mine. They haven't been watered in over a month

Have you put it in a new pot with the correct soil?

This time of year you probably shouldn't be watering them at all. Is it getting a cold or chilly draft on the window? IIRC they don't tend to like that. Ideally it should be potted with proper cactus/succulent compost (It'll have a fairly high sand content if my memory's correct and shouldn't hold much water) with good drainage. Try positioning it somewhere it will get a fairly decent amount of light but it's probably more important to make sure the temperature is as stable as possible and its away from cold drafts or breezes rather than necessarily putting it on a window in direct sunlight since cacti as house plants are generally fairly tough and in my experience in temperate countries like the UK will tend to rest once you get into autumn and winter.

What type is it? One of the sorts with broad, flat segments, one of the dome types or the more classic tall and thin ones?

Have you repotted it since receiving it? If not try gently pulling it from its pot if possible and either post some pictures or describe what the roots are like, it may be becoming pot-bound.

I think some pics might help out:





Taken in the morning when it was still dark out, so apologies for the poor light. As you can see, it’s not looking too healthy in places. What’s more, the affected bit in the first pic fell off when I prodded it, which can’t be good.

That is water rot I reckon. I think you are over watering it.

Your cactus isn't dying--it's full of desert spider eggs. And they're hatching.

Get out. Get out now.

 filbert wrote:
That is water rot I reckon. I think you are over watering it.

That would be my first thought looking at it too. If you can do so without causing further damage I'd remove the dead parts if you can to prevent any rot or infection spreading (Edit, just re-read your post and it's not necessarily a bad thing since you ideally want the dead/diseased parts away from the healthy plant). As I mentioned last night, I'd still be inclined to ease it from its pot and check on the condition of the roots, it could still be pot-bound as well and even if not it probably wouldn't do it any harm to move it to a bigger home, at the very least you'll be able to tell from the condition of the soil if it's over-watered, if the soil is wet to the touch you've been over doing it. Does the ceramic outer pot have a drainage hole in the bottom? The last thing you want with a cactus is it sitting in standing water.

Yup, what others have said, move to a slightly larger pot that has drainage holes in the bottom, the white tub it’s in I’m guessing does not. Also get soil for cacti from a garden centre or such, it’s usually low nutrient and easily draining.

To remove from the pot, wrap the cactus in newspaper for handling and then lie down to take off the pot, gently shake dry soil loose. If it’s sticky and wet you’ve been over watering. Don’t pull the soil off, just tap some of it loose. Transplant to new pot and gently pat the new soil in around it. Gently sprinkle some water to bed it down but it needs to be quite dry most of the time.

That cactus is from blistering hot and conservative Arizona, it needs lots of heat and an open carry pistol to protect it's rights. Being stuck in liberal Old Blighty it's little wonder it's trying to off itself.

I have a ton of plants, and have learned some things the hard way through trial and error. One thing peeps tend to overlook is that plants need to be fed and some form of fertilizer. I don’t know cactus per say, but I have plenty of succulents and they have their own plant food. As a matter of fact, the label says for cactus too. But I am sure there are cactus related sites that can offer you far more help than here.

Also I would imagine that cactus needs a lot of sunlight. Not sure about your setup but if you can place it in direct sunlight for a bit that would be great. If not near a window.

Hate to be a downer too but sometimes plants just die. They get sick from random gak just like any other life form. I have a hole in a row of bushes were one plant just died out of the blue.

Sun + plant food + and hope for the best. Also check up on fertilizing. Desert plants might not need it as much as other species but who knows.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
It’s also possible it’s outgrown its pot. You might want to replant it in something larger.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Unfortenately I know nothing of taking care of cacti, but this does remind me that I need to water mine. They haven't been watered in over a month

For a cactus that is probably ideal, could even be too much. Everything about cacti is adapted to save water, and that is in hot, dry weather. At room temperature with average humidity it needs even less. Pots (especially small ones) will retain more water per cube cm than natural ground does with the same soil. Put it all together and a lot of cacti die to overwatering.

#cactuslivesmatter

I can’t believe I’ve overwatered it! I only ever gave it a small dose of water once a month (and I even forgot one time). I genuinely thought that it wasn’t getting enough water.

Thank you for the advice everyone. I’ll see if I can salvage it. Hopefully I can.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
Unfortenately I know nothing of taking care of cacti, but this does remind me that I need to water mine. They haven't been watered in over a month

For a cactus that is probably ideal, could even be too much. Everything about cacti is adapted to save water, and that is in hot, dry weather. At room temperature with average humidity it needs even less. Pots (especially small ones) will retain more water per cube cm than natural ground does with the same soil. Put it all together and a lot of cacti die to overwatering.

#cactuslivesmatter

Okay. Well I suppose it is good then that I almost always forget to water them (hint: never entrust any plant to my care that is not a cactus). I think on average they only get water every three months or so.

Try using a spray bottle to water your plant as opposed to pouring water into the pot all the time. You could mist it just about just every morning and that should be fine. It would be the same as morning dew, which most desert plants survive off of.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
I can’t believe I’ve overwatered it! I only ever gave it a small dose of water once a month (and I even forgot one time). I genuinely thought that it wasn’t getting enough water.

Thank you for the advice everyone. I’ll see if I can salvage it. Hopefully I can.

\

Well, remember that the places its from probably only sees as much water as you give it all year, exacerbated by not being in proper draining soil.

Move the little guy into something sandy and let him dry out and he should bounce back. Succulents are tough buggers.

 KTG17 wrote:
Try using a spray bottle to water your plant as opposed to pouring water into the pot all the time. You could mist it just about just every morning and that should be fine. It would be the same as morning dew, which most desert plants survive off of.

Not... Exactly. For a houseplant you are more likely to give it mildew that way.

With a cactus, you are supposed to wait until the soil is cracked and hard before watering apparently.

The problem with that as a guide for a potted houseplant is that using any kind of compost including those intended for a cactus or succulent it won't harden or crack since that's just not what compost does. Broadly speaking, with cacti and succulents it's better to err on the side of caution and not water them if in doubt but if you've got one in the right kind of compost, made sure there's adequate drainage and that it's not sitting in standing water then the compost should usually be dry to the touch unless you've just recently watered it. If you push a fingertip against the compost and it comes away with anything more than a few grains, it's probably too wet.

A nice thing is that a cactus will usually wrinkle up when it starts drying out, well before it actually dies. A normal plant wilts and then you have a few days before it is probably too far gone. A cactus you still have weeks at the least.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

 KTG17 wrote:
Try using a spray bottle to water your plant as opposed to pouring water into the pot all the time. You could mist it just about just every morning and that should be fine. It would be the same as morning dew, which most desert plants survive off of.

Not... Exactly. For a houseplant you are more likely to give it mildew that way.

My house plants are dryer and seem to soak up water a lot faster INSIDE my house as opposed to outside. It could very well be that the air is less humid in my house as opposed to outside, and I imagine that is the same for everyone (if not you are probably growing mold). The most of the water from a spray bottle is going to evaporate anyway.

Trying to play the timing game judging soil and all that is probably going to fail. Cactus in the wild are used to the daily schedule of cooler nights and dew forming as the sun rises. That is why cactus and succulents, unlike most plants, absorb through their 'leaves' as opposed to their roots.

And for those that do not know, plants breathe through their roots and exhale through their leaves. That is why watering too much kills them, you are literally drowning them. On the flip side, if you have something like a house plant that you do not spray down from time to time, as the rain would in the wild, dust settles on their leaves and that can screw with that breathing process as well. Its like having a clogged up filter.

I am a huge fan of plants. I think homes without them have a very dry, empty feeling about them. Plants, as all living things do, give off an energy and I think even improve air quality to some degree. There are a few hardy indoor plants that are pretty resilient for beginners.

Ok dude you really need to do some research before giving advice because there is a lot that is flat-out factually inaccurate in that.

No there isn’t.

 KTG17 wrote:
No there isn’t.

Yeah there is actually. Roots do need to ‘breathe’, but as a whole, plants don’t breathe in through their roots and out their leaves. Gas exchange occurs throughout the plant.

Cacti has a different metabolism to most plants in order to prevent water loss. Normal plants can do gas exchange and photosynthesis during the day so the process is fairly efficient. Cacti can’t open their stomata fully during the day as they risk drying out by evaporation. Thus their CAM metabolism means that they take in CO2 at night, store it in another metabolic form and wait until daytime when they can photosynthesise and complete the metabolic process.

 KTG17 wrote:
No there isn’t.

Ug, I can't believe I need to do this...

As Howard was nice enough to cover, gas exchange occurs throughout the plant. Overwatering causes the roots to die because they need oxygen, and without the roots the plant dies too. Your mention of dust buildup preventing breathing both contradicts your own argument and is inaccurate because leaves breathe through the underside. Dust is only a real concern in how much light it may block or if it becomes host to fungal growth.

Desert plants do derive moisture from morning dew, how much depends heavily on the plant and the environment since conditions vary wildly. Regardless of the situation they absolutely do draw in water from their roots and for many cacti, including those which are usually houseplants, this is their main method of obtaining it. They wait until there is a rainstorm, drink in as much as they can, and store it. This is why cacti are so 'juicy' on the inside, and why they often wrinkle when drying out. As a primary method of watering a houseplant misting it is a poor choice, as the interior of a home is both cooler and more humid than a natural desert environment so the evaporation of that moisture will not occur in the same way it would for a cacus in the wild.

Plants that actually do want to be misted as a form of watering are the exact opposite of cacti; rainforest plants like 'air plants' and orchids which live off the ground and draw moisture from the humidity around them.

Look guys, I know you are frustrated that you are wrong and displaying it for everyone to see here, but its okay. Not everyone gets it right 100% of the time. I have no less than 50 some potted plants of various sizes inside my house and my patio, so I am pretty sure I know how to take care of them. And they all love the mist.

It's okay to be embarrassed. It happens. Keep your chins up.

First result of my google search for "watering cactus"

There are several schools of thought on how to water these plants, but one fact is clear. Don’t mist desert cactus. They are not native to regions where surface moisture and humidity is prevalent. Instead, they reach deep into soil to harvest moisture left over from the rainy season. Jungle cacti are a bit different and thrive with some misting. An example of this type of cactus is the Christmas cactus.

Read more at Gardening Know How: How Often Do You Need To Water A Cactus Plant? https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/cacti-succulents/scgen/watering-cactus-plants.htm

Nonsense.

THEY LOVE IT.

All this bad advice is going to get this guy's cactus killed. How will you guys feel then?