Any cactus experts about?

[floorchid]

I found this zombie cactus in the garage. I probably put it there thinking it was dead, but it's not. I have repotted the main part, and cut off the weird brown wiggly bit - but actually the wiggly bit is firm, not soft. Shall I plant that bit too? What would you do with this mess I've created?

I have successfully grown a new cactus by putting it in a pot of water until it rooted. Whenever I plant them in soil they seem to die off!

The main body that you beheaded will probably sprout offsets lower down if grown under more amenable conditions, I.e much more light (not easy in winter!). The other straggly bit is where it struggled in darkness, the very top section could also be cut off, dried off for a bit, then set on a gritty potting mix to root down, which might take several months at this time of year. Make sure you do use a gritty mix for both, they don’t like too much moisture at any time but especially in winter when they tend to go into dormancy, so might not do much until the spring.

My guess would be that it’s a very unhappy Echinopsis, so your potential reward in a few years time, if you get the conditions right, is a huge flower.

I wouldn’t recommend that! (Except for Christmas cactus, which does root in water) When you say “in soil”, do you mean literally in soil? Better to use a very gritty mix,or put a layer of gravel on top, and just stand the cactus on top. You can lie it on its side if it’s an offset, or prop it up between cocktail sticks if it’s a bit that you’ve chopped off.

Agree, Mere, it could be E. oxygona or eyriesii sold everywhere, but difficult to say from photo.