That mix is too moist and organic. Make some Gritty from the Container Forum or buy a quality cactus mix.

I just watered

Your mix holds too much water for too long. It's rotting your plant at its base and is not doing the root ball any favors.

When you pull a cactus or succulent out of its container, the mix should fall away and expose the roots cleanly. That's the sign of a good cactus mix. If you see clumps of dark brown engulfing the roots, it's a bad mix for these types of plants.

cactus grow in sand ...

your media is at least 50% PEAT ...

peat comes from bogs ...

bogs are not sand ...

see the dichotomy????

bogs hold water.. mother earth sand drains water ...

and no.. sand is not a POTTING media ... so it wont work in a pot either ... get this.. its holds too much water.. because of the pot ...

ken

Thank you but this is rot right

this is probably rot. The point others are trying to make is that your soil is holding too much water. I would strongly recommend getting it into some gritty mix (look up Al's gritty mix on here).

If I recall correctly you have posted before about losing other plants to rot, is this correct? If so, I would strongly recommend switching all your cacti and succulents to gritty mix and/or reevaluating your watering schedule.

Thank you i already cut the rot out how should I heal it thanks I'll think about gritty mix

How high above the rot did you cut? you should only see healthy green tissue. After that leave it to callous/scab over; it can take a couple days. Once it's completely calloused it should be ready for rooting- however I haven't experienced cacti rot before so I'm not completely sure how long the rooting process will take. I assume it's similar to succulents where you may want to mist the soil VERY lightly and eventually roots will come out...

Hope that helps :s

I did not cut of the root but cut out all of the rot

so you cut it in a 'C' shape (almost like someone took a bite out of your cactus)??

a picture would really help!

I just chop mine off flat⦠but as mentioned, you should only see green, healthy, juicy cactus at the chop line. I would personally let it callus for a few weeks to a month (this time of year, maybe until spring). Then put in pumice, or if you have no access to pumice, a super gritty mix or even perlite (hard to get a cactus to stand up in perlite, though.. .just falls over). Leave in there a week or two without watering.. then water very sparingly. Check for roots every week or so⦠once you see some, you can plant in regular cactus mix (try to avoid peat as suggested). Good luck!