We love cacti, but watering… oh! irrigation. It is very difficult to control, even if you have been taking care of the plants for a long time. Whether we water too little or too much, in the end the poor succulents cannot grow as they should.
One of the questions we ask ourselves the most, especially when we start, is the following: How do i know if my cactus is rotting? Because of course, if it rots, we can already assume that we will be losing it, or maybe not?
How do you know if a cactus is rotting?
Well, the truth is that as in everything in this life, it depends. What does it depend on? Of the cactus itself, of the season of the year in which we find ourselves, of the amount of water that we pour on it and of the frequency with which we water it. A) Yes, a healthy and well-cared for cactus when touched, yes we will notice it hard, unless we do a little pressure, in which case it is normal for the fleshy body to give a little.
But ... what happens if you are not getting the amount of light you need or you are not watering properly? In these cases, the cactus softens. If it is in an area that is not bright enough, what will happen to it is that it will etiolate, that is, it will grow as much as possible towards a light source. As a consequence, the new stems that emerge are very weak, so much so that they often fall under their own weight.
Copiapoa hypogaea
If, on the other hand, the problem you have is that you are not watering as often as you should, the cactus can get sick. The symptoms are:
- Excess irrigation: the roots die suffocated and the fleshy body of the plant rots quickly.
- Lack of irrigation: When a cactus has not received water for a long time, to survive it adopts a drastic survival measure: consume the water it has stored in its reserve, that is, in the fleshy body itself. If the situation goes on too long, the plant "wrinkles" as it runs out of precious liquid.
What to do to avoid it?
Basically, there are three things we can do:
- Use a substrate that has very good drainage, either pumice, black peat mixed with perlite in equal parts, or similar.
- Check soil moisture before watering, inserting a thin wooden stick and see how much has adhered to it. If it comes out practically clean, it means that it is dry.
Another option is to take the pot before watering and again after a few days. As the dry substrate does not weigh the same as when it is wet, it can serve as an orientation. Lastly, you can buy a digital soil moisture meter, very useful for these cases and facilitate measurements. - Place the cactus in an area where it receives a lot of sunlight, if possible directly throughout the day. These plants do not live well in semi-shade, much less in shade. Of course, for this you have to get used to it little by little. You have more information on this topic here.
If you have any questions, don't leave them unanswered. Ask  .