A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Cacti and Succulents Indoors Can I save them?

Mom has been put in a Nursing Home so I brought home her cactus. She has a couple of grafted ones. The bottoms are okay still but the top parts (bulbs or flower that were grafted on appear to have rotted and shrivelled up, although it still feels soft to the touch.
The bottom of the cactus still looks green, it's just the top part of it and the add on that looks finished. Can I save it, or are they garbage?

Thank you very much for the advice. I wish I could get a picture on here. The bottom looks like a smaller type of column cactus and the top one is a type of colored ball cactus. One has dried nicely on top so it won't be a problem removing the top, but at this stage the ball on the other is discoloured and looks very moist. Should I wait until it dries up more before I remove it.

Too, if I cut down below the dried edge looking for left over roots won't the cactus insides be exposed and rot or wither?

Out of curiousity, does the grafted colored part on top of the original cactus remain colored indefinitely or does it eventually die off leaving what I have now.

Thanks again.

if the top part is rotting, you definitely want to cut it off so that the rot doesn't travel down to the stock plant. any area that is cut will dry out/callous over after a couple of weeks, so, no need to worry about it - just don't allow any water (when you are watering it) to get on the cut area or that will cause rot to start.

the top pieces are mostly a particular kind that is a very slow grower and doesn't form good roots and that's why it's grafted onto the stock piece - which does have good roots. the top part (depending on what type it is) can be grown on it's own roots. certain colors don't do well on their own though and i can't remember which ones they are, at the moment. i'll have to go back through my notes to see which ones would do okay on their own. i'll get back to you about it - won't be until next week though (i have a ferret show to get ready for this weekend).

Thanks and yes I cut them today. One was looking clean almost to the top but I did cut down another 1/4 inch to make sure there was no roots left inside from the upper part.

The other was slightly discolored in the little inner circle. so I kept cutting to get a clean centre but I was already an inch and a half from the bottom and it still was discolored so I left it, so we'll see if it survives.

Are you attending a Ferret Show or are you entering your ferret into one? My Father in law found one in his garage one year. It made a lovely pet. They kept it until it passed.