Shelly,
your plant looks pretty like Myrtillocactus geometrizans.

As the damage is more or less on-sided and doesn't spead (doesn't it?) it's probably sunburn. Regardless of what it is I would cut the healthy looking top off and root it to get a handsome plant again.

Frank
www.euphorbia.de

Frank's ID is correct, it is myrtillocactus. And I agree, it's sunburn.

I would do the same thing Frank suggests - cut off the top and start over. The bottom will never recover its looks, and the plant is looking awfully top-heavy anyway - It was grown in too little light, so it's too skinny to support itself much longer.

When you put it outside again this summer (and please keep it outside as long as you can!), be sure to acclimate it gradually to direct sunlight.

You can re-start the plant, but I would also keep the mother plant, protect it, and hide it behind other plants if you do not like its looks. You will get more future cuttings that way.

Thanks, Frank and Patrick. Cutting off the top is a good plan. That way, if is rotting behind the burn, I can at least save a bit of the plant. And Baci, keeping the base is a great idea - future cuttings! I love it!

Thanks again, everyone,
Shelly

Shelly,
I too have had sunburn on a few of my cactus plants and have found that the burnt skin cracks and sometimes peels off. The flesh uderneath has stayed firm, but it sure looks bad. I would do what baci says about saving the mother plant for future cuttings. I have one now that someone gave me that was supposed to be used as grafting stock but was not, it now has a beautiful 12"+ growth ready for cutting this spring. The mother is definately not attractive, but is a great source for future cuttings for me.

Kathy

I see two healthy plants there, the top section of the main stem, and that cute little side shoot!

Dear Shelly,

If Myrtillocactus could feed the world (and it can, you know - its berries are tart and tasty), we will look to you to supply cuttings. I know you're up for the challenge.

As the others have suggested, you might consider cutting the offset just below the end of the scarred portion. Normally, offsets from this plant are best taken at the joint, a phrase, I grant you, fraught with possibility but at the moment meant botanically. Leave it around for Morgan BestKitty to admire and plant in the spring (you plant it - Morgan has better things to do, I daresay).

I'd suggest a more-porous-less-peat mixture for rooting the cutting, but you know best. I'd guess that the single cutting will grow best if that second offset is left on, but you could root that one, too.

Your amputated plant will grow offsets again, but there ain't no growin' outta that scar, whether it's old sunburn or (in several of my plants' cases) the residue of alcohol residue left in the sun and seared into the very epidermis, not unlike tribal branding.

I admire the shot immensely, because it allows me to be nosy and see what you read - one of the first things I do, as a curious person, when invited into someone's home for the first time. I love the Anais Nin and Fellowship of the Ring next to each other. Some of the jewel's thousands of facets revealed!

Thanks for the tips, Jeff - I'll cut off just one chunk, then, and plant it in a month or so. I tried to root one of the branches about a year ago. I'd knocked it off while moving it outside. But it rotted :( So if it's more likely to root with the offset intact, I'll do that. Time to get my knives sharpened...

It's sort of like my plant has a tattoo, huh? You know, I kind of like that. Makes the sunburn a very bit much more prettier.

Glad you like my library. So you've heard of the Lord of the Rings, have you? :) I rarely look at that bookcase lately. It's become the background against which I take shots of my cacti, since they're all grouped under grow lights right next to it, and when I pull one out for photographing, that's just sort of where it goes. But I took a look at it after you mentioned it, and it makes me laugh. All those papers sticking out of Skinny Legs and All - I did my thesis on that book a few years ago, and haven't taken all my notes out of it yet :)

Anyway, thanks again for all the tips, folks. Looks like I won't be repotting this darling quite yet.

Chop chop lollipop!
Shelly

Here's a pic of mine.

{{gwi:465142}}

That is pretty, Kathy! I saw the shots of your greenhouse in your other post - nice, nice, very nice.

One final question: I checked out the google images of Myrtillocactus that Frank attached, and my plant has different spines than any of those. What's up with that?

S.

You've received some great advise from others above so I'm not going to add to it, except to say, here is a link to a pic of my M. geometrizans that had a similar problem years ago.
Dan
Lincoln, NE USDA 5

Here is a link that might be useful: Myrtillocactus geometrizans

Wow, Dan - now that is one big long pokey thing!

Well, I chopped up my darling. I feel like a murderess. I swear I can hear that plant crying. And it wasn't even rotted underneath the sunburn, as I feared. I could have left it, and just appreciated the sunburn as a kind of plant tattoo. I feel so bad for the poor guy, and so guilty.

Maybe I'll plant the cuttings in the same pot. Maybe he'll be happy to have a bit of company. There we go! Silver linings!

Shelly

Dont feel bad Shelly, where you cut the main stem lots of babies should form!

Is this normal? This is the cut end of the mother plant, one month later.

{{gwi:465156}}
{{gwi:465159}}

And here's the edge of the cutting itself. Do you think it's ready to pot up? I've been holding off - I've already rotted one cutting from this plant last summer.

{{gwi:465161}}

Hi, Shelly.

Looks totally normal to me. You should definitely pot it up now...It's becoming growing season very quickly, and you'll want it in the ground, so it can start sprouting roots. You definitely don't want to water it, though, until you're sure it has some roots, since that's the only way for it to take water up into itself. No roots = just sitting in wet soil = ROT. Good luck with it!

Kate

Dear Shelly,

Kate's right - it's ready. Just sit it in some soil, mist the cutting, keep it warm and viola, in a few weeks you will have roots and can pot it up.