Oh. ok. Much like the climate I'm in. was hoping you'd have let it go and see if any of the suggested remedies helped. Can always learn by failing. Good luck with the new ones. For what it's worth, SWC's sound great on paper(especially her in SoCal), but they sound like everything needs to be prefect to be effective. If I was to try one, I wouldn't use anything but the famed 5-1-1 mix discussed so frequently in the container forum. I would think that root rot might be a problem and the 5-1-1 is designed to eliminate that problem as much as possible. Healthy roots, healthy plant... in most cases. Kevin

Hi & welcome to Gardenweb! Agree with the above. If this was mine, I would scoop it out and leave the root ball sitting loosely on the surface to dry more quickly, maybe even laying it on some newspaper if it's very moist. Then snip the stem below the concentration of aerial roots and sit it atop another pot with a more chunky, porous mix that is barely moist, burying the aerial roots just enough so they don't spring back up, without packing them down at all. That looks like it will leave about 4 leaves and a couple aerial roots on the original plant. See if you can get those aerial roots to make contact with the soil and stay that way. Put both in the sunniest spot you have and let them dry out. Then go very lightly with the water for the removed top part, until the roots have a chance to go throughout the pot, just moisten the surface the first few times. If/when the original part perks back up, gently knock the old soil off of its' roots and put in the chunkier mix that dries out quickly, then finally give it more water. If the soil for these types of plants does not dry quickly, they can rot. Even just after watering, having tiny air pockets throughout the pot is good so the roots can get some air as well as moisture. So avoiding fine particles like peat and sand, and actual soil is best since these small particles fill up all of those spaces, suffocating roots and harboring too much moisture.

To me, these are 'Moon Cacti" are temporary plants at best. I personally would not buy one, they just look too unnatural. The yellow cactus has been grafted onto another cactus, apparently Hylocereus, aka Dragonfruit, because it cannot produce chlorophyll on its own, and would otherwise die. I would remove the top section before the rot spreads. The green section may be salvageable, if the roots are not rotted. Did you keep the foil covering on the pot for the past 6 months? If so, the soil could not drain properly, probably leading to root rot. Christopher

JPEG is great, thanks! Since I just snap open the image on a new tab and work with it there, it's no big deal how you do it! I see why they recommended some of what they did, and I actually agree with them. Mostly. Except they missed a few things, and I'd rather be more gentle than they are. It takes longer, but doesn't challenge the soil biology quite so much. Let's go step by step. EC 7.0: Silty sand. We have to adjust slowly or run the risk of losing resources into the water table--which is both polluting and a waste of money. pH 7.1: High, but not unreasonably so. However, we don't want to make it worse, so we counterbalance everything we're doing with plenty of sulfur. This is good because... Sulfur 6: Quite low, but not a problem. This gives a vast amount of margin in how much I can add. OM 4%: Right on the border between Fair and Good. With a low EC soil, I'd rather see Excellent to Extraordinary. So I'd feed organically as much as possible, mow in all fall leaves, steal other people's leaves, that sort of thing. Phosphorus 34: Very low, and with a higher pH, probably deficient. You'll want to purchase the cheapest starter fertilizer (high second number like 18-24-6 or 20-27-5) you can find. Brand does not matter. Instructions below. Starter will also help pull down your pH a hair as it contains (acidic-processing) nitrogen and phosphoric acid. It's not extreme, but I'll take it. Calcium 62.5%: You aren't that short, and your sodium levels aren't that high. I'm not going to recommend a vast amount of gypsum this year, I'd actually like to see what the starter does. However, I don't want to dispel too much Ca so I would like you to add some. Magnesium 30.7%: Extremely high. Avoid any and all sources of magnesium, including Epsom salt and dolomitic limestone. Let's hope the starter abolishes some of this. Potassium 1.9%: Barely tolerable, and I'd like to increase this. A lot. Potassium sulfate can be ordered from many garden shops and landscape places. You can get it online, but shipping can be a killer. Sodium 0.5%: Quite normal. No adjustments required or desired. Most Minor Elements: Except for copper and boron, they're fine. I did mention iron below as well. Copper 0.84: A little low, but with everything else going this year, I'm disinclined to try to adjust this yet. We're going to ride it a year and then work with it. Iron 149: Fine, but at your pH it's heavily bound. Whenever you like, apply Milorganite at bag rate to slowly raise this. I'm not inclined to recommend ferrous sulfate here as your pH isn't that far out of line. Boron 0.39: This is a little too low to ignore. We use Milorganite as a carrier. In a wheelbarrow or the like, dump the Milo. Spraying very, very lightly with water (I use a spray bottle like the kind people use to damp their clothes when they iron) will help the boron stick. Add the recommended amount of boron and stir, spraying occasionally to get the stuff to stick to the Milo. Then apply over the recommended area. So if going for bag rate Milorganite (1 bag per 2,500 square feet), you'd add 10 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax. Recommendations: Because of your climate, I'm sneaking in some extra stuff. I wouldn't be able to do this in more arid or hotter regions. May 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate. May 15: Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. Apply 4 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax per thousand square feet. June 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate. June 15: Apply gypsum at 5 pounds per thousand square feet. July 1: Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. September 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate. September 15: Apply gypsum at 5 pounds per thousand square feet. Apply 1 pound of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. October 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate. October 15: Apply gypsum at 5 pounds per thousand square feet. November 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate.