Hi... in all my reading on here, when in doubt about watering don't.... if you think it is to wet, what I would do is take it out of its pot and take off as much of the wet soil as I can and lay the cactus on news paper or paper towels to dry out the soil and then repot with new soil, don't water it and give it a chance to recuperate.... cactus can go a very long time without water.... I don't water my cactus all winter in fact I just watered mine 2 weeks ago for the first time since last fall when I moved them indoors for the winter....all are doing fine, but I guess I over watered my stapelia..it rotted and I tryed to save part of it but it rotted too.... well, just passing on what I have learned from the people on here I hope this helps and I am sure others will help too...good luck.....linda

Hi! So I'm a newbie to the cacti parenting world and was hoping someone may be able to tell me if I'm doing this right? I picked these cuties up from Home depot a couple months ago. The yellow one had this great flower bud looking like it might bloom soon but now it looks like I killed it. When I first got them they didn't have the little...bulbs? on the side of them or on top (like my red one.) I thought this was a sign I was doing well with them but now I'm worried I might be doing the same to the cacti that I did to the flower and I of course don't want that! So what I've been doing is checking the soil every week to feel if it feels like it's completely dry. Usually by the end of the week it feels that way. so I take them out of the decorative pots (cause they don't have drainage holes) and water them thoroughly with a slow but steady sink stream. Once the soil seems to have sufficient water, I allow the extra water to drain into the sink before putting them back into their decorative pots and putting them back on the windowsill for direct sunlight. I read that in winter you shouldn't water them as much (like once a month?) but we are still in fall her in NC. Am I doing this right or just being an idiot? I'm kinda bummed I lost the little flower but if I can encourage them to grow more I want to try! But mostly I want to be a good cacti parent.

The lighter colored skin in the yellow oval is typical. It doesn't look like a problem. It seems to be a reaction to the cactus skin being close to the moist soil mix. I think that's just corking or something like that and that is a common issue with cacti as they age. It doesn't look nice but doesn't really harm the plant. If the skin becomes a different color, is softer, and looks wet inside then that is rot and you should worry about it. The area in the orange circle is a bit concerning. It doesn't look rotten but it does look like maybe you let the rootstock go a bit too long without water so the rootstock has died back a bit at that top edge. Keep an eye on it. Mainly I'm concerned about it because it is close to the graft between the two plants. I'm not sure what happened to the edges of the rootstock but it looks like corking- the same as the base. The picture is out of focus but so far the top red Gymnoclycium looks OK.

This cactus Acanthocereus tetragonus ‘Fairy Castle’ likes more water than other cactus during the growing season, which is now if you live on the northern hemisphere. It also is not the biggest fan of all day direct sun, morning sun afternoon shade is enough. I would personally give it a nice drink and then in about a week or so repot into soil that has been amended with 50% pumice and or perlite. The soil looks pretty organic and doesn’t look like it drains that well. Clean all the old soil off the roots before repotting into new mix. I’m curious of what the roots look like. The cactus looks extremely dehydrated, which could be from not watering enough, or the roots are no longer there.