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.

Ok here's an additional photo of the barrel cactus in the process of repotting. It isn't the best quality photo but gives an accurate picture of what color each part of the cactus is. The brown color is not dirt; it is the actual color of the cactus. Please let me know if you think this is normal or if it is rotted. And if it is rotted, if you think it can be saved, and how. Thanks!!

Don't over water! Wait until the soil feels dry. Don't throw away the cut offs. They can be rooted. If you can move it closer to the light for awhile, that would be great.

I went ahead and repotted it, as it was starting to spread and get worse in just 24 hours. Found a smaller plastic pot and just removed the bottom piece, so the holes are exposed. Going to keep looking for the perlite for the future to try mixing it in like you suggested. Upon unearthing the roots, I did find a lot of brown at the bottom that I’m thinking was there for a while. It did indeed look too low in the soil, so I made sure it was higher on repotting and that more dirt was underneath it. The base of the long curly piece was really brown and soft so I cut that above the brown where it is still green inside, and also cut off the small stems away from the part of the roots that went bad. I have some ground cinnamon for cook that I can use, so I will give that a try. I had it on the deck with direct sunlight earlier today and a few days back, so sunburn might have contributed. Going to stick with the shaded deck. The one with direct sunlight gets hot and is exposed to the light for most of the day. The other one gets a lot of nice shade from a huge maple tree next to it, so isn’t nearly as hot. I’m doing some reading on propagating the cuts. If I have it right, they need to sit for a few weeks until they callus over, then just placed shallow in small pots for a few months, to grow roots? I have this fear they will dry out if cut and not in soil, but that is just because this is my first time trying this. I put the repotted parts on the floor next to the glass door, so hopefully it will do better there and get much more light. Good to know they are so hardy! It can get down to 50* at night here, but doesn’t normally reach the 40s until fall. Here is what the bad roots looked like and the brown spot on the one piece. Probably a lot of unknown water-retaning overtime, as you mentioned: Some the pieces around the main stalk are not quite able to hold there own, so I used some stakes and loosely placed Velcro pieces to hold them up. It does seem to look much healthier repotted. I am wondering if I should keep the long piece that long, or cut it into 2, since it's curled and won't be able to stay up on it's own when potted.