Crest cacti: what to do when a portion goes underground

[mutant]

So I dont have only easy growing crests now, like the pachanoi, but also a new wider range...

What do you do when a part/portion of the base cresting grows into / is pushed into the soil? Usually the underground portion looses chlorophyl and then is either slowly made into brownish/harder or the portion rots, thankfully not rotting the whole cactus, or at worst you loose the whole cactus.

I have to comment nevertheless that I have had this thing happen to a pachanoi and indeed once the underground portion rotted leaving the rest of the planbt unharmed

I understand that using an extra free-draining material, especially at the top layer would be perhaps the best solution on this matter... But what would I do, who usually rush the cacti into growth and use relatively rich substrates?

Is coco coir a nice material that helps draining or should I stick to my perlite?

Any other thoughts, approach to this matter?

PS: I am not talking only about largfe crests, but olso mid size or smaller ones, like echinopsis, mammilaria, notocactus etc.. these smaller ones tend to do it more I think...

TBMC also seems to do this

[zelly]

whack it off before it goes underground.

or not.

survival of the fittest, right?

[spooge]

Coco coir is def not for cactus man, retains far too much moisture for too long.

It's good for some plants though.

[theuserformallyknownasd00d]

My cactus love a bit of coco coir in the soil!

[AZS]

Crested Chain Fruit Cholla do'in its thing...

[mutant]

thanks all

zelly that makes sense

[cortona]

wath a beautiful crest!

[mutant]

thats what I am talking about... the cuts were done with plants uprooted and dry

[zelly]

mutant do you know if the the crests started out grafted ?

typically de-grafted crests have no place to grow except into the soil & why a person should use a fairly tall rootstock for grafting crests.

[mutant]

the one of the left I received like this , the much larger on the right I have grown for almost a year or so , it was uprooted by an accident, and I kept it dry to decide in what kind of pot I will plant.. I later decided to chop it.

I am not sure I understand what your are suggesting though ... they dont look like they were recently grafted...