Should I cut this?

[chilli]

I picked this pachanoi up from the nursery a few weeks ago.

[email=http://www.geocities.com/sinfuldavid/Etiolation2.jpg]http://www.geocities.com/sinfuldavid/Etiolation2.jpg[/email]

From what I have heard, it seems as if this etiolated part will not thicken up much, and will become a weak point as the tip starts to get fatter, and so I am thinking of simply rerooting the growing tip, and letting the bottom pup.

Does this seem like a good idea? Could anyone give me suggestions on the best way to do this in this particular case? Should I cut off all of the etiolated part, or even some of the thicker part? How will the growing tip go after being replanted? Will it thicken up and form a reasonable base for further growth?

Also, I'm assuming that the light brown part at the top is scarring - how might this affect the growth tip if its replanted, if at all?

Thanks.

[zee_werp]

Ah fuck, I hate it when garden shops let their cacti get like that!!! ...oh well, time for damage control.

Personally I'd cut it off somewhere between where it starts to get thin and where it is thinnest. Then it'll still have a nice fat base to pup from. Also repot into a bigger pot with a nice rich mix this will ensure large pups. Don't forget to cut at an angle, both to stop water pooling in the stump, and to increase root growth in the top part.

As for the top part, let it callous off for a couple of weeks then if it was me doing it I'd probably plant it horizontally. That way it will grow loads of roots out the side as well as the base. Then you get a lot of pups along the length of it, and also the tip re-orients itself upwards so you have kind of a wall of growing tips. In this situation its probably the best idea because theres no way that thin bit is going to get much fatter.

The cactus looks juuls-giant-esque to me...they tend to get a lot of that blue powder stuff on them. Oh wait a sec, you're in NZ aye? If I am right in thinking that then yes I think that is probably a Juuls Giant, the base part of it and the pot its in looks identical to one I have when I got it. And I've seen them around the place a bit. I saw some of those exact ones etoliated as fuck up in Nelson too...had a rant to the garden center owners!! hah.

[indigo264nm]

What is the cause for such happening???

[Benzito]

I can't answer your question Chilli, but I did have to ask:

Is that on your roof?

Do you have your cactus on the roof of your house?

[Dodie]

If i were you i'd cut the whole thing up into pieces around 120mm-150mm, mark the bottom or top so you know which to plant where. Then you could have loads of stumps and heaps more pups. I wouldn't recommend planting horizontal as this i find this takes longer to form roots, takes longer to pup, and once they do they grow slower. Normally lack of light causes the tip to go like this, or even lack of nutrients.

[zee_werp]

Horizontal planting doesn't take any longer to form roots in my experience, provided that the entire vascular ring at the base of the cutting is under ground.

So in other words it'd be more like a 10 degree or so cutting rather than horizontal. Also, the best thing to do if you're doing this is to have the angled cut of the base facing down - so that when the roots emerge from the vascular bundle they head straight down into the pot.

Maybe its a subjective thing - cause personally, THE single fastest growing, most prolifically pupping cactus that I have known was a result of horizontal planting, with tip still intact (so it bent around and formed a main stem with more pups coming off the horizontal bit).

Planting the thin bit vertically could work, but it'll look kind of funny having a nice healthy pup coming off a tiny little stick. Maybe try one of each!

[bok]

Ive got a pachanoi grown from a small cutting and it has a similar problem as the one in the pic. The bottom is the same 30mm diameter as when it was planted and the top is almost triple the size. Should I hack it off as well?

[zee_werp]

Well if you don't do it yourself, a decent gust of wind will eventually do it for you (when the top gets large enough) and it won't be as clean and tidy. The question is when is the best time to do it - probably not now (if you're in the southern hemisphere) as growing season is just starting and if you lop it off to root now it'll miss most of the growing season by the time its rooted. I usually take cuttings in autumn just before the cacti become dormant. That gives them the winter to grow roots and be ready to go by the next summer.

[Flip]

First thing

I do not believe this to be a Juuls Giant.

It's has every appearance of a T. pan.

I believe that your ID may be affected by the plant being a 4 ribbed cutting

that reconfigured itself into a 5 or 6 star rib configuration.

making itself look fatter at it's base, over the "waxyness" that both cacti have.

The thinning is caused by low light levels. there is no way to correct this

the best thing to do for appearances sake is to trim the plant (below)

assuming that the new home will provide more light than the retailer.

you can let all 3 cuts heal over and replant all if you like

The plant will regrow from the potted base first

the tip will be second and the middle part will the be last to recover.

IME, you should set all 3 upright for best results.

Since you're in the southern part of this little blue ball

I would think about leaving it alone for now and let it grow a bit

make your cuttings in the fall and let them over winter as such

before potting in the early sprint and letting them fully establish a root system.

you may even get enough new growth to justify a fourth cut around where that tip damage is

and replant that as the new base tip for another clone.

I had two large cuttings spend two years in the corner of a bedroom before I planted them (elongated).

two years after that, they did break and fall from a large gust of wind and the sway of a top heavy plant.

No matter, all the resulting sections are repupping again both dry root and in pots.

I'm mentioning this because it's all really cosmetic and how you wish for your plants to appear.

[Pharmer]

If I were you I would make the cut at a portion with full diameter. It will probably branch at the top, quite possibly several branches. If you make the cut where it is skinny there will be very little room for branches. If you cut at a slant it will most likely pup from the highest areole/s first. Try to make your slant cut so that it is a few millimeters above every areole. In my experience this is the optimal hieght to produce pups. Flip's recomendation looks great to me. It appears the bottom cut would be basically into the full diameter portion of the base, and that etiolated tip will make a decent looking specimen when you plant it on it's own. I would plant them all vertically too.

Peace.

[Rev]

flip says it all

as for the top heavy club shaped ones

its good to cut them and reroot every now and then and afer a few times doing this you can get some massive diameter plants - well the full potential anyway...

for me large cuttings get thinner when thye have no roots, then get fatter again as the roots grow