help with mammillaria ?

[chaggo]

not sure if this goes here sorry if it doesn't !

this guy's been with me for like 2 years now, it was just an "arm" when i got it but apparenltly it got etiolated at some point and it grew thin just to go normal again, so now i don't know what to do about it, should i cut it from the thin part ? will the bottom die ? do i need to cut the new arms growing on the top part if i cut it ? can i do grafting with one of the "arms" to fix the bottom ? ? any tips are highly appreciated ! thanks in advance !

also not sure if it really is a mammillaria, but it does look like one to me lol

[iaeen]

Your image doesn't appear to be working.

[chaggo]

thanks ! fixed it, hope it works this time around

[iaeen]

That's a big mammillaria. It's hard to tell based on these pictures, but it doesn't look too bad to me. My concern with cutting on it is that you might end up having to split the clusters into individual plants. I think it would be a shame to break up that otherwise beautiful plant just to get rid of a little etoilation.

That's just my opinion though; maybe some more experienced members will chime in.

[greenknight]

How big is that - what size is that pot?

You don't need to cut it off - the main problem with having a skinny section like that is it won't be able to support the weight when the plant gets large, but Mammillarias can't anyway (yes, pretty sure it is a Mammillaria). When they get tall, they tend to bend over and become trailing Cacti, they have no woody structure to hold themselves upright. You've got it staked up, which is fine, but it would also have been fine if you let it flop over, it would grow happily either way.

You could cut it, the bottom would continue to grow just fine. The growing clump would soon hide the cut, no need to try to fix it with a graft. You could root the top without removing the offsets, they're not a problem. I agree with iaeen, though, it would be a shame to cut it. It's a nice specimen, and that etiolation will soon be hidden in the clump so it will look great.

[chaggo]

thanks guys ! appreciate the tips !

not sure about the pot size, it's probably a 2 liter pot, around 17cm diameter probably, this guy is pretty tall tho, i'd say with the stake on it's around 30cm tall, probably 20-ish without the pot, in fact i think it's going to need a bigger pot pretty soon !

it's great to know any option can work here, i was a hesitant about even trying anything because it's taken some time for this guy to get so big and fluffy and i would hate to ruin it

my main concern was that when the kids on the top part get big the weight will just be too much and i'm a little scared the thin part could give up and break, but i see what you say greenknight, i can definitly see the kids supporting the main part when they get big, so yeah i think i'm just going to let it keep growing happy and see how it turns out

i'm a little scared to remove the stake yet tho, i had a mini heart atack the other day when for some reason it fell off the stake and i saw it hanging on the side !

[greenknight]

They don't break as easily as you might think - they bend! I can understand why you'd be alarmed, though.