My repotted cactus is wobbly!

[ecruteak]

Follow up to my previous topic!

So I managed to get some cactus soil and I repotted my cactus - I wanted to move it into a larger pot at first, but it's honestly so small that in the end I just put it back into the old pot, but with the new soil. I tried to make sure I got all the peat off the roots before I repotted, and I did leave it out to dry for a bit before I did the repotting. I noticed that it had actually been potted quite deeply, there's at least one cm worth of cactus body that was submerged in the peat, and as you can see below - it's... quite yellow at the parts that were buried:



I'm not sure if I should be worried about the yellow part?

Also, since the repotting, the cactus has been rather unstable and wobbly... it looks like it's going to fall over sometimes. (As you can probably see from the photo too, it's tippling to the side a little.)

Is this anything to worry about? Any tips for stablization? Is my cactus doomed? @_@;;

Thank you! =)

[Ron43]

I stabilize my newly potted cacti that are not steady enough with a couple of bamboo skewers push in the soil beside them.

[george76904]

I wouldn't worry too much now, but for future repots I would say burry it up to where the previous soil line was. I think overall it's fine, newly potted plants especially when they are dry, tend to wobble a little bit.

[7george]

You can also put a couple of decorative rocks big enough to support the main stem below branches.

[ecruteak]

Thanks guys! =) Appreciate it!

Could I know, like, approximately how long it'll take for the roots to strengthen and hold it down firmly so it'll be less wobbly?

[jmoney]

If I were in your position, I would have removed the lowest offset (on the right in the picture) and used that to start a new plant. Doing so would allow me to pot the plant lower in the soil putting most of that main stem underground eliminating the wobbly issue altogether. Just a thought.

[ecruteak]

@jmoney Oh that one isn't attached to the plant. xD It fell off when repotting, I just put it in the soil there. ^^;;

I guess I thought potting the main stem into the soil wouldn't be good? Cause like when I water the soil it would make the stem wet and soggy? :O

[jmoney]

@jmoney Oh that one isn't attached to the plant. xD It fell off when repotting, I just put it in the soil there. ^^;;

I guess I thought potting the main stem into the soil wouldn't be good? Cause like when I water the soil it would make the stem wet and soggy? :O

If the stem gets too wet and soggy, you are probably over watering it anyways. You could probably pot it deeper and it wouldn't harm the cactus.