help needed with my cactus' extreme lean

[808]

Hi everyone.
Over the past year and a half my cactus has gone from straight up vertical to this extreme angle.

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It is rooting along its underside.
I guess it’s trying to root to the ground horizontally as it’s not far off.

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I’m not very knowledgeable on these things but from what I’d read I thought it’s probably from me over watering and possibly root rot causing it to lose its standing, maybe? There is some brown scabby, burn like damage at it's base.
Posting this problem on another forum however, I was told by a couple of people it is etiolate and is reacting to the setting being too dark for it.
It has been on its descent for a year or so but is getting lower. Since this photo was taken 2 weeks ago it has dropped further nearly a 90 degree angle

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However, despite this, it looks and seems pretty healthy, there is even a small sprout of new growth at its base.
But this position can’t be good for it can it? I was also told about how some cacti are crawlers but this was definitely vertical when i bought it.

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I haven’t given it any water for 3 months and now it is spring I was hoping to try and straighten it up in its existing or a new pot.

Any advice and help on doing this would be very much appreciated . Is this advisable or possible? Is it salvageable? I would love to save it. Even if i could cut a section off and try rerooting from that?
The plant is approximately 22” in length and is in a plastic pot 8” x 8”. The cactus lives in a conservatory and (I thought) got a good amount sunlight. I have moved it to the sunniest position possible but I am in the uk.
Thanks in advance.

[TimN]

I don't know exactly what this is, but the adventitious roots make me thing that this species is decumbent normally.

As to straightening a leaning plant when you repot: In my experience if they want to they're going to lean. I currently have an Astrophytum myriostigma that's been leaning for several years. I've repotted it a couple of times. I've seen mature plants in the ground doing the same thing.

My advice; find a place where it can lean and go with it. It's making an offset, so it can start leaning the other way soon.

The brown spots is corking or callus. I suspect that the skin on that part of the plant is getting a little stretched. It's nothing to worry about unless it starts getting out of control.

Not sure where you are located on the globe, but not watering for three months may make this more pronounced. Some species the roots will die off if it doesn't get some water. The adventitious roots indicate to me that this has been a thirsty plant.

Oh, and put a question in Cactus ID to find out what this is. It *might* be a Stenocereus, but don't rely on my identification. A good ID will give insight into it's normal growth habit.

[mikethecactusguy]

I've seen people re-pot leaners like this into long rectangular pots and let them lean and grow. It makes for something cool and different.
It looks like it searching for water with the roots coming out of the body. It will probably grow offshoots straight up once it settles down.
Giving it something to perch on will probably prevent it from snapping at the bend.

[esp_imaging]

Where did you get the plant from ? It has the habit of a (well grown) Trichocereus arboricola, (although with a few more ribs than normal, and maybe a thicker stem, so maybe it's something else?), so a very unusual plant to obtain as a casual acquisition. If it is this plant, they come from Bolivian forest. At first they grow upright, then they sprawl up / through trees, and quite often hang down off branches. As you correctly figured out, it is wanting to find something to grab onto with its adventitious roots.
Even if the id is different, I think you've got a sprawling, scrambling plant, rather than one which will grow vertical.
At an extreme, yours may be ultimately wanting to do something like this: https://sib.gob.ar/especies/trichocereus-arboricola

[greenknight]

Echinopsis/Trichocereus hybridize freely, whether deliberately or otherwise, so maybe it's a hybrid. Clearly has the arbicola growth habit, in any case. Either let it sprawl or give it something to climb. Those air roots don't need soil to anchor, they'll grab on to anything.

I don't think you need to worry about it snapping off, it will just keep bending.

[808]

Thank you everybody for these informative replies. I'm really pleasantly surprised that this could be its natural behaviour and it is just doing what it wants to do and is not on the way out. I really hope so. I just have to work out what to do for the best now. Repotting in to a long planter and let it crawl is a good idea but I don't know if i have the space. If anyone has any ideas or methods of training and supporting this cactus in an indoor setting they would be greatly received.

[808]

Where did you get the plant from ? It has the habit of a (well grown) Trichocereus arboricola, (although with a few more ribs than normal, and maybe a thicker stem, so maybe it's something else?), so a very unusual plant to obtain as a casual acquisition. If it is this plant, they come from Bolivian forest. At first they grow upright, then they sprawl up / through trees, and quite often hang down off branches. As you correctly figured out, it is wanting to find something to grab onto with its adventitious roots.
Even if the id is different, I think you've got a sprawling, scrambling plant, rather than one which will grow vertical.
At an extreme, yours may be ultimately wanting to do something like this: https://sib.gob.ar/especies/trichocereus-arboricola

It was a gift from my mum, she bought it in her local garden centre in South Devon. It would be really interesting if it is the plant that you described and linked to. As i said, when i was first given it, it was perfectly upright and like most of the cacti I am familiar with I guess I expected it to remain that way. Having said that, its new direction is no disappointment, I'm a fan of the unusual and unpredictable. I have only recently learned of forest and jungle cacti, if indeed it is one of these type my concern now is that I should be approaching its care differently, in terms of watering?
Up to now i have been treating it like all my other cacti , desert variety.

[greenknight]

To keep it from using too much space, either train it up a support or put it in a hanging basket and let it droop.

I think it would look good trained up a gnarled tree branch or driftwood. You could gradually raise it up, but much faster to un-pot it and reset it at a steeper angle - you'd need to move it into a wider pot to make room for the support, anyway. If you want it to be free-standing, not leaning up against something, I'd suggest using a pot that's twice as big as it needs and half-filling it with large rocks (not gravel, you want the potting mix to get in between the rocks to make drainage channels). That way it will be heavy enough not to tip over even when it's dry.

[esp_imaging]

I have only recently learned of forest and jungle cacti, if indeed it is one of these type my concern now is that I should be approaching its care differently, in terms of watering?
Up to now i have been treating it like all my other cacti , desert variety.

It looks well grown to me, keep on doing exactly what you have been.

Spence's advise about a very big pot, part filled with rocks, is good if you want to train it up a branch or something.

[TimN]

Different species, Stenocereus eruca, but this shows the concept for potting a decumbent plant.

The grower (not me) made the pot by epoxying sheet acrylic. Just to be clear, this is not my plant. The photo is from the Intercity show & sale last August (?)

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[hegar]

Hello Tim,
that is a nice "creeping devil". One of our local cactus club members has several of them growing in his outdoor plantings. Their spines do look somewhat intimidating.

Harald

[mikethecactusguy]

Hi TimN
I think I saw that cactus at the show at the LA arboretum last years. Yes?