The Cactus Massacre of 2019 is finally over. I spent ALL DAY trying to liberate this poor plant from an unfathomably small metal pot. While I loved her shape when I first brought her home, I quickly realized it was due to a desperate attempt to grow despite her constriction.
In the first photo at the top left corner (that pile of brown) is what I cut off, and it was all of the roots the whole plant had. 😳 They were straggly roots that had been planted in MUD, and I would guess that 97% of the plant wasn't even attached to them. I honestly don't know how it was living.
In the pan in the photo are the tiny pieces I'm not going to plant. They will be gifted to people who love baby succulents this week. The green pieces lying near the rocks are what I cut off the brown. I'm going to let them dry, stick them in rooting hormone, and then plant them. Their bases were so twisted and crazy that I was having a hard time trying to pot them. I definitely don't want the plant to start rotting, so making a weird cactus stack and then covering it with dirt seemed like a bad idea.
The 17 pots near my pink closet doors are what I managed to pot without trimming. They weren't attached to anything and have no roots. They are blowing my mind, but hopefully they'll continue to live. I may need to trim them so they can be straight instead of leaning, but that's a task for another day. I would like to get a rectangular pot and put them all nicely in it, but I have a feeling that will have to wait until next month when I'm out of school again.
The second photo is the metal pot inside the basket on a pie pan that was her home. I'm still in shock that she is alive. Plants are amazing.
Sadly I knocked off all of the blooms and peppers from this plant, but maybe she'll be happy and make some more soon. 🙂
