You Grow Girl™

The first thing I did was bring the 'dead' plant inside to get warm. It was a cool, autumn evening and the plant could have been out in the cold for any length of time. Cold weather can cause a lot of damage to a cactus, including a browning or blackening of the foliage that leads to the eventual death of parts of the plant. The first rule in keeping any cactus or succulent that is not cold hardy, unlike the popular northern climate Hens and Chicks (Sempervivum), is: keep them in a place that is free from cold draughts. I set the plant in a spot away from direct light and quarantined away from my other plants for a few days. Not just because I was lazy, but because I felt that the plant had been through enough without me poking and prodding and cutting and repotting it. Repotting a plant can be a stressful situation, even though the ultimate effect is to improve the plant's growing conditions, so I didn't want to subject it to too much all at once.

After letting it rest a few days, I prepared the plant for repotting. First I removed it from the horrible bondage of the basket. Someone had the bright idea of using wire, string and all sorts of miscelleny in an attempt to hold the plant upright. All they really needed to do was replant it. The plant had simply become too big for the basket; I suspect the leaves were pulling the lightweight basket over. A bigger, heavier terra cotta pot would have solved the problem.

Next I gently teased the hard, compacted 'soil' away from the roots. The roots and the dirt had essentially fused into one. Water can be used to soften hardened soil away from roots, but in this extreme case no amount of soaking would have helped. As I pulled back the soil I was shocked to discover that the roots were hiding terra cotta balls that are often used in pots for holding moisture. They are usually used on the soil surface, not underneath. In this case the balls were of no use. Terra cotta balls will only hold as much water as you make available to them. I doubt anyone had made water available to this plant in some time. My second, predictable, discovery was that the roots were pretty much dead. I cut back nearly all of them with a sharp pair of pruners. Cutting back dead roots is a good idea since they aren't doing anything for the plant and will rot once exposed to water. It's important to get most of the decaying, rotted plant matter away from the plant and expose the healthy parts to encourage new growth.

Note: If you do cut into the healthy roots or new growth of a cactus or succulent, it's important to give the plant a week or two to heal over and form scabs before you repot it in fresh soil. Leave the plant exposed and outside of soil, resting on a piece of paper away from direct light or draughts. Dip the exposed roots into some powdered rooting hormone or green sulphur to encourage healing, fresh root growth, and to prevent fungal rot.