A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Cactus is shrinking!

I have had this little cactus for about 2 years and today I just noticed that it looks about 1/2 the size it was just a week ago! The sides look like they are shrunken in and instead of being a round little cactus it has a weird shape now. I don't know if you can tell much from these photos. Any ideas? Does it need more water? Sunlight?

I would bet disease of some sort.

It is probably rotting from within, letting to the distorted shape.

Definitely not more water! That could be its problem. I agree with RugbyHukr that its probably rotting from within. If the bottom feels squishy but the top is still firm, you can cut it off, let it heal over for a week or two, and then root it in barely damp sand.

Ok - I cut it! The inside looks weird though, it's hollow and has what almost looks like tiny spider webs in it. Here is a photo of the inside of the top part:

It almost looks like a smiley face!

And here is a photo of the outside bottom root part:


And one of the inside of the bottom part:


Does it look dead? Should I just give up on it? I really have no idea how to tell....

cactus are not supposed to be watered fron november through february. It took me about 20 cactus to figure that one out, now I have 5 that are thriving, in fact next month they need to be repotted.

I have to agree that it looks like it rotted itself out.

A living cactus has a solid inside varying from green to light green to whitish, with noticable differences in color and texture from the water storage to structural tissues, but it all has a healthy, firm, and moist look to it. Sorry about yours. Read up some on cactus culture and get another. They have the most wonderful flowers!
This is my favorite mail order site for healthy, well documented, and not expensive cacti and succulents.
http://www.miles2go.com/

Ok thanks for the advice and the link! I hope I do better next time.