I bought these Opuntia cacti about a year ago, and after 2-3 months they began to wrinkle and the large one flopped over. When I bought them initially I was told to water them roughly once per week during the summer, then seldom throughout the winter.

However I wonder if the weekly water last year was too much, and it may have ruptured the cell structure of their base? Many months ago I took the large one out of its pot to check for root rot, and broke off any soggy roots, and repotted it once it had dried out.

If over-watering during last summer were to be the case, are they likely to regenerate? I have seldom watered them during the past 6 months.

Many thanks in advance!

Water it and see if it un-wrinkles. When you do water, is the the soil completely damp? Or just the surface?

Hello Eloise, welcome to the site.

Given what I can see through your window and since you are growing them inside, I would think you do not live anywhere where it gets very hot for long periods of time even in summer, and by that I mean 95+F/mid-high-30s C for weeks at a time. So once per week was probably a little generous. The main rule with watering these plants is to water thoroughly when the soil is dry, and not just dry at the surface but dry deeper in the pot. However, from what I can see from the plant, the base pad does not show any signs of rot, so while it may have been overwatered, it was not so bad that it really started the plant rotting.

On the other hand it is not uncommon for Prickly Pears to get a little floppy when seasons change and they are not actively growing. If you have not watered them in a while I would see what a good watering would do for them. Also since they are indoors, I assume it never really gets that cold and since they were still getting light, barely watering them for 6 months might have been a little long. Your soil looks pretty good in terms of growing a cactus, but before you water, check if it is really dry deeper down - there are cheap water meters available (even IKEA has some, but I am not sure how well they would work with cacti), but if you do not have one some times pushing a bamboo skewer down can give you a sense if the soil is wet or not. If all else fails working a finger down into the soil a good bit can also give you a sense.

Then if you do water give them a good drench, but avoid having standing water in the dish under the pot (maybe let the pots drain in the sink or in a tub), then see how they respond to that and only water again when the soil is about dried out.

Generally Opuntia are pretty forgiving of mistreatment, the ones I have killed have been following two scenarios: for one reason or other having a plant sit in a thoroughly wet pot for weeks at a time when it is winter cold (which is not really that cold compared to most places) or the opposite when I forget to water plants that were barely rooted because I was propagating them, for weeks at a time when it is very hot (so summers here).

If it came to the worst case scenario and the section sitting in the soil has developed rot, you can always take the pads attached to it and propagate those, but my sense is that as it gets warmer and you start giving it a little more water things should sort themselves out.

Thank you both so much, that's extremely helpful and reassuring! Until now when I have watered them I haven't given them much. So I will give them both a good drenching with water (making sure they are draining well) and see how they both respond. I will let you know how they get on!

Morning all,

I gave it a good dosage of water last week, and it has drooped a little bit more since then. Would you suggest not giving it any water for a couple months to see if that might help?

Hi Eloise,

When you watered, did you work your finger down into the soil to make sure the soil was wet all the way down?

DaisyI said:Hi Eloise,

When you watered, did you work your finger down into the soil to make sure the soil was wet all the way down?

Hi Daisyl,

I didn't no, but water did drain from the bottom of the pot. I think I must have given it about half a litre of water. Do you think I should be giving it a larger dose of water?

Sometimes, if you haven't watered for awhile, the soil no longer absorbs water - it runs right through the pot without soaking the soil. If the soil doesn't hydrate, watering is pointless. The only way you will know for sure is to water and then wiggle your finger into the soil and make sure its wet 2 or 3 inches down.

If you discover the soil is not absorbing moisture, try watering 3 times (wait 5 or 10 minutes between). If that doesn't work, soak the entire pot up to the rim.

I second Daisy's advice. The base pad looks wrinkled which is often a sign of being dehydrated. If there was significant root rot the plant would have been uprooted with that kind of lean, so all signs point to it wanting water. If worse comes to worst you could stake it...

Thank you both very much - I'll give that a go and update in another week or so :)

I do something similar as what Daisy recommended with my Opuntias when springtime hits. I only water my Opuntias if absolutely necessary during the wintertime, but otherwise generally avoid it. Then I give them a good soaking at the beginning of spring. I have one in particular that gets a bit floppy around this time.

Given they won't have been watered for a while, I have the same issue with getting the soil to actually take the water. I keep mine in a sink and water them slowly until the water runs from the pot (I try to trickle the water slowly so it starts to sink into the soil rather than running right down the sides of the pot). I'll repeat this a few times every 10ish minutes until the pot feels heavier, I can feel the water further down is damp, and any loose water has drained.

This works well for me, and I find the Opuntias perk back up within the next two days after the watering.

Hello,

Thank you so much for all your earlier advice, I have been regularly watering the Optunia and it seems to be retaining the water now for several days which is great. Only it doesn't seem to have perked up at all, and I wonder if this may be because it has been drooped for so long, perhaps it isn't able to perk up again?

It has been receiving a lot more sun lately, and it has started sprouting some new growth on the upward-facing side of the drooped pads, and I just noticed this morning what appears to be almost root-like white spikes appearing from the underside of the drooped pads (I've tried to capture these in the photos).

Would you have any thoughts around whether you think it may still be able to resurrect again?
Do you think I need to increase the watering to be every second day or so?

I do not think it will go upright by itself anymore. Opuntias are completely happy to grow in pretty much any orientation and position. They are notorious spreaders and space fillers and I would consider almost all 'messy' growers. The white things look like they might be 'air roots', which if they do find soil will start behaving like normal roots.

If you really need it to be upright, the only real option would be to prune it right at the base of the sideways pad, let that dry out for a few days and then put that in the soil with the new growth facing towards the window. You could combine the pruned part into the old pot, but you will want to stop watering for a week to two weeks to let that pruned section develop roots, which since it appears in the growing section might be relatively quickly.

Hi I know this post is a bit old but I hope your opuntia came back to life.

I notice that you are in a single glazed flat

Have you considered that the window area may be too cold during winter but perfect in summer.

Cold + less light may equate to your poor growth.

You can get cheap temp / humidity monitors on eBay for about £7 which runs on the Tuya app. If the area falls below your set parameters it will alert you and it also lets out a little beep.

There's also Tuya plant monitors that poke into the soil that will alert you via the Tuya app.

I'm having issues with mine , moved it away from the window and put it under a lamp on a timer and it's starting to grow fast.

Th