Thanksgiving cactus

Question

My Thanksgiving cactus has never felt better. It bloomed and still produces new flowers, but now its leaves has become soft and squishy. I just took it out of pot to look at roots, since I thought that they had started to rot from overwatering. I cut back on watering so much, but it hasn’t gotten better. And roots looked pretty bad. They weren’t juicy and strong, but looked grayish-brown and were very fragile. It seemed to me that there isn’t enough roots. Since I don’t want to lose it, what (and how) should I do? Cut flowers off and make cuttings from it, so it would produce new roots? Thanks!

Answer 1

You’re right, the squishiness of the leaves indicates a root problem. If I had this plant, this is what I would do. 1) cut back some, and root the cuttings, just in case the parent plant can’t be save; 2) depot, cut back the dead, nasty-looking roots; 3) gently wash off as much of the old soil as you can, and repot into fresh soil. You may want to use a smaller pot – contrary to what you usually do when repotting – because these plants flower better when they are potbound; 4)sprinkle the roots lightly before repotting with cinnamon, a natural fungicide; 5) put back where you had it before, which seems to be a good spot, and use a moisture meter to test soil moisture in the bottom of the pot, to make sure moisture isn’t building up near the bottom of the pot, which is the major cause of root fungus; 6) keep my fingers crossed.