Expert: Chris Saddler - 6/27/2004

Question
I HAVE A TRICHOCEREUS . I BOUGHT 20 YEARS AGO.THERE ARE FOUR PLANTS IN A LARGE POT.THE PLANT STANDS 5 FT TALL AND 6 FEET AROUND ALL THE PLANTS.ITS GETTING TOO BIG TOO MOVE AND IT,S LEANING. WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO REMOVE TWO OF THEM TO DIFFERENT POTS?

Answer
Is it possible to dump the entire pot?  If you can get at the roots and plant at the same time you can probably divide it easily.  The difficulty is getting a cactus that big out of the pot.  The thing is, it's only going to get bigger.  If you cannot transplant the entire plant in the ground youwill have to deal with this at some point anyway.

Get some help, a lot of newspaper,heavy gloves and long handle tongs.  Turn the pot on it's side and then working from the holes in the bottom of the pot push the cactus out a bit at a time, till it's loose, then using the tongs work the plant all the way out of the pot onto the concrete.

Take a sharp knife or saw and cut directly thru the plant and attached roots to divide. I suggest dividing the whole plant at this point into individual cacti.

Using several layers of newspaper and your gloves, repot the cacti in individual pots.

Alternatively, you could slice off the smaller buds and try rooting them and leave the largest cactus in the existing pot alone.  If you slice off the buds at the base and allow the cut end to "heal" for a few hours, then pot in cactus mix they will root eventually.

Hope that helps

Chris