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[stacey]

Hi I´ve been asked this, and wondered if anyone could answer it, as I don´t have a lot of experience with cacti -

"Can you give me advice on rotting down some very nasty cactus branches. They have been lopped off for some weeks now but are still showing the very long and nasty spines and no sign of rotting. They are behind a fairly high wall and we have three cats, one a kitten that will insist on jumping up the wall from where the branches are. So far he's got away with it but I'm worried that he will jump on one of the spines. Have asked at one garden centre but they couldn't help.

When we first got the cactus it was a lovely little plant but now it getting too big. Wondered whether it's best to get shut of it altogether. We have to be careful though because it has a nasty bite!!"

The obvious answer was that "some weeks" isn´t really long enough for most plants to rot down, but I wondered if anyone knew for certain. I suggested he put on the long gloves, braved the spines himself and took them to the tip if he was that concerned ...

[Campo Girl]

Hola stacey

The last problem cacti we had we chopped down and hacked it to death basically, my husband used gardening gloves x2 and oven gloves to prevent him from being stabbed

Another tip for rotting down plants is to drill a hole in the base and pour diesel in it, but I doubt that is a very "friendly" option these days! LOL

What about roundup but if you have chickens I would avoid using that, we used roundup up to the point where we got chickens

Or try horse manure on it after you have chopped down, this will rot it inside 6 months and then you can use as a fertiliser the following year, it will take some time to rot down so be patient

Starve it of everything it needs to survive like light and water, if you cover with 2 foot of manure you are on to a winner

Simone

[Suzy]

Hi Stacey
Just out of interest I googled getting rid of cacti and found an amusing American garden chat site which covered the topic, most were based in New Mexico and had problems with rampant cacti, mostly prickly pear.  However, their methods involved dragging out with a tractor, back-hoeing them out with an attachment on their tractor and best of all flame throwing them!!   Don´t think that is too practical over here! (and where would you buy a flame thrower?) Think yours and Simone´s suggestion are the most practical, hack them down and dispose of somewhere.  Do you think that dowsing them in a lot of water would encourage rot?  Certainly smaller ones just go to gooey mush if they are overwatered.
Cheers
Suzy

[stacey]

what do you think the guardia would say if i went around with a flamethrower?

thanks for the replies!!

[Campo Girl]

Ahhahahahahha, now that I would want to see, photos please!