Beginner Gardening: please help me help my cactus!, 3 by hcmcdole

hcmcdole wrote:
I would cut off the ugly offending parts (it will sprout some new shoots). You can also root the cut off parts if you want to (do you need a living hedge?) You might raise the cactus above grade in case the soil remains wet.

I have two columnar cacti that I keep in pots (bring those in for winter) that I have cut a few times over the years because once they get to 7 feet tall they are a little dangerous to carry about and are top heavy to boot.

Wished I had a picture of them before I cut them last summer. The only thing I can find is after I cut them plus the cut portions. The cut portions laid on the stone slabs for weeks and I finally rooted them in a shallow trench but let those out for winter. Only the contorted ones made it through winter while the straight ribbed ones all croaked. The last two pictures show the growth they put on since last year.



Here is the results of one of them a few weeks ago.