Not good.

Cut away all parts that are miscoloured with a good marginal. It is rotten.

/David

Done, thankfully the infection hadn't traveled very far, I managed to cut it back to a nice green skin with a good amount of the cactus left, hopefully once it grows a bit, it's amputation will be hardly noticeable.

I've sterilized my water mister with boiling water, once that's cooled it should be ok to use, the container has been sterilized with hot soapy water, and the soil is baking in the oven for 60 minutes, also I think I'll keep it off the propagator and use no fertilizer this time, I'm questioning whether I should even use it at all.

I've also dabbed a bit of honey on the wound as it's a natural antibacterial and antifungal, hopefully all these precautions will be worth it in the end, I refuse to give up on it.

Here's a new picture of it after surgery, looking at the old picture compared to the new, I don't know how I even thought that was natural, it looked horrible.

http://www.illhostit.net/files/480/cleaned.jpg

P.S the glaze is just honey, it's nothing to worry about.

Actually, I AM worried about the honey. I assume you're using it as a fungicide, but I'm fearful it will not help in the case of a cactus. Leave a clean cut to air out for at least a week, until it has calloused over. When you plant it, do not water or even mist for a few weeks. The soil should be dry from the start. Warm temperatures should help. I hope this helps.

The cactus has now had about 4 days to callous, and has done so beautifully, however I'm still a little concerned as there is still a small amount of a pinkish tone to the root stub, it's just a tiny patch, nothing like what the poor thing suffered before, but could you tell me what you think.

Feel free to look back upon previous images in this topic if you need a comparison, there's plenty of bandwidth for the moment.

{{gwi:503589}}

I don't grow cacti, just succulents, but I too am concerned abt the use of honey. I'd be afraid it will attract all kinds of insects & would not do this again.

In future, I'd use rooting hornmone w/ fungicide (for the fungicide), OR what I've been using lately is cinnamon (plain old cinnamon like one uses to bake). It too is a natural fungicide & won't attract insects. I learned this cinnamon trick from Orchid growers. Just brush it on w/ a dry artist's brush, then shake off the excess.

I think I've gotten away with the use of it on this occasion, the sugar content of honey did come to my mind for a few moments, but it seems to have worked out well.

Thank you for bringing insects to my attention, the thought hadn't occurred to me until this was brought up, perhaps the weather is a bit cold for them at the moment, but nonetheless I shall certainly be giving cinnamon a try, providing I haven't used it all on my toast of course.

I'm not a fan of rooting hormone where I can get away with it, my gardening style I suppose comes from bonsai, replicating the beauty of nature, without the need for special treatment, but if a plant proved particularly difficult to propagate, I would consider it.