Transplanting cactus into new baskets

These baskets have seen better days, the coco coir that they are stuffed with is starting to fall apart. Birds would take the material to make nests and then holes form in the baskets. So I decided to move them into baskets with fresh coco coir. Though I will need to dig up the cactus to do this, and its good timing to do this as some of them look like they need to be cut back and placed in separate container baskets.

Three cactus have made it out of the bunch:

Opuntia fragilis
Opuntia humifusa (Eastern Prickly Pear)
Opuntia polyacantha erinacea

Only the prickly pears had the tolerance and were able to take the abuse, the others may have survived with the right amount of soil so I may try them again. I will take cuttings of the ones that survived and split them up between four baskets.

Using tongs is key, as gloves just get covered in spines and trying to do this by hand is just asking for needles in your skin. Its no fun dealing with those fine cactus hairs embedded in your skin. Its really no fun....

Here are the baskets before replacing the material inside. A few dead cactus that could not handle near 0 degree days during the most extreme of the cold snaps.

The dirt can be seen spilling out, so the cactus are suffering by losing all that dirt. They need the dirt for water absorption and for pulling up nutrients.

I recycle what I can with the rocks and dirt that is still in the baskets, and throw out the dead cactus.

With the baskets having fresh bedding its time to transfer the dirt back in. This soil has volcanic rocks and other good stuff cactus like.

I add some slow release fertilizer and then add in more dirt.

Placing the baskets up on the table, I can work with the plants better.

I cut off the cactus pads that still look alive, these cactus can grow from cuttings easily.

They look really sad right now, partly because they are dormant right now. And also probably due to their soil loss issue. Amazing they have survived for this long, though not all of the cactus and succulents have been so lucky.

Using scissors I cut off the sections. Some already have roots so I leave those be.

I stick them in the soil and just leave them alone for a week.. No water or anything, they need time to heal. Where I cut them it needs to dry up and then they will put out new roots.

Hopefully they will form roots and be happy with their new baskets.

Seems like none of the succulents survived, so if these cactus take off I will need to buy some more succulents and put them between the cactus. But for now I just want to get the remaining cactus back into a good state.