My cactus it dying ... or dead, Please help!?

Question

I had never bought cacti before, thought they would be pretty easy i was advised to just give them a little water a month, which i have been doing, however, have to admit sometimes forgot. Now the stem of one of the cacti is all really mushy. It has a colourful red top and then the stem is green and now very mushy when it used to be hard. I googled it and found that it could be overwatering, however i gave it very little so im pretty confused, any suggestions so that i dont kill the next cactus?????

Answer 1

Cactus do need watering however if it's mushy it is definitely too much water, otherwise it would just dry up and get wrinkled. The soil may be the problem, you can give a cactus plenty of water but it hates sitting in water so if you don't have a lot of grit or sand mixed in with the compost (about 50/50) for good drainage they will rot.

Answer 2

Hmmmm maybe you're not giving it enough. According to a t.v. gardening programme, cacti often need more water than people think. After all, they often come from areas where there is a lot of night dew. I'd say he amount of water the cactus needs is relative the conditions/climate it'd grown under.