Relocating a large San Pedro and cutting the tap root.

Hi there I'm new to this forum and it looks like the place to get some serious help!

I have a friend who is moving house and is going to leave his 4m tall San Pedro cactus behind.

I am allowed to take this giant cactus to my house but I'm hesitant as it was originally grown in a large pot and the root system has punched right threw this pot into the ground right next to a pathway.

He thinks I can just cut the giant root and move it in the old pot to my house and repot but I think this would damage the poor giant having such a big root cut off the bottom, who knows how big it be down there.

I can't dig it up because it is rooted underneath the pathway that can't be damaged, but I can cut it about 50cm from the top of the pot.

Will this kill the cactus if I cut such a large root off or will it be ok to cut it and re pot it???

Any help would be great as time is running out and I don't want to hurt it or leave it there to be chopped down and bull dowsed!!

Thanks in advance

Dave

hope it helps..

http://www.ehow.com/how_12105145_remove-replant-outdoor-cactus.html

Hi Dave,

Cutting the roots and transplanting probably won't kill it, at least in my experience. I bought a collection from a couple who were renovating and did not share the former owners love of all things prickly. So I spent a weekend digging up a ute load of cacti to take home. As per that article above I let my plants air out for a week or more before planting. From these and others I have moved you may find some plants won't grow for quite some time, years, after the move. Its species dependant however as some will continue to grow like nothing has happened. Good luck and be careful moving large cacti can be tricky.

Great, that gives me more confidence in making the move now.
My only problem is I will have to transplant into a large pot because I am moving house as well very soon and don't want to repeat the process again in a couple of months after it has just settled in.

Physically moving the cactus is hard enough!

Thanks for your help, it was the answer I was looking for.

Here is a shot of some of the stuff i ended up with. . The one at the back wraped in carpet underlay and straped to a bord is a 3 or 4 meters tall Grey Organ Pipe. Fortunately it wasn't too heavy when all the dirt was removed.

Wow what a great score!

Any old Saguaro's in there?

Wow what a great score!

Any old Saguaro's in there?

The roots are actually quite small on those large ones, thats good to know.

No sadly not, but the funny thing was I bought the collection after seeing a couple of fuzzy photo's. I go there expecting to find 3 cacti ranging in height to about 1 meter. Was rather chuffed when the owner told me there were a couple of extra items... Not sure my wife was so impressed when 3 prickly items tuned into several hundred...