Crested Questions
Karen asked a question about her crested euphorbia, and Hap started a long answer at the same time I had sent off a much shorter answer. Check out the differences between my answer and Hap’s.
Hello Peter – Once again I come to you for expert advice! My mother bought me a crested Euphorbia that has been grafted onto something. I think it looks too tall and am thinking about cutting it shorter…what do you think? The main stem is about 6 inches tall and I think it looks goofy and top heavy. If I were to cut it down, I would leave about 2-3 inches of stem and let it sit for 4-5 days before settling it down into your cactus soil. Yes? No!
Thanks for your time!! ~Karen
First up is my answer, the one that got sent to Karen.
Karen,
I would leave the Euphorbia alone. The crest will eventually catch up to the size of the stock, and it will grow faster if you don’t cut it
Peter
Could it have been any shorter?
And Hap’s answer that didn’t get sent?….
Karen,
The Euphorbia crest is a partial albino so the “green stick” it is grafted to helps “feed” the top grafted portion and helps it to grow faster and more successfully. This is the strategy behind most grafted Euphorbia crests and the scary irradiated glow in the dark grafted cacti on the market, some of the weirder colors just don’t produce enough chlorophyll to survive on their own, so they have to be grafted on to something compatible that still has normal chlorophyll, eventually the top graft out grows the ability of the lower stem to support it and you need to either cut up the mutant and re-graft smaller pieces or move it to a larger base graft. So instead of cutting and rerooting your out-of-proportion plant it would be better to just let the graft grow in to better proportions. It would of course grow faster if it was repotted into our cactus soil.
Hap
