Question
I just bought a tall Peruvian apple cactus (3 ft high, many columns). It was a
bit of an impulse buy and I found myself without a bungee cord to secure it in
the bed of my truck on the way home. I drove slowly and it remained upright
until the last turn before my house where it toppled over and hit the side of
the truck breaking one of the columns almost clean off (the one with all the
blooms of course!) and splitting another one. I know you can just cut part of
it off and let it scar over and then re root it but I was so looking forward to
those blooms, so instead I got out my surgical tape and adhered the columns
back together. I am now feeling like I may have done something crazy. Will
the cactus heal eventually if repaired in this manner? Or will that part just die
anyway, and would I have been better off letting it scar and re rooting it?

Answer
Amy,

What you did was called "grafting". It can work, although it is unlikely in your situation. The reason is that is is difficult to graft a cereus type cactus to another cereus type, simply because there needs to be a lot of pressure between both plants (which is hard to do in your situation.

If it doesn't work, you can let it dry out and re-root it. Hope this helps, good luck.

Sincerely,

Greg