I've recently gotten a san pedro (Echinopsis pachanoi) cutting as a gift. I'm trying to take care of it as good as possible, but I'm not sure if I'm doing it the right way.
The situation is: the cutting has been properly dried after cutting it, to let the wound heal. The wound is dry, and little white roots were even starting to form. It's about 30 cm / 11 inches tall. I've planted it in a pot with relatively dry cactus soil, the cactus is about 5 cm / 2 inches deep (with supports to prevent it from falling over, and it has plenty of room to grow roots). I haven't watered it yet, because over here it's winter now and I heard that these types of cacti don't like to be watered in the winter (or they'll rot).
It is now in a safe place indoors, in its own pot. It doesn't receive a whole lot of sun (because it's winter and my windows face the north), but there's not a whole lot I can do about that unfortunately.
The problems are:
- I'm kind of worried that the soil will become too dry (and that the microorganisms will die), but then again, I don't want the cactus to rot. So I'm kind of unsure what to do about that.
- The cactus is showing some discolorations (lighter green spots in its otherwise dark green skin. Some of the spots are swollen and kind of shiny, like bruises. Would this be damage from transportation, or is it sunburn or something else? Should I be worried and what can I do about it?
- As I said, the cactus is indoors, so it has to deal with my sleep/wake rhythm and my use of indoor lighting. Would this be detrimental to its health (i.e., could I be disturbing its day/night cycle by my use of artificial light)?
So those are my main questions. If you have any other suggestions/recommendations for taking care of my cactus, please let me know, I'm a total novice at taking care of cacti. Also, if you need to see pictures of it to know what I should do, let me know and I'll see if I can upload some.