My cactus is splitting. What should I do?

Question:I have a 3 inch cactus and about 1 inch in width and a couple years ago i put it out in the sun too long and a side of it became dead. The cactus didn't fully die, but now the dead side is splitting or cracking and the cracks are pretty deep. Is the dead stuff coming off, or is something wrong?

Answers:
My first thought was that if the cactus was splitting you should give it a farewell party ;-)

But it would appear that it is just having growing pains. If part of the cactus died the border between dead and live should act like a scab, but if the living side grows and the other side doesn't something will have to give.

If on the other hand you have a big chunk of dead cactus sitting there, it will rot and infect the living part, just like a person who gets gangrene if the same thing happens.

If there is a large dead part it is better to cut it away, but if there is only a large scab with live cactus underneath then there is no problem.

A good thing to remember is that plants were managing without our help a lot longer than with it.