Slide a wooden skewer down the side of your cactus pot the day you get home and pull it out: it’s the test growers do before blaming anything else
Professional plant growers use a surprising trick on day one: a wooden skewer pushed to the bottom of the pot reveals if your new cactus is already drowning in moisture from the nursery. This thirty-second test, borrowed from cake baking, catches overwatering—the #1 cactus killer—before it becomes invisible damage.