This old lady received the full brunt of the sun for a few hours Is it salvageable? It's been about 48 hours since then, and I put it inside with very little sunlight. When it happened the skin was very soft, and over the course of the day became firmer and dryer. Right now it's fairly firm all over, including the sunburned area. It just hurts me so much to see it like this and I keep finding conflicting advice about this, so I finally decided to take some photos with all the pain in my heart. Is there anything I can do?

Patience and protection. Indoor sun is not going to hurt the plant, probably only help it at this point, assuming mild temps and decent air flow. Best case scenario the growth center is intact and new growth will be green, leaving only scarred tissue below. Also possible, the side branches end up growing out and taking over.

Indoor sun is different from outdoor sun in a few ways, mainly the lack of UV because it is mostly filtered out by regular window glass. Your plant can handle outdoor sun if it is given a few weeks of gradual stepwise adjustment, to account for the time it takes to build up resistance.

Baja_Costero said: Patience and protection. Indoor sun is not going to hurt the plant, probably only help it at this point, assuming mild temps and decent air flow. Best case scenario the growth center is intact and new growth will be green, leaving only scarred tissue below. Also possible, the side branches end up growing out and taking over.

Indoor sun is different from outdoor sun in a few ways, mainly the lack of UV because it is mostly filtered out by regular window glass. Your plant can handle outdoor sun if it is given a few weeks of gradual stepwise adjustment, to account for the time it takes to build up resistance.

Thank you for your reply. Is there anything else I should be doing? Such as watering less or more often?

I would water the same. I am pretty careful about sun so this is out of my usual experience, but that would be my best guess. The soil should go dry pretty much every time you water.

Baja_Costero said: I would water the same. I am pretty careful about sun so this is out of my usual experience, but that would be my best guess. The soil should go dry pretty much every time you water.

Yes the soil is pretty much the one where it was plucked from, these are local to me.

Sorry to be hounding on you, you're just the only one who replied. Today I notice it's looking to have a little bit of green coming out on the very top between the different lobes, so I'm assuming that's good, and it feels firm all over, however at the very bottom there's a very small part that might be rot It looks like the rest of the top but it's a little bit squishier than the rest of the plant. Should I just watch it and hope it resolves, or is that something I need to take care of?

Once again thanks for all the advice.

There will be a precarious time when the plant hovers at the brink. Rot is a possible outcome. I know of no treatment for that, only prevention (to the extent that is possible). Which would be light, good airflow, moderation with the water.

A bit of deflation may render the stem a bit soft, this is temporary and reversible (given good conditions). My Lophophoras go soft occasionally (not squishy though) for whatever reason, I just observe and monitor.

@garden772
I can see 2 pups are coming out at the side, if the mother plant is not squishy and rot, then at least the pups will take over.
I have quite a few cactus that have sunburnt ( not lopho though), and the took forever to recover.