Hey all.

One of the prides of my still small epi collection is a cutting of E. chrysocardium that I acquired a few months back.

It was a bit quiet for a while, but with the warmth of a southern summer its roots finally shot out and three buds developed along the stem. Of these three buds, the lowest one has shot up and is now as big as the original cutting, but the two higher up are still tiny embryonic bumps about 2mm long.

Have they stalled forever? Will they die off and leave me hanging for next summer to get more branching on the plant? Or are they just playing possum?

Is there any way of encouraging their growth without chopping the plant in pieces?

Any thoughts or experience?

I have found with a few of my cacti that if one offsets late in summer it doesn't always fully develope into a new stem. In a couple of cases when the next summer comes along the same plant would offset a new stem and abort the previous late bloomer. I found this common with T. bridgesii mostrose.

What I'm trying to say is that it's possible for cacti to abort offsets for various reasons. Maybe due to the lowest offset on your plant growing so rapidly the other two have stalled forever.
I'm not sure how you might stimulate their growth. Sorry I couldn't help any more than that.