Hey all! My cactus is pretty green in color but around th...
0ft to light, direct
2” pot with drainage
Last watered 1 year ago
41
@YiftFrostyfern then it’s probably ok and just strengthening the base so it can support its own weight as it gets bigger and the callous buildup should make it more difficult to rot at the base. Or corking as they always call it. Corking is normal and isn’t a bad thing
@YiftFrostyfern yeah that may just be corking. If it was rot it would usually turn yellow or brownish and then black. And it would be soft and mushy. And I don’t think it’s scale. Scale is more common with opuntias it seems
@SirLiquorice you know I didn’t even think to try that. I’ll give it a shot and see if it comes off at all.
@YiftFrostyfern this is an example of scale which is a colony of bugs or pests. You can use safer or bonide sprays to remove or treat that if it is scale. But if it’s corking then that’s natural and you don’t need to worry about it
@SirLiquorice ok it look much or like your second picture here. Using the q tip on it helped some and make me think maybe it’s our hard water maybe dried on it a little.
@YiftFrostyfern you could try a little bit of alcohol on a qtip to see if that removes it. If it keeps coming off that way then it could be scale possibly. But the alcohol should remove it pretty well. Just be careful the plant isn’t too sensitive to the alcohol. So it doesn’t get damaged from it. Some plants and cacti don’t really get damaged by alcohol really, but some get scars or bruises from it if your not careful. Rinsing it with water after should help prevent that. A couple of my San Pedro plants got damaged by alcohol since I didn’t know they were that sensitive to it.
@YiftFrostyfern or try bonide spray for scale or something like that. It could be just hard water or maybe some pests but not a big deal to take care of that. And I recommend using purified reverse osmosis water or distilled water when you water. That’s all I water mine with. I even sometimes add insecticidal soap and vinegar and a little cactus fertilizer. The water PH should be in between 5.5-6.5 approx. cacti like water that’s more acidic
@SirLiquorice Thanks for the tip! I’ll try doing that. I have another that is on the way and I w going to put them both in a larger pot. Currently I am using the miracle grow succulent/ cactus blend. So maybe I will take a pinch of that and mix it like you suggested to the water.
I add about half an oz of vinegar to a gallon of reverse osmosis water and maybe a half oz of cacti fertilizer and a half oz of soap to kill and root bugs that may be hiding as a preventative measure. The more soap you add the more the PH goes up. The more vinegar you add the more it goes down. I got a digital PH meter off of Amazon for cheap and it’s really accurate. That way I can keep the water ph at about 5.5-6.2. When the water is more acidic like that the cacti can better absorb the required nutrients to grow correctly
@SirLiquorice When I think cactuses and succulents the last place I would think of would be Japan. That’s pretty interesting.
@YiftFrostyfern they actually are much better and fancier with cacti than anywhere else in the world it seems. There are some really serious collectors that make their own rare hybrids that can cost hundreds for a small one and thousands for a larger one. Here’s a cool video of someone visiting a shop in Japan. Not only are their cacti and succulents really cool and exotic but they seem to have more impressive stuff than many stores here in Texas I’ve gone to. We have more regular stuff for sale. They go all out and try to be perfect with every detail. Amazing stuff in Japan. Would be cool to go visit. Check out this collection they have for sale. https://youtu.be/8na6R9N3-vQ
@SirLiquorice I have a close friend who frequents Japan. I may have to have him get me one next time he goes.
@YiftFrostyfern might be difficult to bring it back due to the phytosanitary permits are needed and it has to be imported with paperwork usually to bring in the country. Certain ones may not be allowed to bring over at all and they have to be brought over out of the pot with no dirt and bare roots. They want to make sure no weird bug comes along with it and is not introduced to the wrong environment and ecosystem. Could be bad to bring over a new weird bug that kills crops or something. Plus most cacti are considered endangered or on the verge of extinction so importing them can be weird or difficult sometimes it seems.
@YiftFrostyfern but it is possible to get some cool cacti imported, just make take more time and money. Or you can find a seller that gets them from Japan that’s here. Like sellers in California, so you can just buy from them instead of directly from Japan. So they have to worry about permits and all and you won’t. Gary Duke on instagram has a lot of cool stuff and will ship to you. He was on a cactus quest video. Or even places like www.planetdesert.com have pretty cool stuff you don’t normally see im stock all the time. I’ve ordered from both places a lot
@YiftFrostyfern oooh they have a big saguaro and a bunch of cool ones already it appears. Planet desert has a lot of cool weird euphorbia which i love. Getting a collection of weird and strange euphorbia that people never normally see
@SirLiquorice I actually signed up for their subscription service so they send me a different cactus every month
@YiftFrostyfern thats cool. It’s pretty awesome that they stock bigger plants. Like the 6ft tall saguaro for $1350. Not many places sell big cacti like that. Only one nursery I know of does locally
@SirLiquorice I had planned once I got the hang of it to order from them for the ones I want to have in the front yard. Get some really nice ones
@YiftFrostyfern yeah it looks like they may be better for much larger and more mature cacti. Planet desert and Gary Duke are both great for tiny to mid or almost large size cacti and succulents and they both have unique and hard to find stuff. But cactus outlet ships plants that are much larger it appears. That would be awesome to get the fence post cacti to make a fence and then some saguaros and San Pedro’s and golden barrels or blue barrels. Gary Duke wrote a book on it now that I think about it.
@SirLiquorice that’s the plan! I am a man obsessed. I have a couple of books I have read through my favorite being The Bold Dry Garden. I will for sure pick up this one though.
@YiftFrostyfern dm Dr Duke on instagram I sent his profile and he will sell you a personalized and autographed copy if you ask. I think it was $25 plus shipping or maybe it was included if shipping USPS. Can’t remember I’d have to ask him really quick.
@YiftFrostyfern He will video chat with you on instagram so you can shop via his phone camera. And you can ask questions. He will know what to recommend that flowers a lot and is easiest to care for and he shows a chart in the book that tells you the best place to put your cacti in the yard according to the sun location and latitude and longitude. Just look at his yard on YouTube it’s so awesome. He has some award winning cacti. He will even let you stop by to pick up cacti if you’re in Long Beach. But I’m way too far so he always ships to me. This copiapoa was one of the first I ever bought from him. It even had seeds it produced in an envelope when he sent it because the fruit was on the cacti still. This is the first I’ve gotten to see it bloom was earlier this year it had 3 flowers at once. Just a couple days ago it had this single large flower. Everything I bought from him is awesome and always nice and healthy and packaged safely. He ships fast too
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf3AMqDrSR6/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=. That grey copiapoa in the pic by his left elbow is INSANE!!!! He shows it in some videos also. That’s an extremely valuable cactus. That’s a show winner for sure. He also has an airocarpus cactus that’s over 100 years old. You could probably still get some decently large cacti from him also. I bought some that were pretty large to ship. One was pretty heavy just trying to get it out of the box. The one with two heads in the last pic was super heavy for it’s size. Very dense and hard to handle. He said that was the largest cactus he’s shipped. But he shipped all these without issues
It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be to repot those guys. The plastic hanger technique I invented seemed to have made it much easier without and damage to the cactus😂
