Not sure where this question comes to us from, but the signs outside the window may provide a clue.

hey there, i just bought a thin tall cactus that i really wanna take good care of but none of the apps or interent helped me out in identifying it- Any reccomendations would be lovely, thanks a lot!

Have a great day,
Irem

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Hi Cactus Jungle,

May I ask, do you know why this cactus body is become black spot?
I just bought my plant last week. Yesterday I clean the brown patch (dead scale) from the cactus body.. However, the spot that I clean become black spot.. Today I tried to clean that again and scratch & wipe it using alcohol. However the wound is turn to black again.. Is it normal? Is it a disease and can it spread to next plant? Do I need to repot the plant?

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Hello. Our Euphorbia has a top part that has grown quite large and the stalk will not be able to support it much longer. it is already leaning a lot (this photo is a few months old and it has gotten larger).

Is it possible to cut the top part off and plant it? How do these plants do with propagation and how do you suggest we do this. How will the bottom respond/heal from it? Is this a good time of year to do this?

I seem to recall there was a solution you suggested to put on this plant if we cut it as it releases some irritating sap.

Thanks!
Stephanie

You can cut below the branching top – leave at least 6 inches of stem below. You should wait until spring, winter is not a great time for this.

First be aware that this is a Euphorbia ammak which has a caustic milky-white latex sap. You need to wear gloves and long sleeves and eye protection when working around this plant. Given its height, this is going to take at least 2 people to safely take cuttings. One to hold the plant, one to do the cutting. If it is taller than it appears you may need a 3rd person to help hold the branch as it is being cut. Please make sure you feel safe with all this before you start. I recommend using a serrated bread knife to cut, and blankets to wrap the branch before cutting.

Basically you need to cut with enough left to be able to plant below the branching. Spray the cut with hydrogen peroxide and set aside to dry for 2 to 3 weeks. Spray the remainder as well, make sure to protect from direct sun until calloused over.

When the branches are fully healed over you can plant them in dry cactus soil and keep dry for a few more weeks. Water only every 3-4 weeks.

Stay safe, Peter

Dear team,
I would like to plant three Dasylirion Wheeleri in my garden. However, could you comment on their lifespan? can they live longer than 70 years?

Thank you,
Matt

Dasylirion are long lived, will grow a trunk and all, but I do not know if they live 70+ years – you can check with a botanic garden to see if they have any that are that old.

Peter

Hello,

I came across your web site and saw that you answer questions, so I thought I would try sending one. My friend gave me a large golden barrel pup from her father’s outside golden barrel cactus that lives in LA. I have been waiting for it to callus, and I went to check it today and the cut area was covered in a white fuzzy substance (pictures attached). I immediately thought of fungus, especially since it had been sitting in a box cut side down. I also thought it could be mealy bugs, and there was some orange color when I dabbed at it with alcohol on a paper towel, but not as much color as I would have expected if it was a dense mass of mealy bugs. I also looked at the cut surface and one of the pieces that came off with a 10x hand lens and I did not see any adults, just a dense matrix of white fluff. I had looked at it briefly when she brought it to me a week ago, and I do not recall seeing such a dense area of white fluff, although it was dark and I only looked very quickly. So whatever it is seems to have grown quite a bit in a week, although I can’t be 100% sure.

   

I attached some pictures, in the last one the spots where the cut surface is orange is where I dabbed it with the alcohol on the towel. It seemed to dissolve from the alcohol, it didn’t really seem to rub off onto the paper towel.

Do you think this is fungus, mealy bugs, or something else, and can it be saved? I was admonished not to kill the cactus so I would be very disappointed if I lost it even before planting it. If you don’t just answer random questions, I understand but thought I’d give it a try!

Thanks,
Rachel
California Department of Fish and Wildlife

It’s going to be a problem since it’s winter, to treat this successfully. It’s a fungus and likely bacterial. I recommend sulfur on the cut edge and treat the whole plant with a systemic fungicide like Infuse, after the sun goes down. Keep dry! Air circulation. It will be at least a month before you can try planting it, and a heat mat under the pot might help it root (warm and dry).

Peter

I’m wondering why the succulents on this plant have gotten so small in size…the pant used to produce very large “blooms”….

Any idea?
Thank you
Brian

Brian,

What you have on the ends of each branch is a rosette, not a bloom – if they bloom they will form giant pyramids of small yellow flowers. It’s kind of surprising when it happens.

Anyway, the rosettes shrink up in summer because the Aeoniums are winter-growers from a Mediterranean climate with a climate very similar to ours – all winter rains. They should start getting bigger again in October.

Peter

Hello,

I noticed my cactus browning. It looks like it’s rotting. Please see picture below. Is it something serious? What should I do?

Thanks,
Sophiya

Good day –

I have purchased things from you over the years & need a little help.

Please see in the attached photo our fallen Eve’s Pin (I think that is what it is??) that we have had for years & is huge! The soil was too wet with all this rain & It just toppled over.

Can I somehow put it back in the hole – really don’t know how I am going to pick it up – those thorns are plentiful and large!

I think it roots easily – or should I just take pieces of it off & try putting the back in the ground to see if it will root?
Any advice would be appreciated & thank you for your time.

Thank you – Kevin A

This is definitely because of the wet winter. You can see that the root ball on the Eve’s Needles, Austrocylindropuntia subulata, is very small so it couldn’t support the large cactus above. If you want to try to right it I recommend some bamboo stakes, making a bit of a cage, and tie it all together while it is on the ground, and then use some fabric pieces to wrap around for a handle hold to lift it up. You might want to get more cactus soil where it is and mound up and get as large an area of faster draining soil and then replant upright.

You can of course also take it apart and plant the cuttings, they will root easily.

In the future I would water less, or to be more speicific this gets enough water in winter that after the first summer you should never water it, so that it groiws a bit slower and doesn’t get top heavy.

Peter

Hello
I found your website/blog while searching images of plants in an attempt to identify mine (pics attached). I acquired this about a year ago when the yoga studio it was living in was closing. The owner told me she had it for several years but, prior to that, it was owned for a number of years by a friend’s relative in Boston. (I am in CT so assume the plant has been indoors it’s whole life).

The prior owner told me that at one point she had it up on a trellis and it seemed to do better. She also told me she had not repotted it since she acquired it. So, I brought it home, tried to let it acclimate for a few months, then repotted it in cactus soil that I’ve used successfully in the past (Fat Plants San Diego Cactus & Succulent soil).  Then several weeks later, I moved it to a south facing window for more sun, then tried to put it up on a trellis, but it does not look as good as when I got it.

The post that brought me to your site originally was on page 11 of the “questions” — the title was “Dragon Flower” which is what you advised the plant was. BUT that one did not have any of the little “tufts” of leaves at the ends like mine does (now fewer and more wilted 😞). I also read in another post of yours that a milky white sap indicates euphorbia and mine does have that sap.

ANY advice you can offer to help ID this and/or advise on care would be SO much appreciated.

I have watered sparingly (maybe every 2-3 weeks) because of all I read about too much water being worse than not enough, but maybe the change of soil would require more (since it was originally in plain potting soil as far as I could tell). Maybe it’s also getting too much sun now???

I really love this plant and want very much to do it justice.

Thanks in advance for any information you can provide. I love your site and wish I was closer!

Marlene

Hi,

Your plant is a Monadenium ritchei. I would recommend pruning it back, no reason for it to be going everywhere like that. The basic issue seems to be that uit was in low light for a long time and so it has gone travellingeverywhere, and is a bit floppy too. More sun is better, but you need to take time when moving a plant into full sun – generally move it closer over the course of 1-2 weeks. You may at this time have some sunburn on parts of the plant. Since it is such an overwhelming size anyway, trim off any parts that are too floppy or sunburnt and bring it back down to a more manageable size. Careful of the milky white sap, wear gloves.

Peter

Hey guys, I’d absolutely love to pick your brain about this monster I’ve created. A couple years back I received a leaf from what I feel is clearly a panda plant, Kalanchoe tomentosa.

It rooted fine, but then what grew out of the leaf was…something strange. It’s just a whole bunch of sad fuzzy leaves on squiggly vine-like stems. The leaves never get very big (the two containers are the same in both pictures), and it just keeps making more and more squiggly growth.

At first I thought maybe it needed more light to reach its panda destiny, so I moved it right under my grow lamp. No change. I got mad, ripped some off, and threw it in a deeper pot thinking maybe the roots wanted more space? Doesn’t seem to matter. Tried rooting from its own leaves again…they root fine, but then just keep turning their noses up at me and doing the same thing.

I’ve racked my brain/the internet looking for examples of panda propagation gone wrong, alternate growth patterns, kalanchoes turning into vines, but I’ve found nothing to help with my mystery. Any ideas you could share with me would be so much appreciated!

Cheers,
Jordan Read More…

Hello,
I found your blog online and it had been very helpful to me. I am really grateful that you answer questions from people that are not your customers, as well! I recently got a pot with three small cactuses in it and am having trouble identifying them. I have attached a few photos. For reference, the center cactus is about 2″ tall. What do you think? I am particularly curious about the one on the right as I can’t find anything similar searching online. I would like to know about their care requirements and if they are suitable to continue growing in the same container.

Thank you,
Regina

PS – I am aware that the l little red flowers on the center cactus are fake. I’ll remove them eventually…

Regina,

The left is a Mammillaria and the right is a Euphorbia (probably E. meloformis) while the one in the center, after the paper flowers are removed, is maybe a Myrtillocactus although it can be hard to be sure when they are young.

They can grow together in that container for a couple years and then they will outgrow it and need to be separated. Care depends on where you live, but the 2 cacti need a lot of direct sun – at least half day, while the Euphorbia is less. Not a lot of water, but the watering depends on whether the pot has a hole. Either way, make sure the soil is dry between watering, probably every 2-3 weeks.

Peter

HiYa, Greetings from Germany.
We are looking for an expert advice and hope you might be able to help. Our Euphorbia has on the bottom of the main stem a blackish discoloration. It is not soft or in anyway different texture from the rest of the cacti 🌵. We just worried it is some kind of rot. Do you know how best to proceed? Leave it for now or cut it and replant?

 
Kind regards

Mel

It looks like the start of rot. The soil looks too rich for the Euphorbia, so it may be taking too long to dry out after watering. You can use a systemic fungicide now and wait to see if it gets worse, or you can take the cuttings now to be sure. I recommend cutting just above the first branch, and taking that branch as a separate cutting. Spray with Hydrogen peroxide to help the ends heal, dust with Sulfur Dust. Wait a week and then plant into new fresh fast draining cactus soil. Be careful with the milky white latex sap as it is caustic and you do not want it near your eyes or lips.

Good luck!
Peter

I have had euphoria lacteafor almost 9months. It has glued rocks to support and has no hole in bottom of pot. Should I transplant it to another withhold and if so, how to do it? No change or growth in 9 months.

Thank you for information you can provide!

Norma
Pensacola, Florida

Norma,

If it is a crested lactea then you won’t see much growth anyway – they’re very slow! But yes, please do repot – no drainage and glued rocks can be a disaster for plants – please rescue your plant ASAP!

If you are not sure how to repot it, maybe there is a local nursery you can visit who has cactus soil, and tips for repotting into a larger pot with drainage?

Peter

Hello

I’m hoping you could give me some advice, I live in the UK and bought an Echinocactus grusonii a few months ago. The guy told me to water once a fortnight and add Baby Bio plant foot or tomato feed in each alternate. The first few times I watered it it was fine but this time I think I’ve killed it. Within a day of feeding the spines have started to die around the base, it’s got dead looking patches and darker green patches that look like water marks. It doesn’t feel squishy but the bottom looks like it’s shrinking in on itself.

Have I broken it? Can it be saved?

Thanks in advance
Victoria

Hi,

It’s hard to tell for sure from the photo, but it is not looking great. I think there may be 2 different pests, but again it’s hard to tell from the photos. The base looks like it has started to rot, in which case it is too late to save it. But if it is firm, maybe I am misreading it. If it is firm, you can try to use a systemic fungicide, and spray the rest with an organic pesticide. Not sure what’s available in the UK, but we use Bonide Infuse and Monterey Take Down Garden Spray.

In general we would suggest watering every 4 weeks (every 2 fortnights?) for the cooler parts of the year, and every 2-3 weeks when it is hot and sunny. Do not fertilize regularly with any tomato fertilizer – it’s too strong for cacti. Use an organic low strength granular all-purpose (like Down to Earth All Purpose) and use it at lower strength than recommended. Use only twice in a year – spring and mid-summer. Let the plant grow slow and it will be healthier.

Peter

hey there…. i was wonder if you could help me with my cactus…. we had mealie mites and i used a insecticidal soap. then this started to happened and fast. could it be corking? i don’t think its root rot. i dealt with that before. is there something we can do to save it?

Could we cut the bad out of the cactus and callus it and replant? the tops don’t seam to be infected..

thank you for any help you can provide!!!
Gene

It looks to me like you have 2 plants with the same problem. After the infestation, which the soap didn’t fix, the plants would have been susceptible to infection.

I would recommend getting the 3 of them out of that soil, and repotting the 1 healthy one on its own. You can take tip cuttings of the other 2 if you can cut above the infection. When you cut, if the flesh is clean and white then you can let it callous over for a week before planting. Since it’s winter I recommend Sulfur Dust on the cut end to help prevent fungus. If the cut end is not clean then keep cutting upward til you get to clean flesh, or if the infection is all the way through the plant then it is not saveable.

Peter

Hi-

I got this guy from you a couple months ago. I’m worried it has developed a fungus. What do you think those dots are?

Thanks!
Stephanie

Stephanie,

That is Scale, a small hard-shelled insect that sucks the juices out of cactus. We recommend spraying with natural pyrethrins. We sell Don’t Bug Me which will kill them on contact. They have a hard outer shell so you can clean them off with a spray of rubbing alcohol which will break down the shell, and then use a soft brush to wipe them off. Be careful not to scrape the cactus.

Peter

this was a gift but i don’t know what it is….could you possibly id it?

Greatly appreciated …mike

Mike,

Sure! It’s an Echeveria, possibly Echeveria “Gilva”.

Peter

I bought two plants but am not sure what they are . one look like it was sufering from rot so I removed the bad sections and repotted in new cactus type mix. Wound up with two pots from one because root system was large. Some of the plant is whiteish, Is this sunburn?

Santi

Santi,

The one that is whitish is a Stapelia, the other is a Huernia, both closely related.

The Stapelia has an infestation of Scale, which is an insect that is feeding on your plant. As bad as it looks I would recommend removing all the white stems and taking cuttings from the green stems to replant them, letting the cut ends heal for about a week before planting them in new fresh dry cactus soil. I would spray the green stems you are keeping with a strong insecticide that can handle Scale. We sell a product called Don’t Bug Me. You will need to start over again with new fresh soil. Spray in the evening and out of direct sun to prevent sunburn.

You also might want to spray any plants that are near this one as a preventative measure.

The Huernia looks fine to me in the photo.

Peter