Melocactus Question, No Photos
The photos Matt sent were corrupted (I wonder who did that, and if it hurt?) but the letter is a fine blog item anyway. I’ll let you all know if Matt sends along any photos later.
Hola,
I have a melocactus, my second one actually. The first sadly died early
spring in a weird brown rotting/rust/fungus event after a long winter.
Granted it wasn’t in the most drain worthy pot…but I did take good care of
it and watched it closely. (see striped pot photo). It is deceased now.Anyway, I read somewhere that transplanting Melocactus is not a good idea
after maturity or something like this??? The striped pot one was
transplanted right away after I got it.
It didn’t fare so well after a year of warm filtered greenhouse light, and
well draining soil.Anyway, the new one (green plastic pot attached )seems to be wanting a
transplant, although im waiting to do so due to past experience.Any truth that transplanting a Melocactus is a bad idea or am I just a bad
Melocactus owner?THANKS
Oh yeh, Matt from PDX
Matt,
I can’t get your photo files to open, they seem to be “corrupted”. Could you please resend?
Melocactus are a bit fussy and easy to lose. I killed them regularly until I saw them growing on the beach-side cliffs of Saint Martin and realized they were tropical cactus and need to be kept warm in winter. Since then I have much better luck, at least if they don’t get forgotten and left outside after summering in the sun…. They turn to mush if too cold, even if kept dry. Since I haven’t seen the photos I can’t tell if you should repot or not, but I have repotted adult Melo’s just fine, by keeping them dry and warm after the root trauma.
Hap
