Root rot problem, what to do?

[Goran.Hrsak]

If you have any but any kind of disease in smaller 'cheap' pot throw it away! I would never risk few euros or cents with sterilizing that few cents worthing pot.
By sarcasm I mean that you pick me with words that you doesn't know how to cut,graft and which are the properties of the cacti and succulents such as ability to survive without water for 3 years, removing cacti (Lophopora especially) from pot and leaving roots out of soil for one to three years!!, or knowledge that cacti if you cut the green part and leave it on air, he will start to produce new roots and roots which are in soil will start to produce new sprouts!

Sorry BrainEater, I did not know that everyone knows that. Cause this is cacti forum so I presume that everyone knows that. Looking now, They don't!

And bout rooting problem. This is cause you water to much your cacti. Trichoricereus especially! Water with wrong earth (to rich earth with nitrogen, phosphorus, let's say compost earth- how do you make composted earth? with lot's of organic waste and after 6 months bacteria and fungi produce that cheap compost!) filled with resident fungi and bacteria attack roots of cacti! And if your plant is old or young, or maybe freshly replanted resistance to sickness is minimal. This is why roots starts to root! Pick up your cacti out of pot and look the roots. If they are gumish and fragile on touch, brake easy or watery, this is indicator of fatal attack on roots with deadly outcome! Cut green part 1cm from disease part (if you see something which can be similar to disease part cut more until you reach only green part of cacti flesh) and leave it on fresh air until you see little new roots spawning out of cacti cutting. This is time to plant cacti into new pot and soil. (NEW POT NOT SAME STERILIZED!) ONe thing more. If parts of roots are not affected with disease plant them also into new pot but closely to surface. If this roots have any strength new cacti will come out in one to two years. After that throw it or just leave it and wait for miracle.

daytripper - We have lot's of kind of cacti! Many of them receive water once or twice per year from rain and others never. But cacti have unbelieved way or ability to condensate moist from air in the morning and by this way plant is watering itself. You can detect this kind of cacti in way of small roots close to surface!

What to say bout cacti more? I could write and write hundreds of pages bout them. Only one thing more, cacti which are from EU will for sure disappointed many of you when you will try to trip on them. Clime in EU or in greenhouse is not alkaloid producing one. So cacti from internet shops also but you can push or make some trick to make your cacti more hallucinogenic.

Post yours problems and I will read them, so reply will come for sure.
I LOVE YOU GUYS, ESPECIALLY CACTI GROWERS! HARD WORK FOR SUCH LITTLE GIFT IN RETURN BUT AFTER SOME TIME GIFTS WILL BE BIGGER AND BIGGER. I HAVE ALSO SOME DAYS IN PAST STARTED LIKE YOU, UNEXPERIENCED! DO NOT LOSE HOPE. BE PATIENT.

 

[BrainEater]

hey mates!!

nice reply Goran!!! i didn't know that growing cacti in europe lets them produce less alkaloids ?? is it a significant difference?? so that you can't trip of 'em or you'd just need more ??
also as it seems i'm kind of newbie in cacti-growing. but i have a peyote as well, who is very sane. but i just had heard of the root thing that they can be replanted, but i just didn't know it for sure...
i also heard of jeremy narby it was i think (the cosmic snake), he said that cut trees, boards or stuff want to become trees again and if the climate is appropiate they become just the same again.

Peace!

 

[Guest]

goran, i kindly ask you to elaborate on this alkaloid production thing. aren't alkaloids the chemical defense of the plant ? so i figured that if the climate is more agressive, the cactus would have to make more alkaloids.
i thought of this because once, some years ago, i planted some shrooms, and they took 4 months to colonize a 350ml flask (yes, very s-l-o-w-l-y...cold weather), and when they fruited, they were the most potent ones that i had ever tried. i perfectly know that the metabolism of a cactus is completely different from a fungus...but there are certain things between living beings that never changes..and one of them is fighting for survival.
maybe i am wrong ? you made me curious. what are the triggers of alkaloid production ? maybe we could made a sellection of the cacti with more production and try to make some strains ? (i know, it would take more than a life time with peyote, but it is possible, since the flowers are self-fertilizing).
thanks!


edit: and about the sterilizing of the pot, you are absolutely right: it is better (and cheaper) to dump an infected pot and buy a new one than sterilizing it. i never had a rot problem, though...yet!

 

[BrainEater]

Yeah!! What about superfast-growing-very-potent-hybrid-peyotes hehe!!

I got one question too!! Maybe one of you can answer this... I have a peyote too which is about 2-3 years old maybe and it looks not soo fresh,... it's like a bit (only a bit) collapsed and has kind of a little flesh wound which looks a bit brown... i hope that's not too bad... should i cut it out? or water it more?? or is it in need of more light or heat??

Thanks!!!

Peace!!

 

[afer]

I think if one is in peyote cultivation, it's wise that he buys a book about cactuses.

 

[DeepTurtle]

In addition, i think cacti don't suffer from cold temperature, because as they grow in deserts, and as in deserts at night temperature might get quite freezing, probably they have a protection against cold?

Interesting to hear, that you can cut the cacti and replant it. I heard also that it's possible to plant it on another cactus? is this true?

Peace

Yeah, san pedro are definitely ok with cold winters, just not freezing. But, they still need sun, and it could be lack of sun.

That 2nd pic shows mycellia on the surface of the black rot area. Sulfur spray? I don't think it will make it unless you cut and replant, and give it a lot of growing light.

San pedro that only get northern exposure, no southern sunshine, will not be happy.

 

[tryptonaut]

And bout rooting problem. This is cause you water to much your cacti. Trichoricereus especially!

This must have been the problem with my cactus - but I had been hoping for a better summer last spring, I began watering just like I did the year before. But back then the summer had been really hot, with a lot of sun, and my first two cacti were growing like hell. In mid-summer I had been watering them every day, fertilizing them every week and they had been growing extremely well. Then this last year, when I realized summer wasn't really going to be that good, the soil was already wet and didn't dry for days. That must have been the problem.

 

[GOD]

I first tried growing cacti in so called cacti earth and soon stoped because of lots of root rot problems . I then started to grow cacti hydrophonicaly and i never got root rot problems in any of several hundred San Pedro or Torch . When growing Peyote hydrophonicaly i got root rot several times , but only because i watered them to early in the year when it was to cold . Peyote dont like it to wet or cold and you should let the substrate dry before giving them more water . They also need a dormant period in winter where they get no water at all . From my experience and what i have read cacti do better when they are kept somewhere very light and as warm as posible but not in direct sunligh . Its not sun that makes them grow fast its the heat . Mine always grew faster and were darker green when they didnt stand in direct sunlight . In direct sunlight if the sun only gets to one side of them they often go yellow on that side , wich to me is sun burn . Where they come from the sun isnt as strong as most people would think . They dont come from deserts and they dont grow in cacti earth , they grow in a sand and stones mixture normaly . As soon as you see root rot you should cut the healthy part of the cacti of , wrap it in dry news paper and let the wound dry . If you can , cover the wet wound with charcoal powder wich if you have any should contain chinin powder . Throw the roots away . When the wound has dried replant it in a hydrophonic substrat and give it a little water . I had my Trchiocerus standing in an inch of water in the trays for weeks at a time with no problems . Where they grow naturaly they often get dew in the mornings . Mine grew in northern Europe between 15 and 30 cm every year even if the weather was shity .

From what i have read alkaloid production is mainly controled by genetics and young Trichiocerus cacti are suposed to contain more than old cacti , and that to much sun destroys the alkaloid content . I have also read that those grown in northern Europe dont contain as much alkaloids as those from south America .

 

[tryptonaut]

I first tried growing cacti in so called cacti earth and soon stoped because of lots of root rot problems .

You're right, that might be contirbuting to the problem as well. I remember from when I was growing weed, at first I didn't listen to people telling me "don't get normal soil from the garden market, it's often contaminated". I thought, well, let them talk, it's cheaper, soil is soil. And then I suddenly had mushrooms growing in the soil with my precious plants - very bad because mushrooms feed on the roots of plants. I came crawling back to my local headshop telling them about my dilemma - and I finally bought special cannabis soil, guaranteed free of contaminations. It was a little more expensive, but it could have saved me the hassles of un-earthing all plants, cleaning the roots and re-potting them again...

Good idea with the hydoponics, I shall try that!

 

[GOD]

Cacti earth holds water for to long in my opinion and the roots get root rot because of being to wet for to long , hydrophonic mediums dont have anything for contamination to feed on or hold the water so long .......... unless they are to fine . Tricheocerus can be grown on finer grains better than Peyote as it can take , and needs , more water . Peyote needs the granulat to be bigger so it doesnt stay so wet for so long .

 

[Goran.Hrsak]

hey mates!!

nice reply Goran!!! i didn't know that growing cacti in Europe lets them produce less alkaloids ?? is it a significant difference?? so that you can't trip of 'em or you'd just need more ??
also as it seems I'm kind of newbie in cacti-growing. but i have a peyote as well, who is very sane. but i just had heard of the root thing that they can be replanted, but i just didn't know it for sure...
i also heard of jeremy narby it was i think (the cosmic snake), he said that cut trees, boards or stuff want to become trees again and if the climate is appropiate they become just the same again.

Peace!

Why cacti in Europe produce less alkaloids? Good question but also question with answer which we all know (much less production) but also answer without hard facts which can explain why is this happening. First, in Europe sun is much weaker even in summer time then Mexico, South US. UV-light make cacti to become "cacti" in essence of meaning, if you understand what I mean. Lack of UV-light first make Peyote skin thin. In Mexico this skin is sometimes near 07-1cm! :!: thick. Peyote produce alkaloids from minerals and water sucked from soil, then mixture flow from the center of plant to the top and then slowly (but when I say slow I mean it) fall near the skin. Then their skin, with climate factors, which effects the metabolism of enzymes, which are responsible for higher or lower alkaloid production send electric impulses to the inside skin surface or layer (this is not watery middle of the cacti) and there is "alkaloid factory". If impulses are stronger cause you have every day continuous shock involving high temp at day and low temp at night and rain of course which is also shock for plant(this kind of plant), alkaloids production is much higher and accumulation is higher.
I HAVE SEEN MANY DESCRIPTIONS WHY OR WHY NOT CACTI IS NOT LIKE MEXICAN ONE AND TRIEING TO FIND ANSWER.
You have forgotten that day is much longer in Mexico! Here in Europe cacti produce mescaline only at summer time. Why? Peyote need some amount of day time to suck water-minerals, description of that procedure is above. What happens then? There is not enough day time for the Peyote to change elements into molecule! Night comes couple hours before actually Peyote day time clock and "factory" is closed. Production of mescaline is not finished but n-methylmescaline, n-acetylmescaline, lophophorine, thyramine, hordinenine, anhalaninine, pellotine, o-methyllanhalonidine pellotine is! This is why Peyote in Europe is much more like Lophophora Diffusa then Willamsii. Not enough time to produce final product and time to accumulate it! :!: This theory(but also truth how cacti produce alkaloids) told me one of the greatest cacti growers in Croatia.
You can see all over Internet where mescaline is accumulated(Pedro-peyote), near the skin!
And one warning for you with your bad cacti, never water it at day time. Do that in the evening time. Couple hours after sunset. Watering at the day time is lethal! Cracking of skin, bacteria and fungi go trough that microscopical hole and you get what you have now. Cacti from picture. But this is only one of the danger from many of them. And God, do not use cacti soil. I use it only for lower layers. On top I use kind of earth which is rich with silicium-clay or loam. Put it on the top and cover it with small gravel. Clay have antibacterial properties so this is way how to make natural protection for cacti. And Peyote love it. Sprouts in one year, and seeds germinate with better success. PEACE.

P.S
I do not have UV lamp but if someone have, try this and give Pedro and Peyote cacti couple hours more of sun light. Peyote is slow growing but Pedro can after one year accumulate enough mescaline like Peru one. This is experiment which is worth to do. 8)