Melo rescue

SnowFella · Post by **SnowFella** » Tue May 03, 2011 6:18 am

Least I hope so as the jury still would be out on this Melo's survival.
Been eyeing off a larger Melocactus at a local bigbox store for quite a while now but always shrugged it off as being outside my comfort zone in the way of prize. That all changed today though as I just couldn't bare to see this guy succumb to the coming winter, got single digit temps forecasted for the weekend so it was about time to strike.

Managed to talk the price down by just over %20 but it still set me back $50, more than I've payed for a cactus before by far!
Can tell by the look of it that it's had a hard life after the bigbox store got their hands on it.

The good side

And the bad side. Thinking those black bits on the ribs is the result of sunburn early this summer, last time I saw it those parts of ribs were white in colour. I'll keep it in the pot it's in for now, 20cm pot but I'll definately be collecting some of the seeds that are scattered in the cephalium.
Likely going to hit it with some systemic aswell as some fungicide just to be on the safe side.

Anyone have any idea what type of Melo it might be?

Scottyzx12 · Post by **Scottyzx12** » Tue May 03, 2011 7:41 pm

How big is it roughly? The only Melo Im familiar is matanzanus but if its as big as you hint then its probably not, as its of the smaller Melos.

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Tue May 03, 2011 8:31 pm

I hate to say this, but it seems to me the cephalium might be dead, and the plant might be rotting from the top down.

peterb

tvaughan · Post by **tvaughan** » Tue May 03, 2011 11:37 pm

Ask for your money back. It'll be dead in a couple months.

TimN · Post by **TimN** » Wed May 04, 2011 4:44 am

Looks dead to me, too. Most big box stores around here will refund on plants up to a year. I've never done it, but I've been in the return line a number of times behind people with stone dead plants getting their money back.

The live side looks good. Unfortunately, the dead side is winning.

SnowFella · Post by **SnowFella** » Wed May 04, 2011 5:06 am

If that's the case then I'll have to live with it I'm afraid, doubt they give refunds on plants already discounted for damage

Just going to have to wait and see where it's headed, the garbage heap or a prize spot on the shelf. For now I'm going to keep it indoors during the nights as it's getting alittle to cold.

Happy to say though that there was new life in the pot, while looking closer at the cephalium and picking seeds out of it today I noticed 2 little green blobs down among the topdressing. They aswell as 20 or so seeds have been transplanted to an incubator.

masscactus · Post by **masscactus** » Wed May 04, 2011 11:17 am

Outside of the obvious issues, isn't it tough to re-establish a Melo once the cephalium gets going?

Peterthecactusguy · Post by **Peterthecactusguy** » Thu May 05, 2011 11:23 am

I know that at home depot they give you your money back if you get a cut christmas tree there. It's dead before they get it home but they have to give the money back.

SnowFella · Post by **SnowFella** » Thu May 05, 2011 12:15 pm

No such thing here I'm afraid. Think most bigbox stored would stop selling plants alltogether if something like that was in force here as there's just about nothing our sun can kill in a matter of days if you are not careful.

Case in point would be a smaller leafy succulent (can't for the life of me remember the name) that I bought and planted out into the yard some months ago. Plant recommendation said suited to full sun so that's where I planted it. Less than a fortnight later this is what was left.

Fair enough a void in the topcover could be a tad hard to claim

Still have hopes for this Melo though as it already had the damage forming the first time I saw it, some 6 months ago now, and then it was very much like sunburn to my eyes. Since then I've scoped it out atleast 5 times and the damage haven't really grown any, just gone from white to a black scar colour. Plus to me rot is soft while this isn't, it's the same texture as the rest of the body.
But then again I'm new to cactii so I'll just have to wait and see

TimN · Post by **TimN** » Thu May 05, 2011 4:59 pm

SnowFella wrote: Fair enough a void in the topcover could be a tad hard to claim

That would be a tough sell!

SnowFella · Post by **SnowFella** » Fri May 13, 2011 8:41 am

Musn't of looked close enough when I found some seedlings in the pot the other week. Looked again today and lo and behold there's another lil green blob growing down among the pebbles.

Got 2 already moved into a propagator along with quite a few seeds found in the cephalium so I'm leaving this little one where it is for now.

SnowFella · Post by **SnowFella** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:41 am

Alittle update

Everything above ground still looks the same and the seedlings from it is still alive.
Proceeded to repot it today though, hate plastic pots, and found the roots to be mostly missing. Have to say the underside isn't a pretty picture on this cactus!

Heading out tomorrow to try to find a shallow bowl rather than a normal sized pot.

Post by **daiv** » Thu Aug 04, 2011 10:36 pm

What a bummer. Of course, this could go in our rules for cactus that we had going.

The plant that you paid the most for will be the first to go.

SnowFella · Post by **SnowFella** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:35 am

Likely be heading that way indeed, though I knew it could of been heading that way even when I bought it.

It's back in a pot again, found a half height pot today that even though it's alittle to big is better suited than the deep plastic pot it was in. It hadn't been watered for near 2 months when I unpotted it and the soil was still sopping wet.

Likely there's more life in it's offspring than what there is in the parent plant, seeds collected from the cephalium germinated and the seedlings are still alive 3 months down the track. 10 little seedlings growing away

TimN · Post by **TimN** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 7:14 pm

Nicely done with the seeds/seedlings!

It will be interesting to see how long the big part lasts.