Defective flowers

[exotica]

I've been hesitating for a while to post my problem here, but here it is.

I'm having defective flowers on many of my plants. It all started in 2012. And I do not seem to find an explanation yet. I've been analyzing what did I do wrong to trigger such abnormality, but most likely it is a mix of factors, which lead to this.

But before I share my thoughts, experience and suspicions, here is what I mean:

Ariocarpus fissuratus var. fissuratus:
The same plant 2012 & 2013
 
(no flower in 2014 and no buds till now)

2013:

A noid Stenocactus (crispatus?):


Turbinicarpus alonsoi:


Strombocactus disciformis ssp. disciformis:


Turbinicarpus schmiedickeanus ssp. dickisoniae:


Opuntia erinacea var. utahiensis:


Echinocereus reichenbachii ssp. perbellus:


Echinocereus subinermis ssp. subinermis:


A noid mesemb (Pleiospilus bolusii?):


Ariocarpus agavoides:


Mammillaria grahamii ssp. grahamii var. oliviae:


Sclerocactus incinatus ssp. wrightii with a male flower - no ovary and stigma:


2014:

Ariocarpus scaphirostris:


Ariocarpus retusus var. rostratus:


And an orchid (just a coincidence, I believe), which has been flowering normally for 10 years:


All of these plants have been flowering normally ever before (except the last 2 Ariocarpus first-timers).

There are more cacti with abnormal flowers, but I think there is no need to show all - you get an idea of the problem. Some of the plants reverted back to normal. Some produce both defective and normal flowers. Some stopped flowering at all. Some flowered with unusual number of flowers simultaneously like this Lophophora fricii (8 flowers size XS):


And some changed the flowers color like this Escobaria robbinsorum - the same plant in 2011 & 2012, but no flowers in 2013 & 2014:
  
(no image processor used and best matches to the real color selected)

I would be grateful to see if somebody else has experienced such a problem and if it was unraveled.

[iann]

Thrips?

[JustSayNotoCactus]

That is really crazy! My guess would be either microscopic mites, or some insect such as thrips. Try hitting them hard with a systemic insecticide mixed with a systemic miticide while they are still able to absorb it, then in the spring, repeat the procedure. If this happens again next year at least you will know it is not insects or mites. How close do you live to Chernobyl?

[Saxicola]

Can you clarify if this is happening throughout the summer or only in the fall? Overly cool weather can make flowers deformed. Particularly if they initiate bud formation under normal weather then it gets cold as the bud develops.

Otherwise thrips or mites are a possibility. A virus could do that too be it would be hard to imagine it spreading to all your plants and only affecting flower development.

[cactidan]

Do you remember if you've changed anything like soil, water, pesticides or fertiliser? I would have thought insect pests would show some marking on the body of the plants instead of just flowers. Another possibility is maybe a virus , not that I've specifically heard of any within c&s collections though.

[adetheproducer]

I have had some weird flowers this year as well, only one on my cacti a rebutia had elongated flowers and misshaped petals but I have noticed particularly on my strawberries and various other wild flowers in my garden and local area that have had definite mutations. Do you keep your cacti out doors? There was a very large amount of dust whipped up from the sahara desert over the last year with many days in spring and summer finding thin a layer of dust settled on my car, house windows and green house etc. Is a long shot but that could have had some kind of impact, maybe viruses could have traveled in the dust.

[exotica]

Thank you all for the replies!

(I'm almost sure I've seen a topic here, where somebody shared a photo of an Ariocarpus with lace-like petals, but I'm not good at using forum search engines, so I couldn't find it to quote here).

I live in an urban area, with more or less polluted air, but I don't think this is a problem. I have many friends with plants in the same city who do not experience any of the oddities of my plants.

My plants grow in open air in my garden (except Ariocarpus, which do most happily indoors behind glass on a SSW window). Depending on the month the outdoor plants get 3 - 7 hours of direct SSE - SSW sunlight (Ariocarpus get 5 - 8 hours behind glass). They get both tap water showers (pH around 7.9, soft) and rain in the active season. In the winter non-hardy ones are indoors together with Ariocarpus, where nights do not go below 9°C and days may reach 30°C in sunny weather (but, normally 18 - 23). No water at least from mid-October till March. Water in Spring (till taken outdoors) is mainly from dehumidifiers, or tap water acidified to around pH 5.5. Water acidifiers that I used to use were 6° vinegar till 2011 and from 2012 to 2013 phosphoric acid (rust converter).

I do not repot frequently. I am using a soil mix, which is far from being rich, with 1/5 - 1/4 mineralized organic matter (mainly decomposed beech leaf litter, red Californian earth worm manure and aged and weathered sheep manure), the rest is horticultural perlite, coarse river sand, zeolite, expanded vermiculite, pumice, Seramis, some bentonite clay as a "sealant". For specific plants I add dolomite (Ariocarpus, Pedio- and Sclerocactus, many others) or gypsum (Pediocactus sileri, Geohintonia mexicana, some others) from a few grains to 1/4 of the soil mix.

To compensate for the infrequent repotting and poor in nutrients mix, I used to use (2 - 3 times in 5 - 6 months) a low Nitrogen mineral fertilizer (3:11:38:4, 100% water soluble), in around 1/2 - 3/4 of the prescribed minimum concentration. The fertilizer's composition was N (NO3) 3%, P (P2O5) 11%, K (K2O) 38%, Mg (MgO) 4% + B 0.025%, Fe 0.070%, Mn 0.040%, Cu 0.010%, Mo 0.0004%, Zn 0.025%.

I have no thrips, mites, nematodes, mealybugs etc. I keep them away with adequate systematic and contact pesticides applied on a regular basis. I do have visits and casualties by fungi though, mainly Phytophtora and Plasmopara (because of the grapevines in my garden) despite the adequate systematic and contact fungicides treatment.

Except the flowers, the plants look good and grow fine.

My thoughts:
1. Incompatible combination of fungicides, which caused intoxication. I have treated a couple of times in 2012 with 2 different fungicides in the same solution in sequence with other 2 also in the same solution, to be able to cover a wider range of fungi and their development stages. Yes, but I stopped using combinations in 2013 and in 2014 the Ariocarpus didn't get any fungicides.
2. Micro- or macro-elements deficiency (Nitrogen) and/or excess (Potassium and/or Phosphorus). Yes, but in 2014 most of the plants were repotted in a fresh mix.
3. Warm overwintering overall.
4. Insufficient watering or too quick soil mix dry-out. I believe it is not a likely reason.
5. Virus(es). A blind guess.

[One Windowsill]

Perhaps an opportunistic flower-damaging insect like the scarabs Epicometis hirta and Oxythyrea funesta which are pests of Bulgarian rose farms and attack a wide range of buds and flowers.

[exotica]

Thanks! I would have seen these, but I don't have such beasts around. And the defective flowers have no scars of been eaten.
In most of the cases the petals come out joined to one another forming a tube and only the tips are separate.
In other cases the petals are separate, but there are no male or female organs or both.

Here I found something in bruno's plants, which looks similar to some of the deformations that I have:

[cjbaker]

Any chance of contamination from an herbicide? I have no idea if it would have this effect on cactus flowers, but I once had all my tomato plants in one area switch to strange, curly growth. My conclusion from looking through pictures online was that the soil I had bought was contaminated with broad-leaf herbicide. They are sometimes used on lawns, and may be able to pass through a cow's digestive tract. I assume, though, that you would've also noticed a change in the plants' new green growth.

[KittieKAT]

I have one cacti that NEVER fully opens his flowers even Thoe he gets full sun..i never thought it could be because maybe he has. Defected flowers like yours. Its really strange, but that loph fricii looks absolutely beautiful with all those flowers on it! So i guess that's a positive outta all the negatives. Goodluck hun hope everything works out

[exotica]

…the soil I had bought was contaminated with broad-leaf herbicide…

Many thanks for pointing this out! I didn't think of it till now but, if not the main reason it may still be a factor to consider. I have no information about how the red worm & sheep manure were treated, as I buy them as ready packed components.

…I assume, though, that you would've also noticed a change in the plants' new green growth.

I have malformed spines on some plants (some are abnormally twisted, some adjoined or sealed together, some are extremely thick and short), however the epidermis and new growth looks healthy and there is no color change. On others I have growth disorders (mainly Mammillarias - plumosa, saboae ssp. saboae & haudeana, parinsonii and others) together with spines malformation and lack of flowers (they all used to grow and bloom nicely). The growth disorder shows as abundant small side shoots with weak spination (note, they have enough sunlight and heat) - like in Nitrogen excess, but without the pale juicy bloat look - just a dwarf somewhat dessicated resemblance. (I should post some pics).

As I wrote, my plants (except Ariocarpus) grow in the open air during the summer. They suffer hails (severe in the past 3 years). Plants' apices certainly get bruised and new spines are sometimes completely wiped out after the storm, and that may explain distorted growth of spines. But, in this topic I tried to focus on the malformed flowers, which appeared mainly on plants, which grow indoors.

I think of renaming (I don't know if it is possible) the topic as "Malformed flowers, malformed spines and malformed growth" to expand the chance of collecting experience and thoughts on these…

[cjbaker]

Ah, I did not notice your mention of sheep manure. On my tomatoes with strange growth, I had used composted cow manure purchased at Home Depot. Plants without the manure did not exhibit the problem.

[exotica]

I found something in the forum, which I'd like to add to this topic.
Do these flowers have the same abnormality?