The cheshirecat's succulent problem...

[the_cheshirecat]

I do not have a brush, but I have used the tip of a teaspoon.
I now have a very christmassy-smelling cactus!
I hope he will heal, as the wound is very deep.
Time will tell, but thank you for all the practical help!

[the_cheshirecat]

Hello again!
Despite the horrible conditions (freezing cold and eternal rain) most of my succulents and cacti seem to be still alive, also thanks to some REALLY bright pink lights which have caused a couple of ha ha ha so funny (not) incidents.
Now I have a little opuntia something cutting that is doing something really weird...
What's occurring here???

Cheers

Ty

[ElieEstephane]

It appears to be etiolating ty

[the_cheshirecat]

nope nope nope.
I have the blooming pink light on all day long, and the neighbors think I am a "working girl".
Aside from one who thinks I grow weed and suggested to use sodium lights instead (and THAT was another interesting conversation btw).
Please tell me you're joking

[ElieEstephane]

That was hilarious
I see the light is all over the house so you might wanna use something to focus the light on the plants themselves rather than being wasted

[the_cheshirecat]

Ye, somehow it's not so funny right now, but everybody seems to find it absolutely hilarious so maybe one day I will laugh too, right now I'm stuck on two issues:
1) do these things happen to everybody or only me?
2) why me?

And the light IS focused on the plants, what you see is secondary.
They are rather bright little lights....

PS that's the weird area on the pad, seems like it's going all octopus on me?

[esp_imaging]

I agree with Elie, they look etiolated.

And the light IS focused on the plants, what you see is secondary.
They are rather bright little lights....

What lights do you have? In what set-up? They look like they could be lightbulb fitting grow lights. These have quite a bright, very narrow centre spot beam which quickly gets much darker (in spite of the marketing info which says beam angle is 120deg or whatever). Also, note that an "inverse square" law applies with lightbulb brightness - objects 2x further away will only get 1/4 the light, objects 4x further will get 1/16 the light etc.

Bear in mind also that sunlight is extremely bright - normal artificial room lighting may only be around 1% as bright as sunlight. So even very diffused, overcast-day natural light may be far brighter than your lights, unless you have them extremely close to the plants.

[esp_imaging]

The small cylindrical growths are leaves. Opuntias have them and retain them for a while. They tend to shed them at the first prolonged dry period.

[the_cheshirecat]

Leaves?
For some reason I find the idea of ickle leaves really cute!
Thanks for solving that for me!

[Pompom]

I agree too the plant is etiolating. My opuntia does that too, even with grow light. It seems they need a very strong light to grow normally. I posted pictures of my opuntia in pollination thread, named "difference between flower bud and new pad". In one picture you can see a etiolated pad behind, blurred but it's there. My opuntia is monstrous form I suppose, so the funny leaves will dry out and a new pad begins from there (which doesn't happen with normal opuntia?). In summer those little leaves turn bright pink in color.
It's kinda funny people associate growing lights to weed. I'm waiting if the police comes to knock the door to check if I grow something suspicious since the light is shining through the window...

[ElieEstephane]

If you do a quick search to determine what grow light you need, all you are gonna is marijuana sites. However, since they are full sun plants too, some of the corrolations can be used for cacti.
A bit of trivia about Lebanon is that cannabis is mass produced directly in fields so no one bothers about a couple of plants (it is illegal but production is protected by all the politicians). Funny thing though: since the plants are hard grown (full sun, infertile soil, little water), the quality of Lebanese cannabis is one of the best internationnaly

[the_cheshirecat]

I do know that people grow weed very successfully in the UK, and the guy who told me about the sodium light mentioned a grow site where they also kept an aloe vera, which apparently flowered under this light...
I think I need a few dodgy friends to help me out with a second hand one

[ElieEstephane]

Aloe veras flower in winter. One of mine is in bud. I do know that growing opium poppy is legal in the uk for ornamental use?

[the_cheshirecat]

I would just like to stress once again that I am not interested in growing weed or opium!
Plus I only seem to be able to keep succulents alive, normal plants take a look at me and quickly wither and die

[7george]

Some people say that Opuntia cacti should not be grown behind glass or indoors. I follow this advice and keep my plants absolutely dry (0 water for 4 - 6 months) and at cool place until time comes to take them out or others (taken outside too) free some bright sunny spot at windowsills. Have no idea what kind of lights should be used for winter growing of these.