Urgent help needed to save Rebutia

[erodgers1946]

Hi
Please could you advise me in trying to save my one remaining Rebutia heliosa? It flowered beautifully in Dec 2011 and looked healthy. After flowering I repotted it into a slightly larger pot but now it is looking sad and looks to be drying up. The centre plant is sunken and the middle and the smaller plants look to be going the same way. I believe these types of Rebutia are prone to root loss?? Can it be saved or do you think it is probably a lost cause.

Rebutia heiosa Dec 2011.jpg (90.87 KiB) Viewed 259 times

Rebutia heliosa March 2012.jpg (80.3 KiB) Viewed 259 times

Regards
Eileen

[Peterthecactusguy]

well, I dont know if they are prone to root loss or not but nothing would hurt to look at the roots and see what is going on down there. It looks to be dehydrated.

[erodgers1946]

OK Peter I will do that , The plant seems pretty firm in it's pot but like you say it does look dehydrated. We've had some very hot weather and although I've been watering my cacti I've been very sparse with water on this one frightened that I might kill it off with over watering.

[Sulcofan]

Hi, what substrate are you growing it in?, how long did you leave it after repotting before watering?, was the rootball full of roots?

Rebutias are high altitude plants and don't really like temps. above 25C during the day and 15C at night. When too warm, they will just tend to sit doing nothing waiting for cooler weather to return. This is likely what your plant's doing.

[erodgers1946]

Hi Sulcofan
The substrate is just one I buy from the garden centre which is supposed to be for Cacti & succulents..
I watered it when I repotted it and very sparingly since repotting sometimes missing it when watering my other cacti.
There were plenty of roots in the pot.
We've had very high temps. during the day recently, as high as 39 deg C one day and averaging around 16 deg C at night. Now we are just into Autumn the temps have dropped a little here in Albany ,in the lower 20's and nights around 12-13 deg C so sounds like this plant will like the change, ( no rain yet though).
Regards
Eileen.

[iann]

The substrate is just one I buy from the garden centre which is supposed to be for Cacti & succulents.

That's not really suitable for most desert cacti. Possibly it is OK for jungle cacti and vigorous leafy succulents, but not for small tap-rooted cacti like yours. The better ones can be used if mixed approximately 50:50 with a coarse material like perlite, pumice, or cat litter. Don't add sand, and also avoid adding solid grit to most bagged soils which tend to be made from fluffy material like peat that just squashes down under heavy aggregates.

[Steve Johnson]

Rebutias are high altitude plants and don't really like temps. above 25C during the day and 15C at night. When too warm, they will just tend to sit doing nothing waiting for cooler weather to return.

My apologies for hijacking this thread, but I just purchased a Sulcorebutia pulchra that now goes with a Sulco heinzii I got last year. Are they similar to Rebutias being high altitude plants? I have no experience with Sulcos, but I want to do the best I can with these lovelies, so it would be helpful to factor this in with appropriate watering frequency based on their needs.

Thanks!

[Steve Johnson]

Sorry to interject again, but the CactiGuide online guide shows R. heliosa as its distribution in Tarija, Bolivia. The area appears to have average monthly daytime temps ranging from 26 to 30C, and ovenight lows ranging from 8 to 17. It may not be relevant to the problem with your Rebutia, but just for the record Tarija's Mediterranean climate doesn't apply to what Sulcofan was suggesting. As to your potting medium, that's another matter. I'd definitely recommend heeding Ian's advice on this. He really knows his stuff, and since I've been on the forum over the last 5 months, I can tell you that when he talks, it pays to listen.