Is this “corking?”

[thehague]

Hey all, my Trichocereus hybrid has been developing a lot of this discoloration, and now I’m noticing it on the pups too. I haven’t the experience to know if this is actually normal or if something is going on that shouldn’t be. Anyone that can give feedback?

46E367A5-8F12-4B0A-9F3A-93793F706C80.jpeg (112.43 KiB) Viewed 458 times

[Aeonium2003]

Looks more like some kind of rust fungus.

[thehague]

Crud. There’s a good amount of it at the base where all the plants meet up. I hope it’s something I can reverse.

[DaveW]

That around the base is normal corking, or producing in effect a bark as trees do as a branch ages. As with humans some of us age faster than others so some plants may cork earlier than others, even of the same species or batch originally grown from seed. Also some harsher conditions may promote it, but that is quite a large and old plant so is to be expected. Corking at the base at first does often appear in discrete little patches until they all join together.

As you know with cacti only a few genera have useful leaves so use the stem tissue for photosynthesis. Therefore corking is really just old basal stem tissue that has now aged and stopped photosynthesizing