Echinopsis has some brownish spots

[Lisa]

Hi everyone,

So I came home to find my Echinopsis looking like this, does anyone know what it could be?

[sunlover7]

I have the same type of echinopsis. It looks like a fairly healthy plant to me. I can't see the brown spots in the pics, but I do see some white spots that look like mealy bugs or another type of pest. My echinopsis has similar spots and they are mealy bugs. Very hard to get rid of. I have battled those things for several months and I'm going to try a systemic pesticide tomorrow. I hope you don't have mealy bugs, but I recommend either going straight for a systemic soil drench like Bayer or tossing the plant (unless others are infected). I'd triple clean the area around the pot as well. Best of luck!

[hegar]

Well, all I do see are some (at least three) slightly darker splotches near the areoles and some wrinkling near the base of your cactus. The plant overall does look healthy though. I would advise you to look for any changes in that region, e.g. do these "spots" become larger or spread?
Also, how do the roots of your plant look? Are they of a light, healthy color or is a large part dead? You could find this out by carefully washing the root area. If you have not already done so, it would be a good idea to perhaps change your growing medium by reducing the organic matter content.
There are some good "cactus soil mixes" described on this site under the tab "Growing Help".

Harald

[Lisa]

Thanks guys!

I'm actually starting to think there's nothing wrong with it. The roots look fine, I didn't find any mealy bugs and the brown spots don't look like they are spreading. Could the wrinkling be lack of weather? I'm so afraid of drawning my plants that I something and up starving them a little :/