CactiGuide.com

Hi,

My first post!

I have grown the following cactus for 8 years, when it was only a few cm tall. I was recently sent to Italy with work and so decided to send my cactus to my inlaws house (in Cambridgeshire, England). The cactus has been there for the last 18 months - but on returning home for a visit last week, I noticed it has got very sick for the first time ever.... and it appears very sick indeed. Can anyone help with suggestions as to what I can do to minimise the issue and keep it alive somehow?

Thanks,

Hang on.... how do I upload my pictures??

Picture posting:
http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8

CoronaCactus wrote:Picture posting:
http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8

Hi,

WOW, you guys / gals are very fast.

I was just reading the FAQ's following my post.

Here is a link to the pics:
http://www.photodrop.com/albums/06e2ed0 ... b96d6.aspx
http://www.photodrop.com/albums/uk1/7a1 ... df015.aspx

Hope this works.

Appears to be some sort of insect damage (spider mite??) tho i'm not really sure.

Our more knowledgable members will know better.

Looks to me like physical damage. In otherwords something was banged into it and damaged the tissue and it is dead and rotting in place. I would scrape the black tissue out and toss it. The plant will always have a scar, but should recover just fine.

Daiv

Yikes! Not good. Are the black spots mushy? You might have to perform drastic surgery on your plant.

looks a bit like either heat or cold damage, is that a radiator behind it? if the scar tissue is hard and dry it should be ok if soft and mushy then it means removing it like the others said.

Hi, I think it could be some kind of fungal - bacterial disease.

If the black spots in the side pictures dry out you'll be all set. If not, the rot will spread if you don't cut them out. You can cut the top off, minus the dark spots, let the cut heal and then root it in sand, and then you'll have another plant. The original plant won't look too good, but that will start to branch and you can either make new ones out of the branches or leave it.