Help with sick trichochereus

[Amomynous]

One cactus I have, a T. pachanoi, is looking a little bad around the growing tip:



Yes, it has a bit of rot

Is there anything I can do? It's a good cactus (about four feet high). Should I cut it up and try to pup it? Remove the tip only? Pitch the whole thing?

TIA.

[laughingwillow]

JRL says black weeping rot is self-limiting. But I'd prolly cut the tip below the rot and let it pup anew.

lw

[winder]

Cut the cactus at least 1" below the black rot.

Occasionally that rot shoots downward through little vessels.

Also, as is being discussed elsewhere, make your cut horizontally across the ribs between the areoles.  This way, each rib may pup.  A beveled cut usually only makes 1 pup.

[Amomynous]

Thanks LW & W!
I've never heard of using a beveled cut. It that how cuts are normally made? When I've cut cati before, I've just cut straight, horizontally.

[Stonehenge]

I agree with lw and winder, cut the rot out pronto. If it's soft rot it's the dangerous kind. If it's just black blisters that are not soft, you can leave it alone. This looks to me like the bad kind. The reason for a beveled cut is so that water does not collect and form more rot. Cutting it at an angle can help it run off. It doesn't have to be a really steep angle, 15 degrees would be enough. You might want to dust it with sulfer or some fungicide but it'll probably be ok without. The black rot can run right through a plant so cut a ways below it.

[CJ]

I`d give some thought on what caused such a condition. Has there been an infestation of spidermites/whatnot. Sometimes lowered resistance from another problem can allow opportunistic infection of some sorts,and that looked very localized.

     I gave some thought to the two advices on cutting the tip,and it would seem they could be combined. like Stoney says,the slope doesn`t have to be great. Choose an area not to far down,and miss the arioles. The only thing I would be curious to see is if pupping occurs more at the highest point much like the highest tip. But then,I have had them pup simultanausly at both the base and at the top. Many times the aerioles form a slope accross the coloumn, cut above those and see what happens.

[JRL]

The orange rot tends to spread more than the black. Did it get lots of water when it was exposed to the cold?
Like the guys say, cut it a couple inches below the rot, it should be fine. I personley have never thought that sulphur does much.

[Amomynous]

The orange rot tends to spread more than the black. Did it get lots of water when it was exposed to the cold?
Like the guys say, cut it a couple inches below the rot, it should be fine. I personley have never thought that sulphur does much.

It wasn't exposed to the cold, but when it was put in for the Winter (I live is a termperate climate), it was moved to a pretty dark area. It never went dormant so I contiuned to water it, so my guess is that I was watering it too often for the light/growth it was undergoing.

I'll be cutting it tonight. I used to have some sulfur but go rid of it when we moved last year, so I'll probably go without.


Thanks guys!

[JRL]

Thats probably exactly what brought it on. I am sure it will survive just fin, with several columns. It looks basically healthy except for the obvious.

[Green2Herman]

I got black tips from having my to close to my HPS to soon. A couple sort of grow around them while others are setting off a pup. Didnt bother with removing it since it didnt rot.

The tip about the areoles was good. I have allways cut the wrong way and only got one pup.

[winder]

Usually when black rot on the tip occurs on a cactus of mine, it is because it continued to grow in the dark as you described.  Another conributing factor is that saiad white growth was then sunburned when moved back into sunlight without acclamation.  The white tissue seems particularly susceptible to scorching.

If the cactus is going into the dark, dry it out for 1-2 weeks before putting it there.  Once it is there, do not water it.  It is so much easier to overwater a cactus than to underwater one.

[Ed]

Yes,

cut... It seems hat living conditions have been changed alot (the new grwoth in sight)

[M S Smith]

Here's some misc. notes from prior posts (without the pics) regarding straight horizontal cuts vs. angled cuts.  As for that tip cut it off and dispose of.  Sounds like:

Soft Rot (bacterium - Erwinia carotovora): The bacterium enters tissue through natural openings and wounds. Under conditions of high humidity, the bacteria reproduce quickly, spreading to healthy parts of the plant. Diseased tissue is watery, soft, black and deteriorates rapidly. If environmental conditions turn dry, the development of the disease may be checked. The best control is to avoid wounds, treat broken surfaces right away with a copper fungicide and avoid having plants in places where humidity is high.  

http://plantpathology.tamu.edu/Texlab/F ... cacti.html

~Michael~

***

Many say that a tip should be cut off at a 45 degree angle to prevent water settling in the sunken in cut and causing a rot problem, but what I have noticed is that when you do so the plant usually sets a single pup out of the top-most areole (usually one towards the top of the angle cut). What I have also noticed though is that if the cut is straight across and their are a number of upper-most areole of equal distance from the tip then all of them will produce a pup. It sort of tricks the plant into not knowing what is the upper-most areole so the plant starts a pup at each of the areoles that are an equal distance below the cut. And I have never ever had a plant die from any sort of water settling in the sunken in horizontal tip, and this even though I grow in the open air and live in an area with quite a bit of rain and often have rain water sit on the plant.

***

Auxins appear to be the hormone you mention. And yes, pretty much any cut plant, cacti included, will form a new apical (highest point) meristem before throwing out shoots from lower down on the plant.

This principle is the reason I do not cut columns at an angle, for if you do so then you will have the newest column arise from the upper-most areole. If you have a six sized short spined T. peruvianus you will have every other rib have an areole at the same latitude. So if you cut perfectly horizontally between the areoles you will have three areoles of six at the exact same height in relation to the cut line. Then the plant can be tricked into producing three limbs instead of one. See the short spined T. peruvianus below which set three pups at identical times though at slightly uneven speeds.

And though it has been said to cut a plant at an angle to avoid water settling on the often sunk in cut I have always cut straight across and even in my environment of regular rains, sometimes even for a week straight, I have never ever had a plant get sick from it. Once they callous over good enough they are impervious to water.

***

Try to cut horizontally without cutting across any areoles if possible, while also trying to leave 1/2 to 1 cm between the cut and the upper-most series of areole.

If you have a six ribbed plant you will have 3 areoles at one height and 3 at another. Start the cut immediately below one of these sets of areoles at your selected height and simply try to get the line from one side of the cactus to the other perfectly flat so that the knife exits at the same point below the areole on the opposite side from which you started. The second set of areoles should now be the upper-most ones and all equidistant from the cut. When planting the column be sure that it is planted as straight as possible in the pot and be sure to have the pot on a flat surface when growing so that you don't artificially create a "high point." The three upper-most areoles should now be at identical heights to trick the plant into producing multiple limbs.

***

I have discussed elsewhere my technique of cutting straight across and how it in many, if not most cases, allows for the production of multiple pups. This as opposed to a angular cut which often leads to only one pup from the highest point.

Here you can see that I cut my 6 foot short spined monstrose T. peruvianus in a somewhat straight way and in this photo you can see the two pups on the upper right and left hand sides and two others starting to press through the areole a little farther down. On the opposite side not seen here are two other pups, along with another areole that is splitting vertically and will likely also set a pup. That is a total of 7 pups coming from one plant after a cutting. I contribute this to two factors, 1) the straight cut, and 2) the season of the cut itself. This latter effect on pupping is to me quite simple. If the plant is cut at the height of its summer growth period its high degree of energy is radiated outwards into multiple areoles.

***

Here is an stump of a six ribbed standard short spined T. peruvianus that was cut straight across and produced three limbs from every other rib.

The tallest of these three limbs was cut towards the end of last season in cooler weather, while the other two shorter ones where cut about 2 weeks ago in nice warm weather. Notice how there are now three pups coming out of each of the two smaller limbs while the tallest one that was cut last season hasn't produced any (it now is producing the beginnings of one pup). The base plant is also producing one pup and showing signs of another which I haven't indicated with an arrow in this photo.

I have another large stump of a seven ribbed standard short spined T. peruvianus that I cut (straight across) a few weeks go and believe it or not there is every indication that it is producing a limb from every rib. About 5 have show obvious pups, and a couple others are showing the tell-tale vertical areole splitting that seems to be prevalent when this species pups. I'll get a photo of this last plant up soon as it is mind blowing.

***

You mention a top callous, which I suppose means that the active growing tip has been removed. Generally pupping comes from the upper-most areole after a tip is cut off. Just like plants have nodes, and following the clipping, the new shoot comes out of the upper-most node, a cactus' areoles are like those nodes. But because a 6 ribbed plant, if planted vertically, and then cut straight across, will leave one with three areoles equally distant from the cut and all being equally considered the upper-most node(s) then all three might well possibly produce a pup. Occasionally such straight cuts (being sure not to cut across any areoles) will even produce more pups than the number of upper-most nodes. Here is a 6 ribbed plant that produced a pups from each areole that are equal in height to each other and equally distant from the cut.

***

The thing is though that because the way auxins control apical dominance the newest areoles directly below the damaged apical meristem would in all likelihood send out a shoot. I have seen plants in which the apical meristem was naturally damaged and a single new column comes right out of the uppermost areole. That's what the tech I describe above avoids from happening as it gives the plant a number of areoles, all of which are equidistant from the highest point of the plant, and auxins are "tricked" and normal apical dominance (stressed at one point) is overcome.

[Stonehenge]

I've seen cactus' rot when water was allowed to stand in a cut. It never killed the plant but I like to have a little bit of angle to avoid that. It's nice having a lot of pups but won't a high number of pups mean smaller pups? Is there some way to give it a little bit of angle and still have more than one pup? Perhaps if you cut it at an angle, you could cut out or damage the highest areole forcing the lower ones to grow. That's just a theory but I hate it when a straight cut forms a cup and water starts standing. You could cut a notch in the side of the bowl that formed and let the water drain out that way. Just another suggestion.

[laughingwillow]

Btw, amom....

I'm curious as to the experimentation you alluded to awhile back concerning extra-ordinary growth you'd managed from some tricos. Any light to shed?

lw