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Sad Face :( Trouble after transplanting

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great_blue

great_blue

Rising Star
Hello Nexians,

I regret to inform you of my recently ill friend here. I ordered it offline last year and had no problems until I transplanted into a different container a few weeks ago.

It has now developed this ugly bruise at the base that I just caught today. I transplanted into the Miracle grow standard cactus, citrus and palm mix. watered heavily then let sit.

After I took it out of its 1st container, I shook the roots free from the old medium and hosed them off. (bad move)? Then went ahead and transplanted.

This bruise is very soft and does not look good. I feel I may have to chop it and re-root. This is my first cactus and I have more of a different species on the way. (From seed).

I'm not really sure what's going on here. Any ideas?
 

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That's a shame! Looks like a rot maybe? Couldn't say for sure though. When transplanting, it is best to disturb the roots as little as possible. Also best to transplant into a dry medium, and NOT water for 2 weeks whilst it beds in. Cacti are not like flowers or veg, and don't need water when moved. Also when planting use a well draining growing medium that has low nutrient content. Once the Cacti is happy after a few months, feed it with a weak Cacti fertilizer mix at the start of growing season.

I'm not sure of the best course of action for your Cacti. Def. No more water, if it is rotten it will not recover I'm afraid, and cutting out and re root is probably your best option. I have quite a few peyote growing, they are stubborn as hell. Lost quite a few on the way too, and it is always horrible when you see one go!
 
I suspected as much. Thank you all for your input! I think I will just cut and re-root. I dont see it bouncing back from this one. The bruise/rot is pretty gnarly.

This will just have to be a learning experience. But on the upside I get to re root this sucker for the first time! Little mouse, I may lay it horizontally across the soil as you described. That would be cool to see little pups come up!

Me and the cacti are still getting acquainted :)

Take care everyone...
 
cut and reroot.
word to the wise tho.... i had this happen once and I threw the stump and roots in the compost pile.
bout 2months later I was greeted with the rotted cacti and 3 pups. Save the stump and let it dry itself to nothing, it might push up a few babies.
 
Thanks ringworm,

I have it laying out now. I just cut and poured iso on the end.. I still have the stump so I will keep it around and see if anything happens..
 
iso to sterilize the cut??
if your environment is humid or cool you might want to dust w/sulphur powder
 
Hey dg,

Yes I used iso to sterilize the cut. I have an a.c. unit in my window so the temp stays right around 71-74. Humidity is not abnormally high either. Never heard of the sulfur powder thing tho. Sounds interesting..
 
I would cut that cactus at a 45 degree angle just above the rot.

Then take the cutting and let it sit out for 1-2 weeks. The put the cutting into soil and leave it without water for another 7 day's. Then start VERY slowly adding water maybe 1/4 cup at a time (to the base of the cactus) each week until you notice normal growth. Then water normally.

The rotted part I would not water again for 1-2 months. You may very well find that it recovers and sprouts a few pups for you...which you can then follow the above instructions for. In fact this is exactly what happened to me with the first cactus I purchased.

Peace.
 
Thanks Joe,

Solid advice. If I already made a horizontal cut I'm sure I can still make another and it will be fine. Though I was thinking about laying the cactus horizontally instead of vertically for the re-root. Any suggestions for that or will the same procedure work?

Also, I am growing from seed here:

Trichocereus Peruvianus from Icaro Seed, They are about 3 months old. Any advice for a first timer?
 
great_blue said:
Thanks Joe,

Solid advice. If I already made a horizontal cut I'm sure I can still make another and it will be fine. Though I was thinking about laying the cactus horizontally instead of vertically for the re-root. Any suggestions for that or will the same procedure work?

Also, I am growing from seed here:

Trichocereus Peruvianus from Icaro Seed, They are about 3 months old. Any advice for a first timer?
Click to expand...

I've never done the horizontal transplant, but I'm pretty sure it works just fine. Just take your cut and lay it on it' side in some dirt. I wouldn't water this until I saw it starting to kick off a pup or two.

Don't worry about the horizontal cut. it will still work though it will tend to rot when water stands in it.

That's awesome that you are growing from seed!
 
Joe,

Thanks brother, I will do as you described. Good call on the angled cut. I wont be watering for a while then I'd imagine. It's all good tho. I'm in no hurry as you can see, since I'm growing from seed haha.

My green thumb has recently taken a liking to the cacti. I figured why not grow from seed? I will have a better understanding and a better relationship with it this way. Again, I'm in nooo hurry 8)

Thanks again for your help!
 
If you are laying it sideways you could always cut it in half even, so then you have a 6-8" log and a 6-8" end piece.

Put the endpiece in a pot with some COCO COIR and perlite 50/50 is great. This mix is awesome because its impossible to overwater once you have some roots going, even before its hard to over water if you follow the previous watering directions 1/4 cup a week at the base after 7-14 days in the ground with nothing. Normal growth = normal watering. You have to add food to it though, coco has no food. Earth worm castings are the bomb shit for cactus, and a little liquid kelp. The kelp has cytokines which increase root growth, i use it for my cannabis and it seems to do the same for my cactus.

Can't over fert with EWC, so apply them once a month to the top of the pot. Somtimes i put some time release pellets on top because they are salt based nutrients usually and the HUmic in the EWC buffers them well and helps them absorb, but i go light on the synthetic nutes....

I am going to try something new next spring, i am going to mix guano and EWC together and wet them, let it sit for 1 week in moist dark conditions. Then i am going to brew teas with it and water those in instead of water. The idea being to get everything locked up in fungus and bacteria from the guano, so i don't burn the cactus, but still get a high dose of N(comparitavely to pure EWC), because these guys handle N way better than other cacti. only about 10% will recieve this for the first month and i will increase the population if it look beneficial.

anyways theres some advice and my thoughts for next spring. If nothing else TRY COCO COIR its the shit, even as an additive to the mix your currently using, but its insane when its solely coco.
 
Thanks Mouse! I cut it above the rot back in summer and I still have it just chillin on my dresser. I've been meaning to re-pot. I wanted to use it for grafting if anything. Maybe get one of my lophs to go into overdrive 😁 It is after all just the cultivar version and not a genuine pachanoi as I have learned after purchasing.

I think I still have some coir brick left over from one of my bulk cube grows. Sounds like a useful additive. Right now I still just use the Miracle Grow standard cactus mix with a 50% perlite ratio. It's perfect for now because it still has light nutes in the MG mix. I plan on use diluted nutes when watering in the future. Maybe once a month. I dont think I will ever switch to just a totally inert medium. The buffer between nutes and root intake is just not there and is less forgiving.

I have been keeping my eye out for worm castings though. I would like to use them in the future when transplanting. Would you mind elaborating on this?: "1/4 cup a week at the base after 7-14 days in the ground with nothing."

Sounds like a nice tea mix you have planned! I prefer organic to synthetic for sure. You will have to let us know if your recipe worked out for you.
 
"1/4 cup a week at the base after 7-14 days in the ground with nothing."

bye this i mean when you plant your cutting give it 7-14 days with no water and the once a week take 1/4 cup or so of water and water it in the soil. Feel the weight of the pot before and after, this way you can judge how much is evaping/getting drunk. Don't increase the amount of water until the weight of the pot "when ready to be watered" is the same as when the plant had 0 water when you first planted the cutting.

If you go to water and it still feels heavy, like over half the weight that was added, by the first 1/4 cup, dont water and skip a week.

If your cacti is developing roots it will drink most of a 1/4 cup over the course of a week, and the pot will feel like it did before the first time you watered, so you know if you increase to 3/8 cup or even 1/2 cup of water, she will drink it.

Of course more sun/airflow will speed or slow this down, but what most important is if it still feels like there is an 1/8th of a cup of water in the pot, don't water it. Its a cactus and enjoys having its roots get very dry, its more tolerant of water compared to peyote or prickly pears, especially in COCO, but when getting those roots established you want a dry environment so they search for water, but you want them to have plenty of water up top in the fleshy part so it can form those roots readily :)

i am sure that was cleaer and less clear, please let me know if i can clarify :)
 
You think with only 1/4 cup of water you will be able to notice a significant weight change?
With a cactus that size in a 4-5gl bucket, i'm not sure if I'd notice a measurable amount of change in the weight in regards to 1/4c. What do you think?
 
2 things, if its in COCO yes, but thats cuz coco is uber light when dry. In soil, absolutely not.

Second, i would start a clone of a cactus off in a 4-5 gal bucket. Not that you can't, BUT it will be much more likely that you over water it. In a 1gal with an 8-12" cut you are sure to feel the change from a cup of water, you must tune into it of course :p

If i was you, i would cut the cactus into 8" pieces or so and put them in 1 gal pots, vertically. Logs do fine, they will just pup from the top usually. Make sure you plant it V side up!!!! after a month of spring time(assuming you plant them this month and they have winter to send roots out) you should be able to transplant them into 3 gallons and water normally after a week. Drought is good after transplants, think about how this would happen in the wild, huge storm washes the cactus up, land is wet for a day, then the cactus will sit there for months sometimes before sending out roots, or having its original roots covered. My feeling is it was designed to be extremely vigorous when given an opportunity after a drought :) This is also assuming that the cactus has some light all winter, quasi dormancy.

The previous post's watering directions should be amended to say when it gets cold, or when you notice etiliolation, stop watering, maybe 1/4 cup a month at that point. When its winter its not the best time to "establish" a cut, because you have to watch out for it going into dormancy. IME the roots will continue to develop while the top is dormant.
 
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