Cacti MURDERER!

[Kimimonster]

Ok, so first of all- Hi everyone!

I hope to be educated by all of you knowledgeable people, so I can continue to pursue my passion for all things spiky (and learn how to care for them more).

For many years I have happily bumbled along and my cacti have lived in a bright window being sporadically watered (possibly by my parents) whenever remembered. However recently I have done that terrible thing of growing up (22) and now my poor plants have suffered.

They are now in my west facing room, huddled in separate pots on a table near the window. My room never gets much sunlight in the winter and this, coupled (I think) with my overzealous watering habits of late, has been disastrous.

I lost two due to under-watering whilst away and a further three to excessive watering over winter since being back.

Here are a few pictures of the latest two-

1)I took tiny little sections off of the first to try to re-grow it. They really are tiny though as most of it was dead , is this a non-starter?
2)Can I take a cut off the second one to save at least some of it? If so, How?

What am I doing? Is it the sun and water as I think or is it something else??

So much huge thanks in advance and thanks for reading this through!

Kimi

[BarryRice]

Well, you kill, you learn.

I'm thinking that you've got a trifecta of badness here. Probably the low light is one issue. The second is overwatering. But also I'm thinking your planting material is far too high in organic material.

For what it's worth, I think your first zombie was once a plant called Stetsonia coryne.

[JamesEG]

Welcome to the forum!

Shame about the plants you lost! Generally cacti don't need water in winter as they go dormant and don't grow if kept in a cool, bright place. I haven't watered my cacti since early October and they won't be getting water again until April, or at the earliest late March.

As for the cuttings, I don't have much experience yet but I'm sure a cutting needs the vascular tissue in the middle of the stem to be intact to root, so it's only possible to re-root a cactus if it's only the bottom section with rot which can be cut off. Also, I can't really tell what your compost is like but maybe they need more drainage, which can help prevent overwatering.

I hope this helps! Someone with some more experience then me should be able to help more, though.

[bluetexasbonnie]

A local gardening guru (Bob Webster) defines a gardener as "someone who has killed a thousand plants". Looks like you are on your way to becoming a gardener. Let me assure you, that everybody here has killed a lot of plants. Not all of us have made the gardener level, and others have long surpassed that number and working towards super supreme commander gardener.

The second looks like there is no hope. The glassy green look near the bottom is one that I associate with cold damage. The first is very likely to be terminal.

Most cacti prefer to be warm. Wait until spring to bring home some new victims, ... er, specimens. That will give you the most time to get them established in their new home, and give you a few weeks to study the info here and be much better prepared to properly pamper your prickly plants.

We have several UK members here. Maybe you will be lucky enough to have one living near you. All are friendly and helpful.

[Kimimonster]

Wow, thanks for the amusing responses and well wishes, just what I was hoping for

Thanks for naming the first one too BarryRice, it was the only one of that type that I had so will be nice to replace her (it/him/whomever?) when the time comes.

JamesEG I will cease watering for a while then! My room stays at a chilly 17*C most of the time but the house is really dry so I hope this is ok?

And bluetexasbonnie, I'm glad I'm not alone with my evilly brown fingers and that they might turn green one day! I get genuinely sad for my smelly rotting cacti though and cling on to them until they end up like these.

Now my dilemma is if I move them into the afternoon sun to get more light, they will be cold overnight as they have to be on the windowsill. I might put a little picture of their location on tomorrow (once I've tidied around it haha) if that's ok?

Again, thanks so much for your advice and warm welcome to the forum

(P.S: I'm in North Norfolk, any UKies near me?)

[Kimimonster]

Hey again all,

Sorry for the continuous posts but just wondering what to do with this one? It's one of the sempervivum succulents and I have ignored it previously because it kept growing. Just thought I'd check the rest now before any more obvious signs appeared and found him like this!

The 'leaves' are all dry and crispy (you can crunch them) and the soil shrunken and bone dry. My instinct was to water, as usual, and part way through drowning the poor thing I stopped and thought to look for a better answer. Yet again a google search was hopeless because lots say its too much sun/ overwatering but the soil is so dry and light in my case so doesn't make sense to me- yet.

Anyway, thanks *once again* for your kind help

[JamesEG]

Sounds fine to me (remember I have very little knowledge so far, the cacti that I mentioned earlier are my first so I haven't even had cacti during summer yet!) Cacti are better off in low humidity, the room where my cacti are is around that temperature on a windowsill right next to the window, however if you think that any of them desperately need any water they can have it in winter, but only very small amounts and the soil needs very good drainage.

[greenknight]

Cool and dry is more important than bright light in the dormant season, though bright light is best. 17 C is actually on the warm side for wintering most cacti, 5-10 C is better - the cool windowsill would be fine. When they're dry, many cacti can take quite cool temperatures, some can stand frost. There are exceptions - Melocactus, for instance, needs more warmth - but most will thrive and bloom best if kept quite cool and very dry over the winter.

[hoteidoc]

Welcome, Kimi - even if under adverse circumstances. Our responses have to be "lighthearted", cuz we've ALL done it! It think Barry said it best with the "Trifecta" phrase. Among other things you'll learn, if you continue to spend "serious" time here, is to coarsen up your soil -- less organics, grittier, quick draining, minimal moisture retention. As far as being a "murderer", I think the worst they could convict you on is "manslaughter" -- even if the victims were cacti!

[Steve Johnson]

The huge difference between now and the pre-Internet age is that we have access to a lot more info than we ever could when this was left up only to advice from local nurseries, cactus clubs, etc. If you couldn't get it (or the advice wasn't all that good to begin with), you were SOL -- hence the reason why so many growers had to gain their experience by killing a lot of plants along the way. While the net can be a land-mine of misinformation, you came to the right place here on the CactiGuide forum. If you find some useful guidance here, then hopefully you'll do less killing and more growing!

Best of luck, Kimi!

[CactusFanDan]

Semperviviums should be kept outdoors really, so they can get enough light. The dried old leaves are probably normal, but the spindly growth isn't. Repot them into a better soil mix. Try to remove as much of the old soil as possible.

[Kimimonster]

Haha thanks for all the replies, they made me smile

I have relocated my collection into my windowsill and even carried them and my orchid onto the landing in this mornings sun and sat there like a doting mum moving them out of the direct sun as the hour passed!!

Crazy.

I broke away some of the soil on my sempervivum and came to a solid core which was the tiny original soil mold of the first pot! It was a bargain buy so that could be why!

I've also found three more root rot beginners so am leaving them to dry and repotting in new soil on Wednesday when special cacti compost comes into my garden centre (am I doing well so far??) I'll repot my sempervivum too.

I love the fact that a lot of you guys' signatures say that this is an addiction. Just how I feel