Cracks appearing on Parodia

[erodgers1946]

Hi Guys

Just checking my cacti yesterday and I noticed that 3 cracks have appeared on the body of one of my Parodias. Was wondering if any of you had any ideas as to what could have caused this to happen. The plant itself looks a bit scruffy as I have sprayed it with a miticide and it also has those brown spots which don't seem to cause a problem other than making the plant look a bit unsightly. In fact the plant is actually growing some pups at it's base.
Regards Eileen

DSC03050-1.jpg (45.55 KiB) Viewed 2455 times

[AgavaSK]

Sometimes cracks like this appear after watering. A friend of mine adviced me to water them from the bottom, especially first times in spring.

[greenknight]

Watering too frequently can cause splitting, the plant just takes up too much water and swells more than its skin can stretch.

[adetheproducer]

Yeah I did this to one of my l.williamsii when I first got it, thought they were a thirstier than they actual were. Just cut back a bit on water it will look a bit ugly but should heal.

[Aiko]

Sometimes cracks like this appear after watering. A friend of mine adviced me to water them from the bottom, especially first times in spring.

I have no idea why this should prevent this from happening. I would think it is a more likely chance to cause splitting, as the pot gets more thoroughly soaked with water. Resulting in more time the pot needs to dry out and a bigger chance the plant takes up more water than it can handle during that time.

The only prevention I know is to water more lightly. Maybe you can increase the quantity of watering to compensate a bit, but I would definitely not give too much water at a time for plants sensitive soaking up too much (like Tanquana and Argyroderma, and apparently this Parodia / Notocactus).

[erodgers1946]

Thank you everyone for your info. I will be very careful with the watering from now on especially as we are heading towards our winter season.

[Steve Johnson]

I will be very careful with the watering from now on especially as we are heading towards our winter season.

Good idea. I'll even go a bit further by recommending that you keep your Parodia protected from winter rains, since those fresh splits could invite rot or a fungal infection if the plant gets rained on. Perhaps more splits too, which you certainly don't want.

[Steve Johnson]

Oh, crap! Splitting from too much water isn't just for Turbs or Parodias. After keeping my Astrophytum myriostigma quadricostatum dry through the winter, it got some unscheduled watering when a leak through the top of my portable GH gave the plant a sip thanks to the big rains that came through L.A. at the end of last month. Okay, maybe a little more than that, and man did that thing plump up fast! I had it on my list for regular watering 2 weeks later, although 20/20 hindsight tells me that the Astro was already satisfied by the rainwater it got. Now the plant has a split on its north-facing side...



...with another one to match on the other side:



Of course that never happens in nature, does it? (Well, it's either that or get horribly ticked off at myself.) Before now, the only cactus I accidentally split was on one of my Turbinicarpus polaskiis last April. Live and learn, and in my case I think this tends to be more of a spring problem with cacti that take up a lot of water fast and hold onto it longer than they will when the weather heats up. The polaskii survived its split just fine, so the myriostigma will too. I won't even think about watering it again until after the splits heal up and callous. At this rate, I think it'll take about a month before the plant starts looking thirsty again, so I'm sure the splits should be healed by then.

Eileen, maybe this "live and learn" moment might be helpful to you. Regular watering schedules may be fine for some cacti, but it can be kinda dangerous with cacti that are prone to splitting if regular schedules are used as a shortcut in place of observing their level of hydration. I'm pretty good with Turbs, but obviously not good enough since the myriostigma blindsided me. Anyway, it takes experience to know when split-prone cacti are plump and when they look thirsty enough for watering. Digital photography is a valuable tool in gaining it when you can look at comparison photos. A really good method is to set a benchmark starting with photos of your plants when they shrivel in their winter dormancy. When the roots wake up and your cacti get nice and plump after watering, photograph them again. Then you should be able to know what they'll look like when they start getting thirsty again. By no means absolutely foolproof (nothing is), but I'm in favor of anything that minimizes having to get experience the hard way. Don't know if you're like me, but I'm one of those people who finds that comparison photos beat the heck out of relying solely on memory all the time.

[erodgers1946]

Thanks Steve for your incite into watering. I am learning about watering cacti the hard way and I am very new to knowing which cacti need a little bit more water and which don't. Most of my cacti are kept under cover over the winter period as it can sometimes be rather wet and cold down here in the SW of Western Australia.
Your idea of a photographic record is very good and one which I will take on board.

[greenknight]

One to really be careful with is Parodia leninghausii. I had one burst wide open, beyond any hope of saving it. Very easy plant, generally - just don't overdo the watering.

[Steve Johnson]

Thanks Steve for your incite into watering. I am learning about watering cacti the hard way and I am very new to knowing which cacti need a little bit more water and which don't. Most of my cacti are kept under cover over the winter period as it can sometimes be rather wet and cold down here in the SW of Western Australia.
Your idea of a photographic record is very good and one which I will take on board.

You may find this update rather interesting, Eileen...

It's been 3 weeks since I saw the splits on the Astro myriostigma quadricostatum. Although I concentrate most of my before-and-after photography on winter shriveling and spring plumping, let's see what happens when the process goes in reverse:



As we can see, the split on the north-facing side has healed and calloused well. (Ditto on the south-facing split.) The plant has lost enough water from its tissues to make the situation safe for deep watering tonight. Between work and everything I do at home, I'm a really busy guy, so I do find that watering schedules can be helpful as long as I know what I'm doing. This is where the comparison photos come in handy -- in my particular case I needed more than one set for some eye training before I repeat the same mistake. Recent experience now indicates that the myriostigma should be fine with watering every 3 weeks until the weather really heats up. If I think it needs watering a little more often then, I can review these before-and-after photos again in case I'm not sure about the reliability of what my eyes are telling me.

[WayneByerly]

I don't know who might agree or disagree with this, but it's a theory that I've built based on reading everything I can run across on the internet about taking care of cacti.

If you go too long between waterings, the little hair fine roots that are responsible for taking up water die. you don't want that to happen. so you water them more often. but you don't want them to split either ... as yours have so obviously done ... so you water a little bit less.

So it seems to me that to keep the root system healthy you water oftener (in their active growing season), but give them less to keep them from swellling up and splitting.

It's like not feeding your dog too much at any one time ... he's got NO dern sense and he'll eat till he pukes. The cactus will do the same. Water him more often ... just give him less at any one time.

[greenknight]

Root hairs are short-lived, anyway; they're constantly being replaced. Each one is an extension of a single cell, they grow very quickly.

The problem with giving small amounts of water is that none may reach the bottom of the pot, where most of the roots are.

[CactusFanDan]

A lot of succulents can grow root hairs and fine feeder roots in a matter of days or even hours. Deep, infrequent waterings seem best for cacti and succulents.