Help for my plants!

[Dreamer19]

Hello

I am fairly recent to the word of cacti. I haven't had my collection for a year yet, so I'm a little inexperienced at recognising the sings of pests and diseases. This is something I'm working on with the help of various books but it's all a little overwhelming (I keep changing the diagnosis I give my plants :,) ) so I'm hoping someone may be able to help me out. I have concerns for two of my plants at the moment. The first one this:

image.jpg (60.97 KiB) Viewed 1056 times

This has always been somewhat of a knarly cactus. It was bought as the last of a batch in October to go away to uni with me, though it ended up staying at home. There were marks on the stem originally, but I'm certain there are more now. The patches are not soggy in the least, I've brushed a cotton bud against them and they leave no residue, so that makes me think that it's not rot? I've never seen any sign of pests on it, it was kept completely dry and cool through the winter and it's recently been repotted and had its first feed a couple of days ago. While there is noticeable growth on all my other plants however, this one does not seem to have changed, except for a slightly thickening of the stem, which Is also causing me concern. If I just have a particularly ugly looking cactus then I can live with that, but if there is something wrong then I'd like to be able to try and treat the little guy. (I don't know actually know what type of cactus it is)

My second concern in my cressula:

Cressular 2

image.jpg (62.02 KiB) Viewed 1056 times

image.jpg (68.93 KiB) Viewed 1056 times

Cressular 3

image.jpg (63.04 KiB) Viewed 1056 times

Sorry about the bad quality of photo's. My concern with it is that is has a lot of brown spots on the leaves. Fearing that it might have scale insects I removed the greater part of these blemished leaves which is why the poor thing looks a little sorry for itself, but there are still a few leaves left with brown spots on. I've removed this plant away from all of my others to minimise any chance of contamination but I'm still hugely unsure of what it might be. The plant is putting on a lot of new growth, but it is also losing leaves (which I read can be normal for cressulas in spring) The majority of this new growth is also good quality, apart from one branch which consistently grows yellow leaves. This is a very recent plant to my collection so I have no baseline to compare it against. Again it was the last of a reduced bunch that were not given very good care in the shop: minimal light (they were shoved to the bottom of the shelf) completely bone dry. I've read of a condition called oedema, which also causes brown spots on the leaves, so I'm wondering if this plant is just responding to its previous bad conditions. It's been repotted in cactus soil and again has had a water and a feed - away from my other plants. If the worst comes to the worst and it is scale insects, can anyone offer me some advice? I've read about treating them but the things various pesticides and things books and websites suggest, well I've never heard of them. I would really like to rescue this plant if possible. As a side note I visited the shop where I got it and all the others had succumbed to doubt. They've all been disposed now.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Sorry for any weird spellings, my iPad auto-corrects words wrong :,)

[Aichybatoal]

I can't say that I'm any kind of veteran, either, but judging just from that one picture of your cactus (fine specimen, by the way!), my very first thought is scorching. Now, obviously, I have no idea what your personal techniques are, such as where you keep your plants, so if you keep yours inside mostly, then scorching is pretty infeasible. But if the spots are hard as opposed to soft and spongy (as I think you said), then sun damage is my first thought. On the other hand, it might just be scarring from an old injury. Maybe its skin got punctured, or it got a scratch from something before you bought it, and it just healed over it in hard tissue. Like I said, I'm certainly no master, either, but there are my two ideas for you.

The other succulent, I have no idea; cacti are my only area of knowledge here. Sorry!

Good luck on a fix, and I hope you keep with your collection!

[idgie]

Hello, I can't answer your question, but i believe the succulent is not crasula, even though it looks a lot like c. ovata. I think it's portulacaria afra.

[Dreamer19]

Update: I found Mealy Bugs on my second plant! I've checked it over hundreds of times and never noticed anything before. I removed three with a cotton bud before spraying the plant in a soap and water solution until I can get some insecticide. I got super worried and quickly checked over all my others, which thankfully seem fine. There were no tell-tale fluffy white deposits which is why I never considered these pests at all. Do you possibly have any advice on treatment/ prevention? Are my other plants at risk?

Aichybatoal - I never considered scorching! I do keep my plants inside. They're on a table just below the window level so they get good light all day and some hours of direct sunlight, but are not constantly bombarded with it. The ones that I know can take it go on the other windowsill. Perhaps these conditions are still too intense for my cactus. I try moving it to a different spot Scarring also seems quite likely, it has always been a little unsightly and it does have a particularly nasty but healed scar (not shown on the picture) where it looks like a spine bed has been ripped off and another grew back. Shops just don't seem to take care of their plants? Thank you very much for your suggestions!

Idgie - I had no idea that I'd identified this plant wrong! I usually try to identify my cactus' from books and it's a bit hit and miss. I googled portulacaria afar and agree that this does look a lot like my plant, which hopefully I can save :/ Thank you very much for you comment.

[greenknight]

Doesn't look like sunburn to me, more like some type of injury or bug damage.

[Aichybatoal]

Shops just don't seem to take care of their plants!

You've sure hit the nail on the head with that particular statement! I know just what you mean... And the cacti always get it the worst, too! The other plants are fine, but the cacti are rotten, or infested, or punctured, or have... STRAW FLOWERS glued to them ...