sad succulent (massive newbie, don't know what to do)

Trouble shoot problems you are having with your cactus.
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vekeh
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri May 09, 2014 2:41 pm

sad succulent (massive newbie, don't know what to do)

Post by vekeh »

I don't know much/anything about cacti so I'll just give all the information that might help – the succulent didn’t come with a name attached to it, after some googling it looks a bit like “euphorbia milii” so maybe it’s in that family?
Anyway, the problem. In mid-March the top leaves of the plant on both ‘arms’ were dying in a shrivelling/yellowing sort of way. He’d been in a really sunny spot so I thought he was getting scorched from the sun and moved him, and the leaves stopped dying so I thought I’d solved it.

Wroooong. About two weeks later there were teeny bugs in the dish when I watered him. Watered the little finger cactus friend sitting next to him and surprise surprise, bugs in his dish too. I cried to my dad and he said probably spider mites, get some insecticide. The bottle said to spray the leaves, and since the succulent had leaves, no problem. Little cactus doesn’t so I sprayed the soil. When they next wanted watering there weren’t any bugs in the finger cactus’ dish. YAY. Happily watered the succulent… still had bugs. I sprayed him again about two weeks later. Still had bugs. Two weeks later again, but this time putting water in the dish, and the spraying the bug spray into that to let him drink it up.

He had at this point been quarantined to the kitchen windowsill because I thought he wasn’t getting enough sun on my desk. Then the leaves started dying – most of them were on the same side (in the picture, all the leaves that were under the top yellow one are gone [was a little too trigger happy with the insecticide?]), but the opposite side to what was facing the sun. He lost all his new growth from the bugs before I tried to treat him. They’re dying in a different way to the how the bugs kill them though (more obvious in the picture). I noticed earlier that very top of his stalk is black. I don’t know if it always looked like this, but his arm doesn’t have the same problem.
Is he going to die? What can I do? How contagious are his bugs, how do I know if my other little cactus friends have a problem? :(

(I hope the pictures work, I don't know what I'm doing)
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bluetexasbonnie
Posts: 221
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2014 4:43 am
Location: Geronimo, Texas (near San Antonio) Edge of zone 8a - 8b.

Re: sad succulent (massive newbie, don't know what to do)

Post by bluetexasbonnie »

I think you are right about what it is. Mine looks this sad after winter too.

They want more water than your cacti. Some people say never let it go dry, but that seems wrong. I let mine go dry and then water it again -- more like a 'normal' house plant. They want brighter light than windows normally have. An outdoor partly sunny to bright shade spot would make it very happy.

Light fertilizer during the warm months will have it blooming all summer. A very pretty plant.

If it gets happy, it will grow, a lot. Every branch you trim will probably root if you put it in perlite and keep it damp.

Good Luck!
My cactus must be gods. They demand blood sacrifice.
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Steve Johnson
Posts: 4514
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2011 4:44 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)

Re: sad succulent (massive newbie, don't know what to do)

Post by Steve Johnson »

Try posting again in the Succulent Growing Help forum, and you should have better luck getting answers to your problem.
If you just want photos without all the blather, please visit my Flickr gallery.
My location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)
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