San pedro problems

Trouble shoot problems you are having with your cactus.
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Glochid
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri May 25, 2012 12:02 am

San pedro problems

Post by Glochid »

These were grown from seed and probably planted in 2010 or 2011. They were all looking great until the end of the last year when the largest started showing signs of sickness or stress. It was the end of the season so I stopped watering and when they all stopped growing, I stored them in a dark garage which stays around 50 degrees all winter. All the cactus were brought out again about 3 weeks ago and are slowly starting to grow again. I know this particular cactus didn't look the best at the end of last year but I don't remember it looking this bad. Just for reference, they are all in 6" pots except for the largest which is in an 8". They are all the same age as well so I don't know if the largest has grown really fast or the others just really slowly.

Thanks!

Almost forgot, I bought these seeds on Ebay listed as San Pedro. Do they look like Purivian Torch to you guys?
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hegar
Posts: 4596
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 4:04 am
Location: El Paso, Texas

Re: San pedro problems

Post by hegar »

Well, the reason you have not gotten any response until now, can be attributed to the following:

1. the images do not show enough detail, i.e. in addition to an image of the whole plant, you have to get a picture that does show the
problem area of the plant magnified as much as possible.

2. Perhaps nobody feels comfortable, giving you a name for a seedling cactus of the columnar variety. The immature specimens do
oftentimes not resemble the adult plant, making a good identification nearly impossible.

Now to the "problem" that you may want us to notice. All I see on the largest plant are lighter green areas around the areoles along the ribs of the cactus. The top - on the other hand - does have a uniform darker green color. This could possibly indicate, that late in last year's growing period something happened to the plant. Maybe its larger size had something to do with it. The shorter cacti do look fine. One thing that looks a little suspicious is a lesion or a hole midway down on the right side of the image. That may not have anything to do with the problem though. Did you have a different amount of fertilizer that you used for the larger plant than for the other four? Perhaps your large plant needs a small amount of Nitrogen or micronutrients like iron or zinc. Lack of those also causes the yellowing known as chlorosis. However, these are all just "wild guesses".
I would observe the plant well and check even for insect (mealybug, mite, and armored scale) feeding damage. These pests oftentimes do feed near the spines in the areolar region and will also cause the plant tissue to become chlorotic or discolored.
If the problem was caused by an insect or mite, the best method of combating the pest is by applying a systemic insecticide, which is picked up by the plant's root system and then translocated throughout the whole plant.

Harald
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