This year I lost my most favourite cactus - Mammillaria lasiacantha. It rotted during the winter, although it was completely dry. The first symptom I noticed was that there were no flower buds despite the usual season. Then I noticed the flesh was somewhat soft. One day I finally decided to cut the plant with the hope of saving the top, but I was too late. Although the cactus looked very much alive from the outside, It was completely dead on the inside. What is this red flesh? Is it some sort of fungus? Ew...
1900.01.01.0.0.0RAND18034TAGS.problems.IDS.17..JPG (114.96 KiB) Viewed 659 times
1900.01.01.0.0.0RAND11897TAGS..IDS.17..JPG (87.69 KiB) Viewed 659 times
1900.01.01.0.0.0RAND27331TAGS.problems.IDS.17..JPG (76.66 KiB) Viewed 659 times
The good times:
1900.01.01.0.0.0RAND01242TAGS.flowers.IDS.17..JPG (116.06 KiB) Viewed 659 times
I had the same with an ancient Ariocarpus fissuartus. Spring, right at the time when plants go from their winter shelter back to the greenhouse is the time for some plants to do their dying and just rot from the inside... There is not much you can do, I fear. Maybe it is just old age? Happens with solely the bigger / older plants, I seem to remember.
I have had the same experience with a good number of cacti. They seem to come through the winter just fine and look OK in early spring. Then, all of a sudden they collapse. And what is the most maddening thing of all, these plants had been doing fine for many years!
I lost some of my prize plants (Ariocarpus fissuratus, Ferocactus latispinus, and now it seems also a big Astrophytum myriostigma, that had been used for seed production by a now defunct cactus and succulent nursery.
Despite losing the plants, I am not giving up my hobby of growing cacti. As a small consolation, I still do have digital images, showing them in all their glory.
When a cactus goes into a rot, there is usually a discoloration of the interior associated with it. The color can be ranging from brownish to reddish-brown. I am not sure about whether or not you can tell by the color of the rotting interior, if the cause was a bacterial soft rot (likely by Erwinia carotovora or another bacterium or if the culprit was a fungus. Microscopic examination might give you a clue, but I do not even take that smelly stuff with me to work, in order to find out what kind of microorganism is involved. Almost all of my plants are year round in the ground, which makes it rather difficult, if not impossible, to control all possible animal pests and pathogens.
