Lophophora williamsii rotten - unavoidable?

[widea]

I had this Lophophora williamsii for a few years. As always this winter it did not get any water for 6 months (it is inside).
When I watered it last week it became rotten. Or it already was, I do not know.
How can this happen? Can this be avoided completely? Or was this one weak to begin with when I got it?
Is there chance it got a fungus like viewtopic.php?f=24&t=38905?

[Aiko]

Those things just happen with some plants at the end of winter, suddenly dying without even having had a chance to get some water and rot because of too much waterings, while all winter they looked fine.

[hegar]

I am also stumped by this phenomenon. Other members of my cactus club also report, that their plants look fine very early in the spring, only to succumb to rot a little later. While I cannot control the weather - with my plants being in the ground in both my front- and backyards - your plants are indoors and were not watered during the winter dormancy.
I hope, that one of the long-time, successful cactus growers can solve this puzzle for us and tell us, what we need to change, in order to keep our plants alive for as long as their natural life span will permit. It is frustrating and maddening, to do everything "by the book" and still end up in failure.

Harald

[widea]

Thanks, at least I am not the only one.

A theory may be that when waking up from dormancy the plants may be weaker and so more vulnerable for bacteria and fungi.

This particular cactus may have been weaker than the others. It did not show any signs of life for a long time even for a Lophophora. I gave acidified tap water that may have contained a pathogen.

Next spring before the first watering I will boil the water first, work more cleanly. And/or add some 3% hydrogen peroxide that will kill the bacteria and fungi beforehand.

This is not something you can do when the cacti are outside or when you have a lot of them but as an experiment it may be interesting.

Does this sound plausible?

Cor

[Orion Drakkar]

May be caused by the death of some roots during winter dormancy