Cacti with alcohol problems

Plantcelot · Post by **Plantcelot** » Tue May 29, 2007 3:02 am

Hi there,

No, it is not an albino!

Today I spent the day killing mealies with rubbing alcohol (70%) and a few of my cactus got their skin quite dry, lost their shine and got "lightly" bleached.

The procedure that I used was to take them away from the sun, spray the cactus with the alcohol and after they got dry I rinsed them in tap water and replanted them in new soil.

Have anyone experienced this type of problem?
I wonder if anyone knows of some type of natural mosturizer, oil or commercial product that could help the skin of my affected cacti.

Will they ever get back their natural shine?

hegar · Post by **hegar** » Tue May 29, 2007 3:48 am

Hello Plantcelot,
your images are amazing. It almost looks like you spray painted your plant with a white color. I have not ever experienced anything like it working with plants that would come close to your plant's reaction to rubbing alcohol. I have submerged leaves for disinfection purposes in 95% ethanol for a half hour or so and did notice, that the alcohol turned green. That would indicate, that chlorophyll was being extracted by the chemical. However, the leaves only turned a different kind of green. Your plant looks like bleach has been applied to it. I have no idea if the plant can repair itself and the green stem color will return. This is something I have never seen before, but maybe someone on this forum has some experience with a similar situation.

Harald

Plantcelot · Post by **Plantcelot** » Tue May 29, 2007 4:33 am

Thanks Harald, I guess this is going to be a very hard problem to solve. At least I will like the plants to survive. I only had this bleaching problem with several of the same type of cactus (that I havent been able to ID yet) and also with a Totem Pole (Lophocereus schottii).

Perhaps I should try to find out a way to encourage chlorophyll production from the plants somehow. The extrange thing is that the top pup was drenched with alcohol as well and it is still green. I just sprayed them with water again and used some "Superthrive" to see if it could do something for them. I don't even know if I should allow them to be under sun tomorrow or if I should keep them shaded.

Thanks again

Lachy · Post by **Lachy** » Tue May 29, 2007 7:35 am

Hmm... it looks like the alcohol has reacted with the waxy coating on the outside of the plant. Your description of them "losing their shine" sounds to me very much like this. If you've used rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) instead of ethanol, I'd say this is a distinct possibility. What I suspect has happened is that the process of rinsing the cacti in water shortly after the alcohol bath has disrupted the waxy layer, and simply created a lot of microscopic imperfections that have rendered the normally transparent layer opaque, or at least reflecting the light in a different fashion to normal.

Personally, I wouldn't worry too much at this stage, as I strongly suspect the plant will return to normal over time. However, due to the removal or degradation of the waxy layer, it may be more susceptible to pests and diseases in the short term. In all, probably the best thing to do is simply to keep an eye on it for any signs of distress.

hablu · Post by **hablu** » Tue May 29, 2007 7:40 am

Next time take soap; don't let it dry afterwwards, but wash it with water immediately.
maybe the plant will recover by spraying it with water reguarly. Harry

Plantcelot · Post by **Plantcelot** » Tue May 29, 2007 2:15 pm

Great, very useful infomation! I will remove them from direct sunlight to prevent skin burning until they get better but will keep them under indirect bright light. I will also spray them with distilled water (to avoid more of the tap water quemicals) a couple of times a day to see if this will give them some moisture. If the mealies dare come back they will get face to face with my tooth pick!
I will try to investigate the web later to see if something else could be done to speed their wax coating recuperation.

Thanks!

iann · Post by **iann** » Tue May 29, 2007 6:21 pm

Do report back on this, I'd love to know how the plants develop over the next few weeks. I would keep them in the shade for a few days at least. This doesn't look fatal but they might scorch very easily.

Plantcelot · Post by **Plantcelot** » Tue May 29, 2007 10:20 pm

Thanks iann, I will. Weird problem I'm having! I will take new pictures over the weekend.

Spikey1007 · Post by **Spikey1007** » Tue May 29, 2007 10:57 pm

Pilbeam tells me that alcohol just gets the mealies drunk! You are aware that extraction of cholrophyll from leaves invovled boiling them in ethanol so possible some of your alcohol removed the chlorophyll also i do belive lachy is correct it hasjust probably broken down the waxy cuticle, anyway nitrates are the chemicals which are needed for chorophyll production.

Post by **daiv** » Tue May 29, 2007 11:30 pm

Not much I can add, but I too want to see the progress of this plant.

Plantcelot · Post by **Plantcelot** » Wed May 30, 2007 6:26 am

Hi Spikey! yeap unfortunately there was a huge loss of the chlorophyll and waxy coating. Thanks

I will look into the nitrates and also to the available fertilizers to see if I could get one to help induce them to produce more of the wax and chlorophyll.

Perhaps a good combination of nutrients will speed their healing. The only problem is that I repotted the plants right after spraying them and I can't use fertilizers right away, I'll have to wait a little while for the roots to recuperate from the transplant shock.

While searching the net I found a lot of places mentioning Epsom salt to help plants. One of its uses is for plants with yellow leaves so I'm guessing it will help with the chlorophyll... I will post a thread later to see if anyone is using it and if it works well with cactus.

Thanks again and by the way the mealies certainly looked drunk, they were dropping like fleas with the streams of spray!

Hi Daiv! Yeap, I will update. Meanwhile a couple of pics of my Totem pole. It is not as bad as the other. I hope that what I see are dead mealies and not ones with a hangover

Lachy · Post by **Lachy** » Wed May 30, 2007 7:22 am

Plantcelot wrote:I hope that what I see are dead mealies and not ones with a hangover

*imagines hungover mealies*

Yeah, they'd all be like "Dude... turn the daylight down PLEASE.. and where's the dang Tylenol? Someone wanna get me some coffee?"

Heheheh...

*ahem*

On a more practical note, I strongly suspect that there isn't any permanent damage. If the chlorophyl has been damaged at all, it could only be a superficial problem, and as others have said, it will regenerate.

Plantcelot · Post by **Plantcelot** » Thu May 31, 2007 2:40 am

Yeah Lachy, I agree

. . .
I don't think it is going to be a speedy recuperation but probably they'll will improve with time. Thanks