I've lost several quite mature Astrophytums for the same reason, they started to rot from a rib, but their roots in a perfect condition.
Please help me to identify the disease and to understand what should I do differently to keep my cacti alive.
This brown reab wasn't soft first but today it became soft and mushy, so I decided to cut the reab and clean all the rotten parts. I could see orange color going deep inside the Astrophytum so I decided to cut the top and try to graft it. But the top was too soft and almost falling apart. I guess I was too late.
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I lost around 24 plants to the same issue. Roots are good, top of plant was good but brown mush at the soil line. I was told it was due to me watering when the roots were shut down. Wet soil, no water retention by the plant.
mikethecactusguy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 3:21 am
I lost around 24 plants to the same issue. Roots are good, top of plant was good but brown mush at the soil line.
Oh, sorry to hear that! 24 is a lot of plants(( Would be almost 50% of my entire collection of mature plants.
mikethecactusguy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 3:21 am
I was told it was due to me watering when the roots were shut down. Wet soil, no water retention by the plant.
Was it your issue? I stopped watering mine at the end of November so it's no water for a month and a half, soil dry to the very bottom of the pot.
This may be only my experience but all my degrafted Astrophytum wild rot randomly months or a year or two after being on own roots. I did grow in Florida which was quite humid so that may have been a factor…
LateBloomer wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 5:20 pm
This may be only my experience but all my degrafted Astrophytum wild rot randomly months or a year or two after being on own roots. I did grow in Florida which was quite humid so that may have been a factor…
Idk if this is degrafted or not just sharing
Thank you for sharing.
It was ownroot but I'm thinking about humidity now. It is very high in my indoor greenhouse, so probably it's the reason of rotting.
keith wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 11:29 pm
Try Using less organic in the soil mix for Astrophytums
Thank you for advice!
The funny thing is this year almost half of the soil was minerals. Last year it grew in pure organics just like I bought it and was totally fine during winter.
I lost several plants last winter to the same thing. I believe it's bacterial. All of the plants I lost to it (an Astrophytum, a Mammillaria and an echinocactus) were planted in this really bad commercial cactus soil I picked up and then never purchased again. It was basically just cheap potting mix with lots of wood chips and a bit of sand in it.
I've spent the last few weeks going through ever pot and checking if anything is still potted in it. I've repotted about a dozen things, most of which had very few roots left on them thanks to the shitty soil.
So, if you're Australian, don't buy Osmocote's "cactus" mix, because it's hot garbage.
OP, do you think you could share some pictures of your soil and explains what's in it?
