I put this Grafted Astrophytum on my overwintering shelf a few weeks ago, no indication of any illness prior, however when I glanced over at the shelf today I found the scion slumped over to one side. Examining it further I found the scion had been completely hollowed out, with the only thing inside it being a foul smelling liquid. The rootstock is fine and completely healthy. The only thing of the scion that is intact is the outer skin. I know not much can be done about this, I just wish to understand what happened here and if this has happened to anyone else. The plant was purchased from eBay, not grown by me.
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Welcome to cactus growing! The land of mysteriously collapsing plants and odd smells. I've found that plants can be dead for quite some time before they show any outward signs. I had an Ariocarpus retusus that I was concerned with because it wasn't growing. As it turned out it was slowly dissolving from the inside. It took almost a year to show outward signs.
Soft-bodied plants like Mammillaria are much quicker.
What caused it? Good question. Could have been an insect bite or a small scrape from a tool or finger nail. If some pathogen is introduced and the plant can't fight it off, it slowly rots (usually).
Bummer, it looked like a nice plant.
Disclaimer: I'm in sunny Arizona, so any advice I give may not apply in your circumstances.
I have been trying to grow Astrophytum asterias cacti for a number of years and killed them all in short order, except two hybrid plants that are still pretty vigorous after more than six years. I do grow them on their own roots and that is not easy, if the plants are grown outdoors in the ground.
That is the reason, why your plant was grafted onto a Hylocereus rootstock.
It can only be taken as a guess, but as Tim already mentioned, an injury to the scion, perhaps during shipping could have caused a small portal through which microorganisms could enter. It could also be, that the graft was only recently done and a pathogen was transmitted during that operation, if either the knife was not sterilized sufficiently or the graft had not healed well enough. However, that is all only speculation as to what could have been the cause of the rot. Of course, you can still continue to grow the Hylocereus sp. rootstock. It should produce large, white flowers.
Thank you for your replies. I threw the remains of the scion out today. I was going to keep it to see if I could graft the small offsets that had formed on it but by the time I got around to it the skin was too decomposed. I have had quite a few plants die suddenly on me, but I have never had one die in such a strange way and with no outward signs. Well, all I can do now is buy another one from a better seller I guess. As for the rootstock I already have two big Hylocereus undatus plants I get cuttings from so I will probably either sell it or throw it away.
