Recovering & top heavy opuntia microdaysis

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raindancer01
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 9:30 am
Location: UK

Recovering & top heavy opuntia microdaysis

Post by raindancer01 »

Last month I noticed white bits appearing on my opuntia. Sprayed cactus with plant anti fungus at first as I mistook it for that, then looked online, realised my mistake.mealy bug, oops, at leastfungus won't be touching my cactus now too. Checked others nearby but they seem ok so just monitoring but the opuntia is the only casualty it seems (other than a new plant which I think was the culprit). Been treating with isopropyl alcohol water mix which has killed off most of the bugs on the cactus (other plant didn't thrive & died anyway), but to speed things up so it can come out of isolation faster & back to the window also sprayed with systemic pesticide today to kill the stragglers. It has also been repotted to a bigger pot as a precaution & it needed repotting anyway as pot was tipping, and roots carefully washed and left to dry before hand although couldn't see bugs or anything wrong with roots.

I think it will be ok but other problem is it is top heavy due to shape & all the pads and keeps tipping. Can you get supports that are suitable for keeping them upright? . I kind of like its quirky shape with pads all over the place tbh, Or is it better to remove the upper pads anyway as they were the infected part. Cactus itself is still a good/normal colour, feels firm ( although don't know how I'm gonna get all those mini spikes out my glove where I tested-why did it have to be the opuntia...) and aside from recovering from the infection and tipping without support, which it was doing before anyway, it seems do be doing well despite everything.

Whats the best thing to do? I will take pads off to lighten the load if it is better for the cactus at this stage (its still currently in isolation). I'm guessing they'd regrow eventually anyway?

If nothing else I guess the mealy bug infection will teach me to always isolate new plants in future.Anyway thanks for reading & if anyone has any tips or advice on anything else I can/should do to help the opuntia microdaysis recover & help it not tip over, its much appreciated.
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Steve Johnson
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Re: Recovering & top heavy opuntia microdaysis

Post by Steve Johnson »

This should go in the Sick Cacti forum, so post again over there.
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raindancer01
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 9:30 am
Location: UK

Re: Recovering & top heavy opuntia microdaysis

Post by raindancer01 »

Ok sorry & thankyou. :)
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