Eulychnia castanea f. varispiralis brown and not growing

[Hero878]

Hi there
I've had this Eulychnia castanea f. varispiralis for a few years but slowly it's turned all brown and won't grow anymore.
Do you think I should cut it somewhere to remove the unhealthy growth? I have already cut some of the right stem but there's no new growth after a year. So thinking I should cut further down? If you click on the photo below it will expand



Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

[Steve Johnson]

A little more information please:

• What's in your potting medium (including proportions of each ingredient.

• Are you fertilizing? If so, how often? I'll need a complete list of the chemical analysis -- should be on the label.

Once I evaluate your fertilizer, I'll be able to tell you if it's the right one for cacti. If it's not, I can give you some ideas on what to look for in a more suitable fert.

[Hero878]

Thanks Steve
That's be honest it's been in various pitting mediums and I've used various fertilisers over the past two years. But at the moment it's just in John innes 2 and some cat litter. Feeding it miracle grow. Previously I had used cacti fertiliser like chempak etc


I managed to get a new plant on the weekend which looks very healthy! I believe the potting mix is mostly grit so I will leave it alone.

[Steve Johnson]

Let's have a look at the left side of your Miracle-Gro label:

Miracle-Gro_UK.jpg (80.88 KiB) Viewed 3035 times

Good news is that UK fertilizers report elemental P and K so you don't have to do the P2O5 x .436 and K2O x .83 calculations we do with US ferts. Now for the bad news. N = 1 is the constant for determining NPK ratios, and your Miracle-Gro's ratio is 1-0.146-0.55. Yikes! Acceptable P range is 0.25-0.35, and acceptable K range is 1.1-1.7, so the Miracle-Gro is badly out of balance. Miracle-Gro fertilizers are absolutely the worst for cacti and succulents -- look for a fert that gives you the acceptable ranges of P and K in relation to N.

[Hero878]

Thank you Steve
In that case I will stop using Miracle grow for my cacti but keep it for my succulents like Kalanchoes.
For my cacti I will go back to chempak cacti feed

[Steve Johnson]

In that case I will stop using Miracle grow for my cacti but keep it for my succulents like Kalanchoes.

Cacti and succulents have the same nutrient requirements, so it doesn't make sense to use Miracle-Gro on your succulents. Now we'll review your Chempak label:

Chempak_UK_small.jpg (80.34 KiB) Viewed 3010 times

Not sure why P2O5 is on there twice, but I'll assume that 14.8% is the total amount of elemental P in the fertilizer. (By the way -- the oxygen in P2O5 and K2O supports the plant's health, but it has no nutrient value. All we're concerned about are the amounts of elemental P and K available to the plant. Once again, UK ferts make it easy.) Now we'll break the Chempak's 8% N, 14.8% P and 26.6% K down into a ratio, and we can actually do it like this:

• %P (14.8 )/%N (8) = 1.85

• %K (26.6)/%N (8) = 3.325

With N = 1 as the constant, the Chempak's NPK ratio is 1-1.85-3.25 -- maybe fine for nonxeric plants, but the P and K are way too high for cacti and succulents. Do some research on the various fertilizers that are available to you, and look at their N percentage first. If you calculate the P and K sides of the ratio as I just showed you, you'll know what to look for in the right fertilizer. This will be the right fert for your cacti and succulents.

Excessive P causes problems in terms of reduced stem growth, reduced root growth, and reduced flowering or no flowering at all -- hence the reason why the P side of the ratio needs to be in the 0.25-0.35 range. If the best fert you can get has P that's above 0.4, an Ammonium sulfate supplement will bring the P down to its acceptable range. And if K is below the 1.1-1.7 range, you can bring that up into the acceptable range with a potassium sulfate supplement. I have solid experience with this -- if you find a fert that at least gets you close to the "ideal", give me the info. From there I'll be able to give you the recipes and instructions which include the right supplements.

One more thing I should mention...

Calcium is a secondary major nutrient, and sulfur is a minor nutrient -- both are important for cacti and succulents, but I don't see Ca or S listed on either of the fertilizers we're discussing. Good news is that if the fert you select has little or no Ca and/or S, this can be addressed through supplementation. I'll give you all of the details once we know what it will be.

[Steve Johnson]

This just in...

I went through the Thompson & Morgan website, and found this:

https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/chemp ... /kww2556TM

Clematis food for cacti and succulents? Description on the T & M site: "N:P:K - 16:14:32 with micro nutrients". Kinda wish they included labels with guaranteed analysis of everything in their fertilizers, but we can safely assume that P is P2O5 and K is K2O. 14% P2O5 x 0.436 = 6.1% P, 32% K2O x .83 = 26.56% K. If my assumption is correct, you'll see those elemental P and K numbers on the fert's actual label. %P (6.1)/%N (16) = 0.38, %K (26.56)/%N (16) = 1.66, so the Clematis fert's NPK ratio is 1-0.38-1.66. And because P is below 0.4, the fert should be quite acceptable for cacti and succulents.

Before we get too excited about this, you'll need a complete chemical analysis which you would see on the fertilizer's label. If your local garden centre carries it, go there and look at the label. If it does show 6.1% elemental P and 26.6% elemental K, you're set. The other things to look at are the presence or absence of Ca, Mg, and S. If they're on the label, amounts would be helpful to know. If they're not (or the amounts are too small), I'm thinking that calcium citrate and magnesium sulfate (AKA Epsom salt) should be good supplements to the Clematis.

By the way, John Innes 2 and calcined cat litter is the mix one of our senior members in the UK used. Expert grower too, so you're on the right track there. IMO the only thing holding you back has been using the wrong fertilizer, so I hope that I'll be able to help you get on the right track there. If the Chempak Clematis food "passes muster" and you'd like to start using it, post a photo of the label. From there I'll figure out the right supplements for you.

[greenknight]

Could you make an acceptable fertilizer by blending the Miracle-Gro and the Chempak? I don't feel like doing the math right now.

[Steve Johnson]

Could you make an acceptable fertilizer by blending the Miracle-Gro and the Chempak? I don't feel like doing the math right now.

Read my "Fertilizers explained" presentation and the response posts in detail:

viewtopic.php?t=47603

Regarding the presentation itself, I did all the math, and when you go through it, you'll see that what you suggested can't be done. The best bet for Hero878 is the Chempak Clematis food. If it comes up short on Ca, Mg, and S, that can be supplemented. All I need is the chemical analysis from the Clematis label, and from there I'll be able to come up with the right supplements.

As I say at the beginning of my presentation, MikeInOz is a horticulturalist with a deep knowledge of cacti and succulents, and the best explainer of fertilizers we could ever hope to have. In case anyone is wondering about his background:

Sounds like you have a massive operation -- is it a full-on nursery? And if you wouldn't mind me asking, just how big is your growing space in terms of square footage (or meters as the case may be since you live in Australia)?

Not massive but commercial size. My growing area is 6 meters x 30 meters and I guess there are 1000 plants. I haven't counted.
I used to be in the nursery trade but now I'm just doing this as a hobby and to make some extra cash on ebay.

You'll find the source of the quote here:

viewtopic.php?p=402251#p402251

IMO Mike's professional expertise is beyond question, and we can learn a lot from him. That's why I wanted to make sure that his fert knowledge isn't lost -- the reason for putting the "Fertilizers explained" presentation up as a sticky on the forum.

[Hero878]

Thank you Steve! I will go out and look for the Clematis one and post it here. Really appreciated your help and hopefully all my cacti will grow much better once the fertiliser is sorted out

[Steve Johnson]

Thank you Steve! I will go out and look for the Clematis one and post it here. Really appreciated your help and hopefully all my cacti will grow much better once the fertiliser is sorted out

You're most welcome! By the way, just a general observation...

Here in the US, "off-the-shelf" fertilizers rarely (if ever) get it right in terms of the proper NPK balance and nutrient profiles most suitable to cacti and succulents. I'm by no means the only grower who finds that ferts need supplementation, although unfortunate to think about the fact that what should be common knowledge in the global cactus and succulent community isn't common at all.

If the label you post shows what I think it'll show, you lucked out with the Chempak Clematis food because it does get the NPK balance right. That's the most important part, and I'll be interested to see what the label tells us with regard to the supplement issue. While we're at it -- for our non-US members, I usually do all of the recipe calculations diluting in grams per liter/milliliters per liter. If you give me the volume of your watering container, I can make the calculations easier for you.

[Hero878]

Thank you Steve! I will go out and look for the Clematis one and post it here. Really appreciated your help and hopefully all my cacti will grow much better once the fertiliser is sorted out

You're most welcome! By the way, just a general observation...

Here in the US, "off-the-shelf" fertilizers rarely (if ever) get it right in terms of the proper NPK balance and nutrient profiles most suitable to cacti and succulents. I'm by no means the only grower who finds that ferts need supplementation, although unfortunate to think about the fact that what should be common knowledge in the global cactus and succulent community isn't common at all.

If the label you post shows what I think it'll show, you lucked out with the Chempak Clematis food because it does get the NPK balance right. That's the most important part, and I'll be interested to see what the label tells us with regard to the supplement issue. While we're at it -- for our non-US members, I usually do all of the recipe calculations diluting in grams per liter/milliliters per liter. If you give me the volume of your watering container, I can make the calculations easier for you.

That's interesting as I usually just follow the instructions on the fertiliser for how much water to add. Here is one of the most popular fertilisers sold in the UK For cacti. It's also made in the UK.
Seems like the P is too low though. 1.36:0.31:2.20 and doing the maths its 1:0.22:1.61

And Tomato feed seems to be a popular amongst cacti collectors...at 4:1.3:6.6 -> 1:.325:1.65 seems perfect actually...and it has seaweed extract which heard has lots of nutrients.

[Steve Johnson]

That's interesting as I usually just follow the instructions on the fertiliser for how much water to add.

One of the things I look at is nutrient dosage in terms of parts-per-million going into the plant. For example -- before I changed fertilizers at the beginning of the year, my fert of choice was Dyna-Gro All-Pro 7-7-7. 7% N x 10,000 = 70,000 ppm in the liquid concentrate. Dilution at 1/2 tsp. per gallon -- 70,000/1536 = 46 ppm N in a gallon of my watering solution. The 40-60 ppm range seems pretty much ideal. It's always good to check fertilizer instructions against the possibility that the instructions lead to overfeeding cacti and succulents. Impossible to know if this is happening without the ppm numbers, so it's something we can look into once you decide on the fert you'd like to start using. By the way, my new ferts of choice are General Hydroponics FloraMicro 5-0-1 and FloraBloom 0-5-4 plus an ammonium sulfate-potassium sulfate supplement to bring P and K within acceptable ranges. My cacti are getting the same 46 ppm N they got with the 7-7-7.

Here is one of the most popular fertilisers sold in the UK For cacti. It's also made in the UK.
Seems like the P is too low though. 1.36:0.31:2.20 and doing the maths its 1:0.22:1.61[/img]

Yep, the P is lower than we'd like. I'm also not thrilled by "Also contains: magnesium, sulphur, boron, cobalt, nickel." We need to know the exact amount of magnesium and sulfur, and I don't understand why the manufacturer isn't providing a complete chemical analysis.

And Tomato feed seems to be a popular amongst cacti collectors...at 4:1.3:6.6 -> 1:.325:1.65 seems perfect actually...and it has seaweed extract which heard has lots of nutrients.

The NPK ratio is indeed perfect. However, fruits and vegetables have some nutrient requirements that are different from ornamentals (including cacti and succulents), so the seaweed extract that works well for tomatoes may not work for cacti. Once again, we need to know exactly what's in the fertilizer before we determine whether or not it's the right one for cacti. The Chempak Clematis food holds the most promise for you, but there's only one way to know -- what we see on the label you post.

[Steve Johnson]

Just a follow-up...

Calcium needs to be balanced with magnesium. The "ideal" Ca-Mg ratio should be 4:1, although we don't have to be terribly strict about it. With that said, percentages of Ca and Mg must be on the fertilizer's label in order to determine if a supplement of either or both is required. If the fert contains either not enough sulfur or no sulfur at all (a common problem among fertilizers), S can be part of the supplement

[Hero878]

Thanks Steve
I’ll be sure to calculate the ppm then to double check in case it’s too high or low. Hopefully I will find this clematis feed soon