White Spots

[egad]

Hey all, got a bit of a query, and a wee bit of trouble perhaps. I've got a tub full of little pedro tips left over from a harvest earlier this season, they've been sitting for a while callousing, meanwhile the mother plants they come from have shot out a few pups each and growing happily. I had intended to pot up these tips and use some as grafting stock for some weird and wonderful experiments once well enough established, but they've been sitting here in my room just sort of collecting dust whilst i've been madly rushing about in the garden planting everything else that needs planting, so perhaps i've just left them sitting too long and they've decided to give up on waiting.

Anyways, a bunch of these little 3 inch long pedro tips have developed these weird white spots all over em, some worse than others, some only have a wee bit and a couple are almost covered in them. The spots can be scrapped off to reveal healthy cactus underneath, and they're not scarring, they're on the exterior of the cactus and when scrapped off reveal the tough outer skin of the cactus. Just wondering if anyone knows what this is, or if anyone has had experience with it themselves? Is it bugs, fungus, or what?

I've included some images to show you what i mean.

Thanks for your help guys.

Edited February 13, 2007 by HyperSpacePixie

[apothecary]

That's some nasty scale.

Plenty of threads about on how to deal with it.

I'd do it quickly and make sure they are quarantined from the rest of your plants!

[egad]

Hey apothecary, i searched through the forums before posting for similar threads, obviously, especially after all the threads constantly re-iterating this idea lately, i found a couple of threads which seemed to describe similar white spots appearing on trich's. So following on from that information, if it's scale then it is caused by some sort of insects and can be simply removed by scraping it off by hand? Or is it something else possibly still?

I have them seperated from the rest of my collection, and am wondering if i go through by hand and remove all the 'scale' will they then be fine to be planted and eventually re-introduced into the larger growing population?

Thanks again for your help.

Peace.

[apothecary]

Yeah once they're clean they'll be fine to go into the collection I'm sure.

I don't know if removal by hand is a good idea, at the very least you should use a toothbrush and some soapy water.

[egad]

Cheers apothecary, looks like i'm off to bath my babies then, hehe. hehe.

[SaBReT00tH]

I have that problem with one of my small trichs too, have tried confidor and natrasoap! Soaking it in them both and it still won't go!!!

[egad]

Hey sabretooth, you will be pleased to hear that after giving my cuttings and a wash and a scrub with an old tootbrush as suggested by apothecary they are now looking fine, and ready to plant, a little yellow underneath the worst parts but i think they should bounce back fine once they start growing.

[apothecary]

I wouldn't plant them out straight away.

Put them in a good airflow area with not too much light but still away from your collection until you are sure it won't redevelop.

Make sure they don't go into the container they spent their infected time in!

[egad]

Check, Check, Check, Check. All good.

[elzar]

heya.

I had this scale also.. It was near impossible to clean off and kept coming back over a period of months. I tried everything including a hose, scrubbing even an emergency scale gun. I lost both cacti that had been attacked. This scale spreads rapidly also.

The only thing i was able to salvage Were the completely uneffected sections. 1 year later i am still quarantining some of the plants as a measure and avoiding too much humidity.

My TBM was impossible to clean completely on another note.