poisonshroom Posted January 16, 2011 Well as you all should know, QLD is pretty much under water (though mostly in the south east, we've had plenty up north too). All the rain, and the crazy humidity is not going too well with a lot of my plants and especially cacti. Iv had a small pedro get like a boil (ooozie rot patch), but its recovered since, and all my sceletium is looking real sad. the main thing im worried about though is my Gnosis (peruvianus) - i just noticed (must have happened in the last couple of days) a huge patch of black rot. im basically wondering what id be best to do. the cactus is about 40-50cm tall and the rot patch is about 10cm+ long - should i just cut it off a bit below where it is rotting and try and move the pot more under shelter? the main problem (and the reason i cant just take it out of the pot and put it in some perlite or sand till it dries up is the pot its in: those cacti have been in there a few months, so id need to take everything out of the (surprisingly heavy) pot to get gnosis out. nothing else is suffering. here is the rotted area Its funny, every season leaves me wishing for the next (we only have summer and winter in Townsville) for one reason or another. any advice? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bℓσωηG Posted January 16, 2011 looks like you have some scale on it to Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
J Smith Posted January 16, 2011 What's the drainage in that pot like? is it on the ground or on bricks or pot feet? If you can't guarantee that it will stay 100% dry until it heals you might have to cut. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
poisonshroom Posted January 16, 2011 (edited) The pot probably doesnt have the best drainage, but now you mention it i think the fact its on the ground has a lot to do with it (blocking the holes). and yea i think it has scale too - might have to get the white oil out tonight. its waaay too humid here to allow it to dry out completely at the moment, so maybe cutting will be the only option. ill try and move the pot up off the ground and out of the rain more too EDIT: ugh - just had another look, and it appears the eileen in fron of gnosis in the picture is also rotting (much worse). its rotting around the base - sort of got a cave in it. i think im going to have to cut the eileen and the gnosis and maybe take them inside away from some of the humidity and start over. its a shame tho, because the delosperma and the other bridgesii in the pot are doing really well and it looks nice (apart from big black chunks on the cacti ) Edited January 16, 2011 by poisonshroom Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kadakuda Posted January 18, 2011 Trichs are not good in wet areas...they cant tolerate it at all, any species...its really too bad. If you really want in ground outdoor plants, grafting to a thick water resistant stock is your only safe bet. I have tried every soil type you could think of, including 100% pumice and if your wet, they cant hack it, even potted Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
poisonshroom Posted January 19, 2011 Most of them are doing fine, and i think the main problem is that the pot was on the ground rather than up a bit higher. also it was in the rain a lot. iv cut the 2 affected ones down and im trying to callous them up now inside away from some of the humidity. i think they all may need to go under covers if it starts raining heavily again. last year the couple of cacti i had during winter really took off (our winter is dry if you've never lived in townsville), so maybe i should be keeping them dry in summer and watering frequently during winter - which is the opposite of what you would normally do, but only the night time temp really changes between summer and winter here as well as the humidity levels. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mutant Posted January 19, 2011 (edited) I think the scale is currently causing more damage than the "black rot". I would treat the scale and put under cover if I thought enough is enough with all this rain, but IME Trichos can take lots of water before they rot at the base. Edited January 19, 2011 by mutant Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
poisonshroom Posted January 20, 2011 Iv cut down gnosis and eileen already. eileen was really bad at the base (almost rotted all the way through) and i now have the stump from gnosis and a tip cutting. i completely emptied the pot today and turns out the other bridge that was in there had the same problem, so im glad i did that. The pot they were in now has a single terscheckiiXpsycho0 that im trying to grow into a monster - its doubled its size in a few months and has been the most tolerant of extreme amounts of water. i also plan to keep it off the ground this time Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kadakuda Posted January 24, 2011 its truly amazing what 2 bricks can accomplish Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
poisonshroom Posted January 25, 2011 Lol yea - should have done that when i first potted them up once it had the plants and soil and everything in it i had no hope of lifting it (thing weighs a ton). The main issue was i didnt realise how swampy the area got after heavy rain - lesson learned Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
poisonshroom Posted January 25, 2011 Lol yea - should have done that when i first potted them up once it had the plants and soil and everything in it i had no hope of lifting it (thing weighs a ton). The main issue was i didnt realise how swampy the area got after heavy rain - lesson learned Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
