Piante grasse cactus spine

Category: Diseases & Pests

This section of the site contains all the articles that have to do with the adversities of cacti and succulent plants: diseases, parasites, fungi, etc. The articles deal in detail with the main “enemies” of succulents and provide useful information on how to recognize and deal with them to save the plants or limit the onset of problems. Several articles are also dedicated to preventive treatments and pesticide products to be used in various cases.

Reptiles, rodents, insects: how many encounters while growing succulents! Here are the ones to avoid

Even a young bat, entangled, poor him, among the deadly hooked thorns of an Ancistrocactus and died in that unwelcome embrace during the night, without my being able to notice it or do anything to free it. In many years of cultivation this has also happened to me as you will see in the photo in the article. Those who grow cacti, especially if they have a greenhouse (although singular encounters can also be had when growing them in a garden, on a terrace or on a balcony) know well that not only insects, but also many reptiles or small mammals usually slip through one plant and another. Lizards, spiders, ants, snails, mantises, small birds and mice (not so much the small ones, the so-called field mice, but the real rats, which devour any plant, thorns or no thorns) abound especially if you grow in countryside, where it is not uncommon to come across some harmless water snakes. They are abundant, in particular, if you prefer spartan cultivation, with reduced use of chemical products. Most of these “guests” do not cause any harm to the plants; still others are useful in the fight against parasites: think of ladybugs or of that little red spider visible to the naked eye that goes for a walk on the stems of cacti and which at first glance causes a stroke, but is actually a useful predator of the very harmful red spider, invisible to the naked eye (unlike the damage it causes to plants).

In this article here is an overview of the encounters with animals or insects that I have had in years of cultivation, both on a small balcony and in the current large greenhouse in the countryside. Above all, here is some useful information to understand which animals or insects are “friends” and which animals or insects are “enemy” and how to keep them at bay. (…)

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Here comes autumn: what treatments can we do to protect succulents and reduce losses?

With the beginning of autumn almost all succulent and cacti begin to prepare for the vegetative stasis which will last until February/March. In the winter months, cacti (with some exceptions such as Melocactus, Discocactus and epiphytes such as Epiphyllum) and many succulents (with the exception of those originating from the southern hemisphere or areas such as Madagascar) stop growth and go dormant to recover energies and be able to flourish during the following season. In these months the plants should be kept cold and should not be watered. However, it is useful to carry out some preventive treatments to prevent the formation of mold or fungi during these months, thanks to the winter humidity, which, when the temperature start to rise, triggers rot. Warning: preventive treatments with chemical products can be useful but do not necessarily have to be carried out. It is simply a preventive measure, since the best form of defense is always the spartan cultivation of plants accompanied by a good exchange of air during autumn and winter. There are growers who limit these treatments to the essentials, perhaps favoring products with a low environmental impact (I myself have adopted this decision for years) and growers who abuse chemical products in the hope of thus making their plants invulnerable to animal parasites, fungi and mold.

In this article, which completes what has already been explained in other articles (which you will find thanks to the internal links) we see what is advisable to do in these weeks to protect the plants and limit losses due to rot or parasites as much as possible. (…)

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Be careful of winter blooms: rot can start from here. Here are the species at risk

Unfortunately it is a less rare phenomenon than one might think. The flower itself, the maximum expression of the plant, its instrument for reproducing and safeguarding the species, can transform itself into its executioner. With cacti, plants that require seasonal rest corresponding to the winter months, the flower can sometimes be fatal. It obviously only happens with those species that flower in mid-winter, therefore a small minority compared to all cacti. But it is often precisely from there, from that flower that blooms in November, December or January, that the rot is triggered and which, if neglected or not seen, can lead the specimen to death. This is what happened to two of my Ferocactus latispinus in recent days. Or rather, in the past few weeks, except that the damage has become apparent recently. And now it was too late to intervene and save the plants.

In this article we look into this phenomenon and see what can be done to prevent it or, at least, be able to intervene before the rot passes from the flower to the plant. (…)

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Cacti and diseases: stop anxiety, sometimes we can’t help but let Nature take its course

Let’s talk about cacti and diseases starting from a simple photo. The plant that inspired this article, and which you see above, is (or rather, was) an Ancistrocactus (=Glandulicactus) mathssonii. I had obtained this specimen with my sowing about ten years ago and fortunately eight or nine other “brothers” of this plant are still in perfect health, growing and flowering regularly. This particular plant, although treated exactly like the other specimens of that sowing and planted in the same type of substrate in which my other mathssonii live (clay, marl and 60% aggregates), a couple of years ago took a fungal pathology and within a few weeks it was dead. I think it was fusarium, but today it doesn’t matter, because the disease has run its course and what remains is… the armor of this cactus, that is a beautiful interweaving of thorns that embraces the void left by the stem which, over time, it dried up until it decomposed and disappeared altogether. The observation of what remains of this plant, which for a couple of years I have kept along a low wall not far from the greenhouse, where I usually move the diseased plants (by diseases, in this case, I mean generically pathogens and parasites) to prevent them from infecting other specimens, led me to some considerations on the cultivation and treatment of plant diseases.

Considerations that I have condensed in the following article an excerpt of which was also published in the British Cactus and Succulent Society newsletter. (…)

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Spots on the stem and rot, here’s what you can do to save sick succulents and cacti

Circumscribed dark spots, yellowish spots, dryness, discoloration of the stems, reddening, small cuts: over time, signs of various kinds and of varying size may appear on the stem of our cacti. In some cases there is nothing to worry about, because they are small wounds caused for example by the thorns of a nearby plant, or because they are simply the signs resulting from the aging of the plant. In other cases, however, it is necessary to intervene immediately, because that spot is perhaps due to some fungal pathology destined to expand until it seriously disfigures or kills the plant. But how to distinguish a harmless thorn prick scar, for example, from dangerous rot? How to understand if that discoloration of the stem is caused by the sudden exposure of the plant to direct sun or by a lack of nutrients, or by the beginning of a fungal attack? And how to intervene to contain the damage or save the plant when the damage has already been confirmed?

This is what we will see in this article, with the help of a series of photographs that portray different situations and different pathologies. Some photos were taken by readers of Il fiore tra le spine and portray their plants: I thank these readers for agreeing to share their photos with me, thus collaborating in the creation of the following article. (…)

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