{"id":9036,"date":"2021-12-20T18:11:08","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T17:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ilfioretralespine.it\/?p=9036"},"modified":"2023-12-21T12:04:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T11:04:08","slug":"etiolation-cactus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ilfioretralespine.it\/en\/etiolation-cactus\/","title":{"rendered":"When the cactus \u201cspins\u201d: what is etiolation, how to prevent it and contain the damage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An etiolated cactus is a plant with an unnatural habit and which has suffered from a more or less serious lack of light. The phenomenon is unfortunately irreversible but it is possible to prevent etiolation and stop it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who hasn’t happened at least once to observe in some office, apartment or even non-specialized nurseries (or garden) those cone-shaped cacti with thin spines and pale green stem? Cacti with a rounded base and an elongated apex, tapered to the point of giving the plant an almost pyramidal shape<\/strong>. The novice grower may think that is the normal bearing of the plant, but the grower with some experience – or even just a critical mind – usually is horrified at such plants. If anything, he or she may be saddened, because he or she knows full well that that is not the normal bearing of the cacti at all, but simply the outcome of what is technically called “etiolation” or, commonly, “spinning.”<\/strong> By the way, the photos above and those accompanying this article are of plants in a nursery and not mine, I want to make that clear right away!<\/p>\n

Why does this fate happen to some cacti? How to avoid cactus etiolation<\/strong> and how to distinguish it from normal growth or from growth that is simply dissimilar to normal? Is it possible to remedy the damage caused by spinning on a cactus? We answer these questions in the following article. (…)<\/p>\n

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Let us first clarify that cactus<\/strong> etiolation is a phenomenon that affects not only cacti, but all botanical families<\/strong>. If anything, the problem with cacti is that it is generally an arrestable but, unfortunately, irreversible process. If in leafy plants, shrubs and trees in general it\u2019s indeed possible to remedy by perhaps even drastically pruning the “spindly” branches, in cacti there is little that can be done to restore the plant to its original state. The reason is obvious: cacti develop through single or at most suckered and only rarely branched bodies (think of some candelabra-like cereus), but on the whole the shape of the stem is the shape of the plant, is its appearance. It is one and the same in short. That’s why effectively remedying etiolation is very difficult: you can bring the plant back to an acceptable condition, but if the phenomenon has affected drastically, returning to the original form will be impossible<\/strong>. I will discuss this in more detail later.<\/p>\n

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