Hi, I have just been given, what i have been told is a 50 year old Barrel Cactus which has all ways been indoors (possibly in the same pot by the state of it). It is covered in pups, bent and just over a foot tall. A few of the spines are a shade brown, the middle is kinda yellow and the base (which is surrounded in pups) looks to me like it's rotten? I have taken a few photos and put them on photo bucket: http://photobucket.com/selenemourie?albumview=grid I hope somebody could help me out here and let me know if it is a barrel cacti! Thanks Selene
Could indeed be an Echinopsis specie. And these are 7 yr old golden barrel cacti (Echinocactus grusonii): You can find them in our gardens but the most (see picture) in our classical cactus labyrinth. Enjoy Life, (Life is full of cactus but you don't have to sit on it) Yvonne and Herman
Hi there, Thanks for the pointer. I have been looking around online at a few photos and information but there are so many in that species lol. They all look so different so i am still not sure is it is supposed to be yellow and brown. Any more information or care tips would be great. The only picture that looks a little like this is huge but the same colour, What do you think? Link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Echinopsis_werdermannii_1.jpg My plan is to take all the pups of and repot it, is this a sound idea? Thanks Selene
The bases of many cacti will turn brown and get woody as they age. Thats a normal process and nothing to worry about. You can see a very good example of this in the picture you found online. However, I really cant tell if thats whats going on with your cactus. Considering the age, I want to say yes, but it just looks a little wrong. Also, the young cacti coming out of the pot at the bottom look like their stems are yellow and shriveled. Is the tissue soft? Does it look rotted?
I was only given it today from a freecycler in my area. I just had a poke around the base and some of the young cacti are rooted by themselves and a two that were attached to the main stem fell off! The base loohs even darker than the photo but it is rock solid. The soil though is soaking and there was even water in the planter drain dish! The younger plants are shriveled towards their bas and seem a dark yellow colour and very soft. Does this help? Thanks
Your description is excellent. It also confirms a lot of my suspicions. If the base of the main plant is rock solid, then it is probably just the woodiness. The younger plants with the yellow shriveled bases are probably rotting on upwards, though. Personally, I think there is way too much going on in that little pot, and now that you said its soaking wet, thats just going to worsen things some more. I would first empty everything out. Then separate the bigger pups from the main plant. Some of the smaller ones that dont have roots can be left on. I would get a bigger pot and fresh medium and replant the main plant. As for the rotting pups, I would cut the rotted portion off until I reached living tissue and then treat those as cuttings (let the cut heal and plant them separately). Just my 2 cents.
Hi 'The New Guy' Well i have him out of the pot and i could not beleive what i saw! I have attached a couple of photos of what happened. Also of what the base of it looked like once the rooted pups had been moved. Does it look ok? The pups at the base all had their own roots but some were just about attached to the main stem as well as being rooted. The soil was soaked all the way through and some of the roots at the base had rotted away so i think we got to it before it was a complete catastophe! I just hope the poor thing lives through it's major surgery now! As for the little guys at the top i have left them rof now as they seem quite attached and green. I don't knowi if this is best? and i don't know if the poor thing could cope! Thank you for all your help! Selene
It’s always a good idea to repot a plant that you just received from someone else. You have no idea how they took care of it, what they used, what the roots look like, etc. That first picture says that those plants definitely needed to be separated and replanted. In the middle one, try to carefully remove whatever is dead or rotten. And in the third picture, I can see that those pups are actually pretty good. If those roots are living and healthy, you don’t even need to cut anything. The main problem was just too many plants for too small a pot. I’m sure the soil hadn’t been changed in a long time. Don’t be afraid to cut away any questionable material. Cacti are extremely resilient. As long as you don’t overwater, they should be fine. I once had about a foot-and-a-half of the lower trunk of a cactus rot away (probably from too much water), so I just cut the whole trunk above the rotted portion, stuck the healthy part back in the soil, and it continued to grow like nothing ever happened. They are tough! I would move all the already-rooted pups off on their own and away from the main plant. As for the non-rooted (attached) pups, most people cut them off once they get to a certain size, and stick them in some dirt to allow them to root and begin living on their own. Keep in mind that your main plant will continue to produce pups and that the rooted pups will start producing pups of their own, so they may take over your house. Either dispose of the ones you don’t want, start giving them away, or start selling them. Good luck!
Thats great. Thank you. I feel a lot more positive now all the pups are away in seperate pots and that the big'un should grow quite happily in it's new larger pot which has no over crowding problems! I am sure that we will be looking after many many more to come! Again, Thank you for all of your advice today (well this afternoon / evening over here in the UK). We were a little unsure how to tackle what seemed like a mamoth task at first but you put our minds at rest with sound advice. All i have to do now is let it recover for a while and find out what type of Echinopsis it is! Thank again! Selene
It might be too late, but you should try withholding water for about two weeks or so. Then, when you start watering, start very slowly with only a few sprinkles at first. Never overwater. Always remember to let the medium completely dry out in between waterings, and then some. As for finding out the exact species, that might prove to be a very difficult, if not impossible, task. There are quite a few species and plenty of hybrids. But you’ll have to wait for it to bloom in order to do any of that. Post back on this site with pictures of flowers when you get some, and I’m sure someone will be able to identify it for you, as close as possible. The New Guy P.S. Most Echinopsis cacti have extraordinary blooms. You made a great find. If you were in the States, I might have even offered to buy one of your pups.
