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Cacti & Succulents

Regarding Epis, specifically night blooming cereus (photos).

16 years ago

I have it in a plastic pot, I got a cutting of it last summer. The plant did fantastic last summer and is still alive (GASP!) for me this winter. I only water it sparingly when the leaves start looking a bit wrinkled.

Ok, so when should I repot it?

It's in plastic, not sure if this is a good thing to grow it in, but so far it's not complaining/dying.

Also, it seems to have shrunken leaf spot type things on the leaves. I have heard they are really susceptible to that sort of thing.

Should I spray it with anything? Should I cut off the offending leaves?

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Comments (4)

gardenbear1
16 years ago
mersiepoo, your oxypetallum night blooming cereus is fine in a plastic pot, I have all mine in plastic pots and there doing fine, if you don't like the looks of the leaf cut it off but then let it dry for a few day and start a new plant.the wrinkled leaf could be from under watering or its sitting in a draft. your potting mix should drain well so its not left sitting in water.I can't tell what kind of soil your using but if it not draining that could be the reason for the wrinkled leaf, your oxy can stay in that pot until it becomes pot bound or to tall for the pot to hold it up right then I would go to the next size up about 1 or 2 inches bigger,right now my big one is in a 5 gal pot and it will be repotted this fall into a 10 gal pot. here are pic of my two oldest oxy's the first pic. is of the small one last summer about 4ft. tall and the second pic is the tall one about 6ft. both in bloom, I find if you use plastic pot you just have to watch your watering and they will do good. I find there easy to care for and have lots less problems than other epiphyte that I grow. and it also helps to mist them once in a while
Bear

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mersiepoo
Original Author
16 years ago
Wow, your plants look booootiful!! :) Thanks for the info, but mostly I was wondering what that leaf spot could be, they are sort of sunken leaf spots, should I spray them with something to get rid of them?

Thanks! :)
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Thanks for the help, but now I have more questions! After getting this plant from my neighbor and figuring out what it was, I became interested in the species. I then swapped some other stuff for an oxypetalum (which hasn't bloomed yet). The leaf tips of the oxypetalum I got are rounded. The leaf tips on this one, as you can see, come to a point. I live in Tampa, and it's been excruciatingly hot this year. The plant hangs under a tree (I only brought it in to watch flowers open). The first night one opened, I had it inside my bedroom and there wasn't much fragrance at all. If I shoved my nose directly into the flower, I got a small wiff, that's all. I know there are millions of epi hybrids, some white. Are there different types of oxypetalums too? If this is the oxy, what's the other one I have with the rounded tips? Lori
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gardenbear1
16 years ago
the only thing I spray my oxy with is a soap and water mix to get rid of any mealy bugs if they start to show up, other than that I just mist them. I have a few spots like yours and they don't seem to hurt the plant unless they become mushy but in your case I wouldn't worry to much, I still don't know why those spots show up on some leaves and not others. they seem to do better with a misting a few times aweek. yours should start to bloom in about 3 years or maybe sooner who knows with oxypetallum I had one bloom the first year and then didn't bloom for 4 years.have fun watching it grow and as it does you will learn its likes and dislikes

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mersiepoo
Original Author
16 years ago
Thank you for all the info Bear! I appreciate it a lot!

I'm just so paranoid about leaf spots on any of my plants. :) Are they easy to propagate? Do they typically have to get a certain size before they flower? Hopefully since I gave it some cold nights and cut back on watering a bit it'll set some buds someday. :)

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