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Cacti & Succulents

Barrel Cactus in need of some help!

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

Hi guys, I’ve had this barrel cactus for over 4 years now and it was recently dropped. :( When it was dropped one of its arms broke off but it was otherwise ok. It began to scab over and was looking great. Now the area where the cactus started to scab has some arms that have began to turn brown! He’s also shrunk significantly! :( I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if i should figure out how to cut this section off?

I’d love anyone’s insight! I’d hate to throw in the towel! It also doesn’t have any root rot! Pictures attached!

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Comments (2)

Stefan
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Its not a barrel cactus(fero/echinocactus), it is a mammilaria

The tip is etiolated due to a severe lack of light.

The new tissue is therefore weak and rot prone...
Polypompholyx
5 years ago
Those are called tubercles instead of arms. Unfortunately I see some dead tubercles on the side and the tubercles on the top have yellow bases which may be caused by rot or just not enough sunlight. I think the center top of your cactus may have rotted because the impact from the fall squished it. If the center top is rotten then I guess you could try cutting off the top and dusting the remaining base with cinnamon powder to discourage further rot but I think your cactus might be done.
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I had a large parodia magnifica do this two falls ago. I cut it and let it dry all winter in my garage winnow sill. Then, since it looked a little rough and dry, I just set it on top of the soil in one of the gardens. There it sat all last summer until right before frost I yanked it only to see that though it did start to form roots, they were all over the bottom ring of the healed area, and were very short and stubby. It's still sitting in a plastic ice-cream bucket in my garage still today... Maybe this year I'll put it in a pot. Good luck Chris
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Jeff, That's okay, I just wanted to be sure I understood you correctly. Thanks for the clarification. Kittie, "Worm like thing"? I think a picture of before you removed the scabs would have helped (as you stated), as that sounds perplexing and I'm not even sure what to think the "scabs" were. I've never seen scale with a "worm like thing" coming from the center, so it doesn't sound like scale (as Jeff also stated). I hope that whatever your cactus had, it's gone for good. Planto
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