what a nightmare.. lol ... first... she bought it in dormancy ... its coming out of dormancy ... due to being too hot indoors .... it thinks its spring.. and it aint in my z5 .... fresh new growth is usually limp like that ... that doesnt bother me... but if she is hyper watering.. thinking its drooping because it needs more water.. she will rot the roots off .... trees like it pretty dry ... a drink and near drying before another sip ... also.. indoors.. in winter.. in z5.. there can be sever humidity issues ... due to forced air furnaces.. and such ... running 24/7 .... but they are full sun plants.. and it really doesnt matter how often she turns it.. or anything else she does.. it will never get the light it needs unless she puts it under lights.. and that still isnt going to work for long .. as the lights would need to be a few inches from the plant ... and that is hard to do with a tall plant like this ... i hope she isnt fertilizing it.. that wont help either ... right after xmas.. it should have gone out in a garage.. to maintain dormancy ... too late for that.. and she just might save it.. if she can harden it off properly.. and get it in mother earth this spring... in my z5.. that would be around late april or so.. after a few weeks in the garage to harden it off to outside temps.. and then to harden it off to sun .. and of course.. she has no where to do that in an apartment.... we get these problems after every xmas.... the plants are sold cheap.. as disposable xmas trees... and the uninitiated.. struggle to understand that they arent houseplants ... there were things that might have helped a month ago or so.. it may be too late.. but whatever happens.. she will learn some things.. and maybe do it right next time... ken ps: the fiber pot isnt helping indoors either.. its wicking water from the media... again.. probably due to the heating/humidity issue mentioned above ... and.. i bet its in horrible media... if not sand ...

I've finally read this entirely entertaining, sometimes scary, oft-times useful thread, and it is giving me further ideas for the future guest room. Alas, no room for more than one twin or a double bed -- so no two twins. Otherwise, I love the idea of a bench at the base of the bed (may adopt that in the MBR, too!) Really cool idea to provide a covered water pitcher and a couple of water tumblers! Snacks, not so much unless I know they have a specific fondness for certain things -- if they don't eat them, I likely never will, since I don't do candy or protein bars. The guests will be in the room closest to the kitchen - a bowl of fruit on the counter is never amiss. A bookcase with a variety of reading material, but that would have happened anyway! (I decorate in Book.) A phone is a good idea -- where I'm moving to has dodgy cell connections. (There will be good wi-fi access throughout the house, however. And an easy to reach light from the bed, so guests can read in bed -- that's always been a must!) They will have their own door to the front porch. If they're staying any length of time, they'll even get a key... The room will be pet free, door closed so no fur to annoy those with allergies -- the cats have litter in the basement so no need to worry about that one! (Gawd!) The most annoying thing I find when I stay at other homes is often the Plethora Of Pillows on a bed (perhaps because it happens SOOO often!!!). Except for the two to sleep on, the rest are meant to be decorative, but frankly, I never know where to toss the excess when I want to sleep, especially in those small rooms with extra knickknacks! I feel awkward about putting them on the floor, but hey if you must -- maybe simply one or two small decorative pillows would be just fine??? The guest bath will have a supply of towels, various meds (aspirin, benedryl, caladryl, Naprosyn, cold meds), soaps, shampoos, TP, and the rest of the usual, along with a plunger just in case (thanks for the idea!). For extra folks -- I do have a surprisingly comfy sofa bed in the living room, or I can volunteer to take that and let the extra guests take my room -- fresh bedding of course! EDIT: ps, I have had some one-time horrors -- the outstanding one was back in my college youth when we went to a house somewhere and we all slept wherever. I ended up mostly under the kitchen table in a blanket, finally getting to sleep when it was quiet enough at around 3 am, waking up around 5 or 6 am (for good) when the cat jumped off the table and onto my head. Oh, the party was over at about 1 am, but suddenly a couple of the other people there decided to get amorous on the other side of the room.... unfortunately there was really no other place for me to go, and in those early days I didn't have enough gumption to make them cut it out. (The shut up and don't make waves thing -- I'm Over that!)

I know this is an old thread, but it set me on a path of sheet mulching after exhausting most avenues (including chemicals). I have used two layers of heavy duty cardboard under 3" to 4" of cedar mulch with great success. Any gap or crack the Bermuda will get through. So really, the cardboard is 4 layers thick in places. This is heavy duty cardboard that I purchased at big box store and it is labeled as such. Also I collected from packages and any place I could get my hands on it. Thin cardboard and paper will not work. Raised beds have been used to grow vegetable crops year round (tunnels in the winter). There are spots here and there where it comes up. I use a garden fork to get down to the roots, remove as much as I can and then layer back some more cardboard/mulch. Most of the grass we do fight is on the borders. The places in the middle of what was the lawn is always on the top of mulch and comes up easily. Portions of this cardboard/mulch has been converted to meadow by direct sowing on the mulch and no Bermuda has appeared. This was done 4 years after that area was covered (just when we got around to doing it). No chemical has ever been used (except when it WAS a lawn). The back yard is 75' x 35' and was half common Bermuda and the other section was Tiff Eagle mixed with Princess 77. The Tiff and Princess 77 were much easier to deal with and no sign of them. The common Bermuda is just a weed at this point. We have started our front yard in the same manner and look forward to a meadow with micro clover path/borders. We hardly see June bugs (sorry, do not know the scientific name of them) due to far less white grubs. Skunks, which like the grubs, are no longer digging up the yard. Earthworms are in abundance (they like the cardboard). We have cut our water bill to 1/3 of what it was. We no longer need to apply all the chemicals to keep the lawn green and pristine. I still like a good swath of turf, but I will leave that to the golf courses and sporting fields (time and money). Long post of rambling, but my two cents. I know it is somewhat costly to do this, but it was still cheaper than the water bill for a summer and the chemical additions. Far cheaper.

I think the dying center might be a red herring. The tough outer skin of many cacti will hold up a long time after the plant has died, giving the illusion that the plant is still alive even as the xylem and phloem are rotting away inside the shell. I used to find completely dried out cacti in AZ all the time, just a hollow shell that often looked alive, or still stood even though the color had gone out of them. What caused their deaths, I don't know. They were wild cacti, or at least outdoor cacti, and none were mine. The threads of web you mention can be left by some species of spider mites. Not all leave webbing, but some do. Some spider mites can be invisible to the naked eye. I had a couple of plants get them and the first was infected for about 5 months before I finally figured out what was wrong with it. I would think that spider mite damage would appear on the surface long before a cactus died from it though. Are these indoor or outdoor cacti? How long have you had them? How long have you been growing cacti. Can you upload some photos of the root systems of affected plants, the soil of affected plants, etc? Is the outer shell that's left dry, or is there still some moisture in it?