1 December 2007
Turb rescue!
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Pests & Diseases; Propagation .
A couple of months ago I bought the remainder of a collection of Turbinicarpus, and although most plants made the journey by post unscathed, a few suffered in the process. Whether the plants were already unwell, or affected by damp or cold in transit, I’ll never know, but this Turbinicarpus pseudomacrochele was among four plants whose roots were badly affected by rot when I unwrapped them, the others being a T. klinkerianus which was beyond redemption, another T. pseudomacrochele, and a T. lophophoroides. More of the latter two later.
At a first glance the plant pictured above looked to be in good health, with an excellent example of the huge taproot that the species devotes a lot of its energy to producing.
As I potted it up though, I noticed that the taproot felt squelchy. Further investigation revealed some brown rot tissue; at that point I knew it would need surgery but wasn’t sure how much. After setting about it with a sharp knife it was soon obvious that the whole taproot had to come off, leaving just the main body of the plant.
Many growers dust cut surfaces of cacti with either sulphur or hormone rooting powder. I must admit I have never bothered. I find that as long as the patient is left cut-side-up in a well-ventilated place then cuts will dry off without any trouble and be ready to be left sitting on some dry compost in a relatively short space of time.
I left this Turbinicarpus for about two weeks to callus, and then left it with the cut surface downwards in the dry compost in the base of my electric propagator.
Being both nosey and impatient, about a month later I lifted it up out of curiosity and was greeted by the sight of the three strong little roots you can see in the photo on the left. And this in the middle of November!
I’m surprised that this plant has rallied round so quickly, although apart from their tendency to burst if overwatered at the beginning of the season, I find Turbinicarpus to be fairly sturdy little things.
The other T. pseudomacrochele is following suit, and there are new roots forming - although at the moment they’re only just visible. The T. lophophoroides hasn’t put any effort in yet, but it’s formed a nice callus and I’m reasonably confident it’ll put roots out when it’s good and ready.
One Comment so far...
Blossfeldiana » Turbinicarpus pseudomacrochele update Says:
14 February 2008 at 4:00 pm.
[...] I described the re-rooting of a plant of Turbinicarpus pseudomacrochele. If not, you can see it here ; I’m pleased to say that the plant is now putting out the beginnings of new tap roots all [...]