16 May 2009
A broken Leuchtenbergia
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Pests & Diseases .
I have a good number of adult plants of Leuchtenbergia principis; it’s one of my favourite species of cactus. I’m not sure why, as it’s an unprepossessing, scruffy-looking thing. It’s probably because it has lots of personality.
I found a few years back that the more water I gave them when they’re in full growth, the happier they are.
Giving them a similar watering regime to fraileas generally stops the tubercles drying up and encourages them to flower beautifully. You can’t really overwater leuchtenbergias as long as they’re in a very free-draining growing medium. This plant started looking peaky about halfway through last year, and I foolishly didn’t unpot it and check what was wrong.
Through the autumn and winter, it gradually shed more and more tubercles. When I did get to unpotting it a few weeks back, I realised that it must have lost its roots a good long while ago. I didn’t repot it when I bought it a couple of years ago – and the compost it was in turned out not to be terribly airy, which could have been the cause. There is definitely life at the centre of the plant, and the thickened roots are sound. I’m hopeful that now it’s sitting under artificial lights in a nice warm heated propagator tray it will think about rerooting.
Certainly a cursory lesson in taking notice of what your plants are trying to tell you!