Posted:  12 Feb 2016 18:38
Registered User Join Date: Feb 2016	Posts:  4 Reputation: Unranked User Rank: 1 - Seedling
I have a customer who called me to take a look at his cactus. Our interiorscape company does not deal with cactus often and I'm familiar with corky growth they can sometimes get but this is something else. They get very good light for being indoors, but his assistant has been watering it for about two years and although new growth seems to be forming at the tops, the bottom of this huge thing is flaking all over the place and seems to be dry/dying. There are also swirls of what look like bacterial (?) infection of some kind as well. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Posted:  12 Feb 2016 18:39
Registered User Join Date: Feb 2016	Posts:  4 Reputation: Unranked User Rank: 1 - Seedling
I tried to upload photos that I took but they don't seem to be loading...

Posted:  13 Feb 2016 02:20
Registered User Join Date: Feb 2016	Posts:  4 Reputation: Unranked User Rank: 1 - Seedling

Posted:  15 Feb 2016 15:48
Registered User Currently Offline Join Date: Jan 2011	Posts:  798 Reputation:  43 User Rank: 10 - Blossom
Your client's cactus appears to be a "walking dead" specimen...it's dead, but it doesn't quite know it yet.  Most of the tissue in the photos died long ago, and the few areas of green tissue that are visible are just hanging on temporarily, living off the moisture that is in those tissues because they no longer have any connection to a living root system.  If the dead areas shown in the images are localized to a relatively small area of the plant, they can be cut off and the "healthy" remaining parts may survive, but its decorative usefulness as an interior plant specimen is over.

Posted:  07 Mar 2016 21:45
Registered User Join Date: Feb 2016	Posts:  4 Reputation: Unranked User Rank: 1 - Seedling
Yikes, that's pretty much what I suspected, Clem, but I'm glad to have heard it from someone else. Thanks for your reply!

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