my painfull friends

[blaasjeskruid18]

Hello,

today I saw some cheap Cacti (€0,80 each) at my florist. I'm wondering what species they are, and what species my old cacti are. Here some pics:

Cactus 1:

Cactus 2:

together:

My old cacti (It isn't healty at the moment, just look at it. Has someone advise?) :

Big momma :

The others are growing normally, but any advise for better grow and/or more healty plants is welcome.

Edited April 20, 2013 by blaasjeskruid18

[Marlon]

the soil looks quite wet for cacti

[tom499]

I agree. I hope theres plenty of sand in that mix.

[Gaz]

I'm not a 100% certain but the one in the second picture could be Mammillaria Berkiana...

My word, they are wet. The ones in the 5th & 6th pictures look as though they are rotting from over watering. As Marlon and Tom suggest, cutting down on the water and increasing the amount of mineral material (pumice/grit/sand etc) in the compost might save them. If all else fails you could try to "reroot" them by cutting off the roots and rotted material, letting the cut surface dry for a week or so then put in a free draining compost. This is a bit drastic and not something I've done myself but there should be stuff on YouTube about it. If you can't find anything there let me know and I'll have a look on the cactus forum for you.

Good luck.

[blaasjeskruid18]

It is quite wet indeed, When I maked the foto's I gave them water. The last time was 4 months ago (It was a litte bit water, but maybe as you say it was too much this time). The substrate is a special cacti mix. I Think the big one needs amputation. Does the little one not die if I'm gonna give him a amputation?

PS, the cactus on the last foto is 3 years old en the big one is even 7 years old.

Edited April 21, 2013 by blaasjeskruid18

[blaasjeskruid18]

I just threw my little cactus away, that one on the last picture. I cut the big one:

The soil was very dry, which was very surprising. I hope he would survive. When the cactus has dried I'm gonna plant it in a cactus medium.

[Carnivine]

I think the plant in pictures 2 & 3 are Mammillaria Bombycina.

[Gaz]

Is your cactus medium home made or special so-called 'Cactus Compost' from a garden centre? Many of the cacti-people consider the bought stuff contains too much organic material and your last 2 pictures do look as though they might benefit from some extra inorganic material for drainage....just imho of course.

[maxxima]

I agree with Gaz. I am also using a "Cactus Mix" product from the garden centre but you should mix some perlite or some other inorganic material while using these products. My mix is %50 cactus mix and %50 perlite. You can probably use less perlite but this ratio has worked well for me so far.

[blaasjeskruid18]

When I cutted my cactus, the soil was feeling very drie. The cacti grew 2,5 years in the soil. The tip about perlite is very helpfull, but the soil doesn't look like normal potting soil. but it is from a garden center.

Edited April 22, 2013 by blaasjeskruid18

[glishy]

I don't know what they are called, but our neighbors used to have them lining their property line. My cousin fell in them once while we were kicking about the football. Quite painful, I remember a whole lot of crying and plucking out needles.