fertilising?? of Tephrocactus articulatus papyracanthus

wondering if I should fertilise to get a better colour or is this the correct colour of the body for this cactus.some online pics show it to be greener.. plant had been growing outdoors and probably had no fertilizing for some time.
Im hopeful for flowers as the stacks get higher and they are growing OK. still in same soil that it came in and Ive just put the damaged original pot into a stronger pot for fear of knocking off the top of the plant. Some of the smaller plants have smaller spines, does anyone know the ID of these .Cheers

Yes they are usually greener. Loathe to say it as cacti aren't too fond of Nitrogen feed, but looks like it might need a dose of Nitrogen to green it up a bit. See what others say first though. I may be wrong.

Lois they look fine to me from that shot

If it wasn't dark I would take a photo of mine but better still I will find pic of Bruce's.

The green you can see is a thistle growing behind it. They are really a sort of browny grey. This one of Bruces was taken at the end of December and you can see the new growth is quite brown.




The smaller ones are also a tephrocactus but don't have a name for mine either

finally found a pic online of the flower thanks for the quick replies. Lois
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/113274/

Must be more green in youth and more greyish in maturity. Never had too much luck with the genus, groovy plants though

Very nice Lois. It looks fine to me... actually, it looks bloody brilliant. I admire anyone who can grow these to over three stories high, something I haven't been able to achieve as yet

Lois saw Bruce today and we were discussing this and looking at his different aged plants and the colour does vary.

If grown in a greenhouse they are going to be quite green compared to ones outside

The smaller one he has named as tephrocactus articulatus and it seems to be right

Gracie yours are fine. actually your specimen is a beauty. the colouring is perfectly natural. feed it next spring to get some good growth happening.

Stutters wrote:

It looks fine to me... actually, it looks bloody brilliant. I admire anyone who can grow these to over three stories high, something I haven't been able to achieve as yet

haha EXACTLY!! the most fragile cactus you can get! i average 2-3 segments tall before the inevitable collapse. good for propagating though.