Orange rot/rust beginning on the skin. WARNING: Some viewers may find distressing

Well it looks like a few of my larger grafted cacti are beginning to show signs of a fungal disease. The disease is causing a red "Rust" like discolouration of the skin and small patches are beginning to fall in. I have treated them with Sulphor and Chopper Oxychloride and this seems to have stopped the damage.

At first I thought mites but I treated them with a miticide and this only made thigns worse. So I figure it must be fungal.

It looks like the plants will survive but that are badly scarred.

Any thoughts or exprience ?

Doesnt sound like fungal disease HN. Does it start out as a lil orange or white dot? If so it is more likely the work of Chelinidea vittiger The cactus bug or some such sucking insect pest. I regularly see the wounds where they have been feeding on some of my trichocereus plants but they are never really a problem. A few of my TBMs were hit when i shifted them into the shadehouse a few weeks back and caused a bit of damage but that is the worst it has been.
As for control i have no idea, i only really worry about using pesticides when things are out of hand..... cept for slugs, those buggers get impaled on a bridgesii spine and placed on a nice comfy lil bed of salt.

I don't think its Chelinidea vittiger. The plants are all inside my grow room and I think I have figured the problem. Due to the colder wether I have blocked off most of the ventilation to keep the warm air in. Problem I am creating a perfect environment for rot.

I will post a pic tomorrow and you will see what i'm talkiing about. I'm 99% sure it is what people call rust. Certainly does not look like the work of a bug I have ever seen, except maybe spider mite and i'm 100% sure its not them little buggers.

Check this post out over at The Nook. Mine looks pretty much the same as that, but worse.....much worse.

http://www.thenook.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=53172&hl=rot+skin

I too have unfortunately lost a couple of cacti to orange rot already since the cold weather, nothing too special, but a little dissapointing. Is there any chance of posting a pic or two?

Quote :

..... cept for slugs, those buggers get impaled on a bridgesii spine and placed on a nice comfy lil bed of salt.

PD you sadist!!!

haha

Yeah mate I will post a pic tomorrow.

Have a lophophora that developed a
sunken orange thing - kind of rot. I watched it for a while wondering what to
do. It seemed to start just below the surface as a slight orange
discolouration, then the flesh around the areole would get this orange crust and
the flesh would sink in... Sounds great... anyway I decided to use some nasty
chemicals and it seems to have dried up. I used Bunnings - 'pest spray' a three
in one product containing

1 Insecticide
2 Fungicide
3 Miticide

a systemic chemical

it seems to have dried up and growth continues..... Yay



Have a lophophora that developed a
sunken orange thing - kind of rot. I watched it for a while wondering what to
do. It seemed to start just below the surface as a slight orange
discolouration, then the flesh around the areole would get this orange crust and
the flesh would sink in... Sounds great... anyway I decided to use some nasty
chemicals and it seems to have dried up. I used Bunnings - 'pest spray' a three
in one product containing

1 Insecticide
2 Fungicide
3 Miticide

a systemic chemical

it seems to have dried up and growth continues..... Yay

Mine started exactly the same as Watertrade's did above and as of today is diseased the rot was al the way through the centre. Such a waste.

This is a picture of the same graft on the 9th of April:










Now a few pics from today:





It looked bad so I cut it open to find out:

wow.. thats pretty nasty... and fatal by the looks of it. ( do you think? )

i'm going to have to find a systemic fungicide for mine. I don't want that.
i noticed a little spek of orange on one of my other grafts too....

Yeah I have about 6 larger grafts that have tiny orange speck. I trated them all first with a liquid fungicide (systemic) and then dusted with sulphor and copper olxychloride. I hope it works.

And yes that was fatal. It was hard throwing it away !!! i didn't take a pic but there was even more rot near the core than what you can see.

what was the fungicide you used?

The chemical is Potassium phosphite, it is found in a few commercial products. I used Yates Anti Rot just because I had it lying around. I'm not sure how effective it will be, I used it last year on seedlings and had no problems. Time will tell.

Definitely looks like orange rot. Very nasty stuff. Sorry to see your graft go to waste. Unfortunately I guess it happens to all of us once or twice (hopefully not more than that). Seems strange that a graft would get such a nasty infection. Especially on such a rot resitant cactus as Pereskiopsis. My understanding is that grafting reduces the risk of rot etc. in rot prone cacti (unless the union came in contact with some pathogen, not that hard when you think about all the airbourne stuff we can't even see). My only thought is that possibly there was some kind of pathogen laying dormant within the graft union. When the weather changed and you reduced airflow it's quite possible that the pathogen awoke and decimated the scion. Is the stock effected at all?

I wonder if you kept slicing till there was no rot and dusted it with sulphur if it would heal over and maybe pups would then grow. I have seen this done in other cactus namely an astrophytum sp(can't think of its name) that was grafted

Trig,

The stock is not effected at all only the scion. I have no idea how it happened, altho it appears as if it definetly started on the skin and once it weakened the skin it was able to get inside.

Betty,

I just cut my losses and got rid of it as I have a few other plants I'm worried about. I don't want it spreading. But I think it may be too late

Hellonasty wrote:

Trig,


I just cut my losses and got rid of it as I have a few other plants I'm worried about. I don't want it spreading. But I think it may be too late

hmmm don't say that! I'm hoping to save mine!. :bball:

Got any updated pics ? It would be good to show how it develops so people can avoid our miss fortune in the future.

I have done some reading and think this could be 'Fusarium oxysporum' which would certainly suit my growing conditions. Very moist (wet) and often following a scarid fly problem... It seems to cause the same problems for 'christmas cacti' growers.
any thoughts?

WT,

Yep I rekn you got it. I had a pretty bad fungus gnat problem last christmas and I forogt to treat my plants for bacteria. I had a look around and the damage caused by said fungus is consistant with what I got. It lives in the soil so I would suggest doing a soil drench with a fungiside.

Fingers crossed for the rest of my plants.

HT what would you recommend to treat bacteria for your cacti? I think I better treat my greenhouse before I lose too many plants.

Cheers.

Isn't fusarium 'agent orange'?

It causes 'wilt' in several plants and trees.

I assume it affects cacti to.

Is it controllable?

Trig,

By HT I think you mean me ?? Anyway I will answer it. I'm not sure everyone should worry too much but, I think I remmber you having a fungus gnat problem too trig. If you did then I would suggest making up a solution of water and a good fungicide. Do the plants and a soil drench.

As I said earlier I have used Potassium phosphite a systemic fungicide with the addition of Sulphor and Copper Oxychlorite. A mate of mine uses Mancozeb and says its pretty good but i'm not very exprienced with fungicides.

Yeah meant you mate, sorry not sure why I wrote "HT". Yeah had a bit of f ungus gnat problem, they have died off with the cold, but wouldn't want to lose any really valuable cacti.

I have some fongarid, maybe I should use that? No, I don't know much about them either, prefer not to have to use them really, but might be a good idea.

I was going to get some fongarid and give it a go - a very systemic fungicide apparently.
and it comes in a 'serious' looking packet.