Close up of spots

Freaking out! 24 hour and the spots have tripled! And there's heaps more. Please help someone :(

Another closer shot.

Elle,

Any chance it got cold and was wet? It's fungal, and I'm thinking a removal from soil for a few days and repotting into a porous mix would be good for it. I'd guess it's not fatal, just disfiguring.

Maybe cold, not wet. I've only watered twice in 6 weeks, but it is winter here, and he lives outside at night. It is in a mix of 40% c&s soil, 40-50% perlite and a bit of course river sand, really course. The weathers been ok, 20-25 C during the day, much colder at night but I don't think anything colder then 5C. I got it from a locally grower, so it should be used to the weather.....

I might try garden sulfur as it's an antifungal. Maybe mixing and spraying could help halt the progress......

I went and bought an fungicide and gave it a good hit. And he is in quarenteen. It's just spreading so quickly, so hope this helps :/

Hi Misselle!

I have only grown a few cacti, so I am not an expert by any means, but I was interested in your photos so I just did some quick research on your plant. Two things about its recommended care that stood out to me were "ample heat with lots of airflow." Maybe it doesn't get enough airflow when inside, and not enough heat when outside (or even inside)? It does seem odd, though, given you got it from a local grower - although if it was in a greenhouse that would possibly mean it got more heat.

The other thing I saw was do not water during winter, and be sure if growing indoors that the plant gets ample, full sun. It also said that although it can tolerate lower temps, it must be sheltered from winter winds. Finally, it does not like being repotted. So, it could just be that several conditions combined are giving you trouble right now and that's why the plant is struggling. I bet if you treat it with an anti fungal, stop watering it and make sure it gets lots of sun, it will start to recover.

Again, I haven't grown this plant myself, but I hope some of that info might help you account for what's happened.

Good luck!

Thanks spapa :-) It does live outside in full sun, which I'm guessing It's always been in, from the old scaring. I did have to repot it when I got it cause it was over growing the pot, but I did follow all the standard rules, no watering etc. Anyway I've no idea where it picked this big up from, but hopefully I've got it in time :-)

Update, things are not looking good :( Just has it at the locally garden centre in town. The guy was very helpful, but unfortunately we came up with nothing. I have been treating it with a fungicide and a systemic but no luck.

And some more good news, even though It's been I'm quarteen I just found my rhipsalis is infected too :( I'm carefully going over all of my plants now to double check everything is free of these damned orange spots! Seriously bummed :(

I'm so sorry to hear that! It has definitely progressed, what a bummer :( It sounds like you've done everything you can for it. It's interesting that your other plant is infected despite being quarantinedâ¦are the plants in the same soil? Makes me wonder if you got an infected batch

Yes, that is something I'm assessing as well. Unfortunately there are also two others with the same spots :( Really not good.

I wonder if, since we're questioning the soil, it would be better to remove everything from the mix and then try to treat with the fungicide. Since they can live so long outside of soil it might be something to try.

I think that might be my next step. I went and bought one of the stronger fungicides available so now It's wait and see for a couple of days, then try something else. I've been questioning the soil, but the plants that are affected are in different mixes, so I'm not sure that's where It's coming from. Aparently a coulpe of years ago here in Australia we has a bit of a rust epidemic where the fungus mutated and grew resistant to most fungicides, the one I bought the other day was made at the time to combat that specific strain, so we shall see.... Hopefully I'm aiming in the right direction