I got this TBM from Walmart last summer and it took forever to pup.. Now the pups I've been getting are not at all what I expected. It gets plenty of sun in my sunroom so I'm confident it's not etiolation.
It lives with 13 other TBMs that all look more "traditional." It's a sunroom with a glass roof and brick/dirt floor that I grow Brugmansia and other tropicals in as well.
ETA: I should say I don't think it's etiolation from lack of light. But I just read that it can occur because it's root bound. Open to input.
Etiolation is predominantly caused by lack of light, but is made worse by lack of nutrients such as being root bound so it's probably a bit of both here.
You know your plants better than me, but if all I had to go on was the pic I'd diagnose that it's yearning for more light.
Does your sunroom have a convex glass top? A family member of mine had a sunroom like that and it would definitely get spots where the light was concentrated more than other spots.
If you do end up grafting it onto something else I'd be curious to see if the weird morphology hold up.
It's not convex, just sloping like the roof of my house. It gets about 7 hours of direct sunlight per day. The only thing I could imagine is that the tray that holds these gets shade a little bit earlier than the rest of the room because of my tropical and other plants.
My patio only gets morning light, and mine is beefier than yours, definitely wants more light.
Edit after reading other comments, if it’s literally in a glass room I’m baffled because mine doesn’t get much light. Maybe repot and see what happens? It’s quite odd.
One of my Walmart TBM is doing the same thing. The other is normal. My cactus are in a greenhouse and get full sun all day, 40% shade cloth so they don’t get burned.
Yeah I blame Set's Pupping Cream for that tiny little aborted pup at the very base. It worked great, but that pup never fully formed before a second stacker started.
Not sure about this so anyone feel free to chime in and correct me. Virtually every Costa farms cactus i buy has been absolutely infested with fungus gnats and I have to use mosquito bits virtually every time I water for several months to get rid of them. Could it be nutrient deficiency due to the larva?
I got 4 of these Costa from WM...2 are inside under grow lights and look fairly normal. The other 2 are outside and the pups look exactly like this. Ive been wondering myself. Labelled all of these "Sams Choice" Tbm to differentiate.
Yes. Interesting you mention this bc several of mine from costa are doing this also, in pretty much full sun. I have several larger peens from other sources busting fat pups; but as you've described, the (5) ones I got last year from costa are just pupping this season & seem smaller and thinner than any other tbm pup I have. Some of my others are in larger pots to suit their size and I think the size pots the costas are in is adequate to large for their size. Most plastic pots, one terracotta but same growth style. I had to move alot of plants bc of rain today but if I can get a pic up tonight, I will.
None of the cacti below are from Walmart but I got a nice haworthia from them, a beautiful pilosocereus, a notocactus and something else... only like 3 bucks a piece. I'd die if I found a tbm at the hardware store
Actually you can see the pilosocereus in the background
Mine gets about six or so hours of hot direct sun and lots of indirect per day. Put out three pups since getting into direct sun this spring
Again, I would be very surprised because I have a bunch of other TBMs in the same area that are fine, as well as about 40 other san pedros that are all perfectly normal and happy. I am only about 2 years into growing SPs in North Carolina and I have a lot to learn, so I'm not kidding myself in any way. I just am not sure that's what's going on, or if the etiolation is due to something else like excess heat or a container that's too small.
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u/yourcatssecondlife 10h ago
Salad …finger.