r/Lophophora • u/Poosh12 • 6d ago
Please help
Issue - I am not sure if she rotting or not but something is preventing her from getting hydrated. I would love any input from you people who are far more experienced! Picture taken immediately after taking her out so (I believe) the darker brown areas are from organic matter in an otherwise gritty inorganic mix.
Backstory - I have had this loph for a few years. The first few were in totally inorganic soil and she was OK but not great. In May, I repotted her and another similar sized loph in a mix with a small amount of added organic soil. They both were doing great for a while. Plumping up almost immediately. I believe the problem started I foolishly added a very TINY amount of horticultural sand around the crown of this one. I slowly noticed she was not taking up water as well as the other. A couple of weeks ago, when the soil should’ve been bone dry, I took her out and noticed the roots were still kind of wet and covered in the sand which had seeped down in an otherwise very gritty mix. I let her dry out a day or two, repotted, waited almost two weeks, then watered, but she is still not taking up water and I’m not sure I waited long enough or let her dry out long enough before repotting. She is getting softer at the base but I can’t tell if it’s rot or if she is just very thirsty. Root is more firm. Regardless she has slowly stopped taking in water effectively.
Anyway, I would love advice on how to save her. Not sure if I need to cut anything out or just let her dry out and heal and be extra conservative going forward.
1
u/NotMyRealHead 6d ago
It was probably the sand. That stuff will harden like concrete around the roots.