Hello, my daughter has a cactus that she loves. We noticed the tip of the pink top has started to turn white. We have recently re-potted it and the white section has continued to grow. Why is it turning white?
It sits in a south facing window. We are in northern hemisphere, so it get sunlight most of the day. It gets watered when it is dry and does have drainage
These are 2 different plants, one grafted to the other and as they grow at separate rates the graft loses union and the upper portion dies off. I’m sure someone more knowledgeable will come along and offer help on saving or general care of either/both.
Sonofbluekane
These things look nice but never thrive long term
girlinthegoldenboots
The top part will die off but the bottom part will continue to thrive! I got duped into getting one of these when I first started buying plants. I still have the bottom has gotten pretty big! It’s 6 or 7 years old now.
Mister_Silk
There is nothing you can do. The moon cactus (the pink plant on top) only lives a year or two. It is grafted onto a dragon fruit cutting (which live years and years) and the moon cactus is basically just a parasite at this point as it cannot sustain itself without feeding off the dragon fruit cutting.
I have seen some YouTube videos of people degrafting this union, with varying levels of success. But it’s normally not successful.
Once the dragon fruit rids itself of the moon cactus on top it’s very likely to start growing and branching normally into a proper dragon fruit plant.
_Daxemos
The “white” looks healthy to me. There are a great many colours these guys can have as variegation, it is common to have multiple at once.
5 Comments
These are 2 different plants, one grafted to the other and as they grow at separate rates the graft loses union and the upper portion dies off. I’m sure someone more knowledgeable will come along and offer help on saving or general care of either/both.
These things look nice but never thrive long term
The top part will die off but the bottom part will continue to thrive! I got duped into getting one of these when I first started buying plants. I still have the bottom has gotten pretty big! It’s 6 or 7 years old now.
There is nothing you can do. The moon cactus (the pink plant on top) only lives a year or two. It is grafted onto a dragon fruit cutting (which live years and years) and the moon cactus is basically just a parasite at this point as it cannot sustain itself without feeding off the dragon fruit cutting.
I have seen some YouTube videos of people degrafting this union, with varying levels of success. But it’s normally not successful.
Once the dragon fruit rids itself of the moon cactus on top it’s very likely to start growing and branching normally into a proper dragon fruit plant.
The “white” looks healthy to me. There are a great many colours these guys can have as variegation, it is common to have multiple at once.