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Avatar for craig22
Apr 10, 2021 7:24 AM CST
Thread OP
Lexington, VA (Zone 6b)
Raises cows
At first the tips started turning pink, then I noticed the mottling and had a few tip leafs fall off. It is probably getting too much sunlight so I'll relocate it, but I'm not sure what is causing the mottling.
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Apr 10, 2021 8:53 AM CST
(Zone 5a)
Cactus and Succulents Garden Photography Region: Canadian Native Plants and Wildflowers
Pink tips on the stem segments are not a bad sign on their own (in fact mine gets its share of pink tips every summer) but that mottling is concerning. I don't recognize it, but perhaps someone more knowledgeable will. Has the plant been sprayed for e.g. insects lately? Does that pot have a drainage hole? What's the airflow like around it?

Welcome!
Avatar for craig22
Apr 10, 2021 9:22 AM CST
Thread OP
Lexington, VA (Zone 6b)
Raises cows
It has not been sprayed. It has a drainage hole. It is a year old from cuttings. I have it next to a healthy Christmas cactus in the kitchen where it has been for the last year. It has had some direct sunlight over the winter and through early spring.
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Apr 11, 2021 2:39 PM CST
(Zone 5a)
Cactus and Succulents Garden Photography Region: Canadian Native Plants and Wildflowers
Hi again. I was waiting a few days to see if someone with more expertise was going to chime in. But perhaps others don't recognize the issue, either.

It doesn't seem like there is anything amiss with the care regimen or the conditions. I don't think any minor oversight in care is causing this. Thanksgiving cactus is a tough plant...my mother has a monstrous one that has to be coming up on 30 years old, and it has spent most of its life in a semi-dark corner, in pots without drainage holes and with massive rings of salt buildup all around it. Grumbling She's done almost everything 'wrong' and somehow it just shrugs and keeps pushing out wave after wave of blooms every year. Shrug! I've also seen some sad specimens at my local car dealership that are always bone-dry and almost completely red from the tips down to the soil, and yet these are somehow still surviving. I am no expert but this leads me to suspect your cactus might have an actual disease, and not just blemishes from some lapse or other in care. I would isolate it from other plants, if you haven't already.

The only other thing I can think of might be something like cold damage, if e.g. a window was opened and a blast of freezing air got to it. But you say it lives next to an unaffected plant, so that sounds unlikely.

Taking another look at the photo...it looks like there are segments that don't have mottling on them. You could consider amputating the affected segments and seeing if that stops the spread.
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Apr 11, 2021 2:50 PM CST
(Zone 5a)
Cactus and Succulents Garden Photography Region: Canadian Native Plants and Wildflowers
Taking another look...the pot seems to have a fairly large soil mass, so there is also a chance it could be overwatered. But when I had a rooted Schlumbergera cutting succumb to overwatering in this way, the bottom simply rotted, and the segments never developed those odd spots. Shrug!
Avatar for craig22
Apr 11, 2021 7:36 PM CST
Thread OP
Lexington, VA (Zone 6b)
Raises cows
Thank you for following up. All the segments with mottling are lighter in color. The segments near the base are dark but do have a few hints of mottling. I'm willing to remove the mottled segments but that won't leave me with much. I'm okay with that if it would help. As far as watering, I haven't been very consistent so it may have been over-watered a little bit but right now the soil is on the dry side. I always water both cacti at the same time in the same way.
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Apr 11, 2021 8:30 PM CST
(Zone 5a)
Cactus and Succulents Garden Photography Region: Canadian Native Plants and Wildflowers
Dang. I'm really stumped, then. Hopefully things won't deteriorate further. Although the mottling is a weird and worrying sign, the plant does not show overt signs of suffering like sogginess or wilting. Who knows? Maybe this is just some mysterious damage from which it may yet recover.

As I said, I'm not an expert, so I'd hesitate to presume to tell you how to proceed. If the lower segments have signs of mottling, too, amputation will probably not contain the spread of whatever this is. Sighing! On the other hand, if you do have sections of plant free of mottling, the plant may well recover quickly from even extensive amputation. If the root system is intact, Schlumbergeras can recover well from pretty severe pruning.

If that fellow cactus is the 'donor' plant, you may at least have the option of starting over from new cuttings, if it comes to that. If you go that route, I would either use a new pot or thoroughly sterilize this one before re-using it.
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