A gardening website has put out an article on how to treat pythium root rot in barrel cactus plants. This disease comes from a fungus. The fungus gets into the soil and attacks the roots of the cacti and eventually the body. It is fatal to the plant. There is no treatment after the plant is infected. The article recommends preventative measures. The soil should be sterile. Tools should be cleaned before being used. There are commercial but costly treatments as well.
Key Takeaways:
- One of the trickier diseases of cacti is pythium rot. It most commonly affects barrel cactus and can be difficult to detect before it is too late to save the cactus.
- Pythium rot symptoms start at the soil level and generally begin in roots. This makes it one of the hardest diseases of barrel cactus to diagnose
- Pythium is an internal soft rot that affects cactus and many other types of plants. In barrel cactus, it occurs when conditions are moist
“Of all the diseases of barrel cactus, this is a particularly insidious variety.”