caudexappreciator

I’ve been slowly regaining control after a wave of ants that farmed mealybugs across some of my cactus. I’ve tried everything. Soaps strip farina permanently. Oils can burn plants in strong light and my balcony gets blasted in the afternoon, on top of destroying farina and wool. Isopropyl works on contact but zero residual, so you’re at it every couple days for weeks, and I’ve already split some farina being sloppy with it. Systemics work but between the toxicity and handling it in a small space, I’d rather not.

Chris from @orange_county_cactus recommended PureCrop and told me it was pretty safe compared to other options as far as toxicity in mammals/invertebrates since it’s corn and soy based.

My main worries: pollinators, farina damage, light burn, and it not actually killing pests.

I sprayed some Copiapoa, geometrizans, and a few other cactus, some with farina, some without. The Myrtillo was the real canary since that blue bloom rubs off if you look at it wrong, and the haseltoniana barely has farina but enough to show damage. Zero damage on either, even the areole wool came through untouched. One Copiapoa already had farina splitting in the valleys from isopropyl spot treatments and it hasn’t gotten worse.

I marked all 4 sides with red dots and shot every side before and after so I could actually compare. Unchanged on all sides. More testing to come with a few other cacti.

Light burn test: heavy top spray, 20 min air dry, then under a high wattage grow light cranked all the way up. Nothing after 14 hours, and that was closer to the light than I’d normally run my plants.

Also did a drench. Gallon of water buffered to ~pH 6 with pH Down, 0.75 oz PureCrop (25% over label rate, don’t do this), bottom watered a handful of Copiapoa, Agave, and a few caudiciforms a week ago. No signs of failure and most pots have dried out.

I’m in pure inorganic so it drains insanely fast. 4 pumice, 2 fine lava, 1 hort sand, limestone for some since a few are native to limestone shelves, no idea if it does anything but it feels like they like it. As far as bugs are concerned I am retreating a few times over the next few weeks/months but so far I am happy with the results.