Expert: Greg Simpson - 12/13/2007

Question
I have a 5-6M tall cereus, possibly Cereus peruvianus, that is 10 years old, planted outside in southern Louisiana.  It dropped it's flower buds in Sept and now it's color is faded to a green yellow, the base has heavy gray sloughing. (bark like) Base is multi stemmed 2M dia. Several stems involved. Other cactus and Aloe surronding it are unaffected. The temp's have only been in 50's once this winter. Is this natural life cycle or something else?    Thank you


Answer
Joe,

Cactus, like Cereus peruvianus get quite large, and so their stems actually turn into wood, similar to a tree including something similar to bark. If you can send me a picture to greg8365@hotmail.com, I can make sure that is what occurring. It should be normal, but a picture would tell me for sure. Thanks.

Greg