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| Damage to cow's tongue, Opuntia |
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| Cochineal scale on cows tongue |
Q.
Not sure what happened to my plant I sent you a picture of this plant the other
day and the next day I see these spots. All I did was remove a chicken wire
fence from around the plant.
A.
I would not be overly concerned about it from a plant health perspective. Yes,
it does distract from its aesthetics. This type of injury can because by
something damaging the surface of the pads at those locations.
A frequent
problem can be cochineal scale which appears like wet cotton on the surface of
the pads in groupings. Once the scale is removed either with a high pressure
sweep nozzle on a hose or chemicals the damage can still remain from their
feeding. But anything that damages the "skin" of the pad will cause
this type of scarring.
Make
sure that you are not irrigating this type of cactus too often or they can
develop root rot and die.
Also, if you are using drip emitters and they are all
located very close to the plant and there are no other sources of water than
the roots may develop only in this tiny location and when it gets tall it can
fall over because of its own weight, it's top-heavy. So hopefully there are
other sources of water within a foot or two of this plant so the roots will
spread out and hold the plant upright.
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