u/lovensuccs212

Oh no my Boobie Cacti have been doing great - have doubled in size but now have weird brown patches on them. I do t want to lose them how can they be doing great for months and now have these patches? I recently got new grow lights but with where the patches are I don’t think it’s sun burn. They just got watered last week but feel a little squishy in the middle of the plant but not at the bottom of the top. The patches are hard too. What has happened? Thank you everyone for your knowledge and help!

I bought these 2 survivors at a nursery in California a month ago. Aloes are my fav and these were the only 2 of them they had that were this kind. They were both “burnt” completely red and that red has been fading back to green. All my ID apps say this is a Vera, but no way is that right. The teeth are too pronounced, the leaves are stiff and immovable, and the spears are growing curled and twisted. Several of the spears have had their tips snipped off. There is new growth and the tip of the newly emerged spears are hard and sharp, almost like an Agave. I have been fooled before thinking some new plant was an Aloe when it really was a Haworthia or something else. But I’ve never seen anything similar to these. Any ideas?

This little cactus just does its own thing and never gives me any trouble. I accidentally knocked off one of its globes a year ago and I just immediately stuck it right back into the pot next to the bigger globe it came from. It rooted and life when on. But when I looked it just now I noticed some hard black crusty areas - my app says it’s from overwatering (not possible) or a pathogen. I don’t think it’s a pathogen, but could the black spots be sunburn? Or is this what it looks like before it blooms?

Okay so this is the story with this Moonshine pup. I bought its mom and it when it was still a pup back in early Nov 2025. I waited 2-3 weeks and cut the pup away from the mom (pup had great independent roots already going). So I then potted it into this clay pot, where it has lived ever since. It lives on the shelf under the grow light with most of my other snakes, in the same soil they have. Its mom is lovely and thriving. But now it is May 2026 and I can honestly say it has not changed or grown AT ALL since Nov 2025. That’s 6 months!! It has made roots and is very stable in the pot with that root system. But the leaves haven’t grown or opened. It hasn’t made new leaves. It was given appropriate fertilizer a couple weeks ago. I talk to it. It holds a place of honor on the shelf - right front and center! Did I offend this baby? Why does it want to live looking like a true green thumb instead of its leaves splaying out and living a good life? I just watered it. It smells normal, like wet dirt. No pests anywhere. What is going on???