A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Cactus question

I purchased what I believed to be a barrel cactus about three years ago. It has grown from about 1" in diameter and height, to about 3-4" in diameter and height. About a month ago it started developing what look like warts. Little humps that are growing from the sides. There are eight of them. What is this? It's the first cactus I've ever had, and I don't know much about them except not to water them and they are slow growers.

They do need a bit of water sometimes! Can you send us a pic? The "warts" could be offsets or flower buds. I'd love to see it!

Nice to hear from you margaret e. pell. I just joined this forum and have seen your name mentioned many times as one of the "one's who will know the answer"! As soon as I figure out how to attach a pic I will send some. I have tried to copy and paste with no luck. Any tips?

Okay. Got it (I think). I hope the pictures are large enough for you to tell. When I preview them, they are much smaller than they appear on my monitor. Don't know what to do about that....

My Cactus
My Cactus
My Cactus

My Cactus

They flatter me here, ; my compost pile has a lot of dead plants as well as coffee grounds and vegetable pealings. That's a beautiful cactus you've got, and very happy with how you are treating it. Those are offsets; soon it will be a clump! Has it ever flowered for you? plants are classified by their flowers. It's not a barrel cactus, but I'm not sure what it is. My guess is a mammilaria, with wool between the tubercles like that. If it flowers, note where the flowers came from (base, middle, top, growth point) if they came right from the body of the cactus or have a stalk, if a stalk, is it hairy, spiny, or bare, and lastly, what color? With this info we can peg the genus and maybe the species. BUY it doesn't have to have a name to be beautiful!

Thanks for the info margaret. I'm sure the flattery is well deserved.

I can't wait to see what it will look like in the next few months. It has not flowered yet. I hope it will so you can help me with the ID. I always wondered what the white stuff between the tubercles was. Heck I always wondered what you called the tubercles! Take Care.