dg- thanks for the reply! I asked my friend to keep an eye on the lopho with strange growth, and will post some pics in the next few weeks/months to illustrate healing from the insect damage. There may be a yellowish insect in a furrow in the pup above and to the left of the pup in question. The pests are about 1 to 2 mm in length and quite thin so as to 'hide' between the cactus ribs, slightly yellow in color, and have been observed with slightly larger winged insects. Could these pests be some sort of larvae feeding on the new growth of the cactus?
I asked this friend with the lophos about the insecticidal soap vs. the dilute limonene spray. He assured me he originally tried insecticidal soap some years back, but the 'safe' spray he used caused some dark weeping blisters on a tricho clone. Since this 'allergic' tricho clone was the fastest growing rootstock housing several different lohpo clones, he decided to try the dilute limonene solution. Over the last year or so, the solution (1-2% limonene, 1% baby shampoo, balance H2O) has been tested on peres, lophos, and trichos, as well as many fully healed graft combinations without any obvious oily residue or adverse reaction. Sprayed plants are kept out of direct sunlight until the solution is fully dried. Although he currently sprays weekly and foliar feeds weekly at night which may reduce the overall effectiveness of insecticidal sprays.
The above posts are a work of fiction. Tribo and/or friends are entirely fictional characters and do not exist in any physical reality. The activities described by tribo and/or friends are equally fictional and describe hypothetical situations and events that are in fact imaginary. Any resemblance to real people, situations, events, and/or compounds are merely coincidental.