Virus on Zamorano dragon fruit?

by Madison C
(Cincinnati, OH)

Photo of Zamorano dragon fruit

Hello!

I purchased 2 rooted cuttings of a Zamorano dragon fruit about 5 weeks
ago. The plants are healthy, although they have not grown at all.

Upon inspecting my plants, I noticed a greyish white substance on them. This has progressively gotten worse to the point that all 3 sides of the cactus is covered on both of the plants, and my friend (who purchased cuttings from the same plant at the same time as me) has the same thing, albeit not as bad. I have attached a photo of the worst of it. This substance does not scrape off, but smears slightly with force.

I have tried to research this, and have come up empty handed. It is puzzling. I read a lot about CVX/cactus virus X and from the few photos I saw, it looks extremely similar, but I don't want to put the cart in front of the horse so to speak.

Do you have any ideas?

Thanks in advance :)
Madison

Comments for Virus on Zamorano dragon fruit?

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Oct 13, 2020

Not sure
by: Jacki Cammidge, Certified Horticulturist

From your description it sounds more like grey mold, which is on the surface. The virus you're talking about seems to be more under the first layer of the plant's skin, not necessarily on the surface.

I would say, if you have no other similar plants you may be safe to wait a while, to see what happens. If your plant continues to not grow, or gets worse, I would go back to the source, and make a complaint to where you purchased it.

More images here on a Bing image search.

Viruses are not to be messed with. If it turns out to be this particular one, discard the plant, the soil and the pot (if it can't be washed and dipped in a bleach solution) in the garbage so it doesn't have a chance to move into other plants.

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