In the last post I told you that I had bought a cactus and that I thought it had mealybugs, I had to take a few macro photographs to confirm that yes, there were some small insects hidden among its spines, but as a good student that I am, I investigated and the best remedy I found was to spray it with water and isopropyl alcohol, and from what I could see after a few hours is that they did die, now following the recommendation, next week it will have another similar bath.
I didn't take pictures of when I gave him the bath with the mixture, instead a day before, when I discovered those intruders was when I took the following pictures.
This little guy is called Echinopsis eyriesii, or at least that's what the apps tell me, and if so I like its flowers and that's one of the reasons I bought it, it cost 8 dollars and although its flower is already closed, a new one is on the way, so I decided to take macro photos to see more closely its exterior, I started with the following images, you already know that I think that cacti should be in the sun, so I am making them get used to the morning light and a little bit in the afternoon, the last few days as the temperature is rising too much I remove them from that place and take them to the shade from 11 am to 5 pm, all the rest of the time I leave them in that place where they receive sun and night breeze.
As you can see I had all my attention on the flower that is coming out, and I already feel that I need to see that flower, it''s not the same to see a photograph than to see it in full color, and although it is a bit of cheating on my part because I bought it already with flower, I am getting close to my cactus as if I had them since they were seeds.
And speaking of seeds, I'm sure those white dots must be the seeds right? I was reading and I'm not convinced I learned, because when the flower closes afterwards there is supposed to be a fruit which in this case I don't see, I don't know how old that old flower is, so I don't worry too much, I'll pay attention to the flower that is coming out.
Although I also read that it can be difficult to get a good result with seeds and that it is better to get a new plant with the offspring, which this cactus already has, I still haven't decided whether to separate them or let them grow as they want, the whole bunch together.
Now look, in the first image of the post you probably didn't see the insects I mentioned, so I did some zooming when I cropped the image and that's what you just saw, that's why I decided to give it the bath with water and isopropyl alcohol.
And well that would be all, I would like to tell you that after the bath those insects died and I was removing them with a toothpick, of course being careful not to hurt the plant, next week I will give you an update on how it is getting better in everything.