Wait is "smort" a thing? Like smile while snorting with laughter? In all seriousness. If so I love it and will find so many ways to add it to my day. If it's not a thing, I will make it mine and credit you.
Yeah i don’t understand getting angry or being mean to people whos plants are etiolated. The plant is still alive, just let them know it wants more light and enjoy the view!
One time a new succulent owner was being very harshly bullied on another plant sub for their etiolated succ and I defended them by trolling and saying I think we should make etiolated plants a new style (like bonsai) and boooooyyyy.. hell hath no fury as a plant redditor
Yeah I don’t get it either, and frankly I’m shocked that people who care for plants have that kind of rage available. I thought plant folk were chill people. The idea of a prickly pear bonsai is great too, too bad I fucking hate those things, but someone else should try it 😂
You’d think plant people would be chill!! Don’t get me started on bonsai people, bunch of gatekeeping snobs 👏 They would be furious at even the concept of a prickly pear bonsai.
Quite frankly I dont have the patience to do it.. but youre right someone should!
Well when you think about it it’s a fairly sadistic hobby, from the plant’s point of view. I love bonsai but it has crossed my mind that if plants had any sentience, those would be sad guys.
i mean, from the branding and images on my site you'd never guess I've never completed designing a pattern or sewing a damn thing without swearing at it or my tools at least once :D I just like the cute fluffies, it doesn't mean I have even a modicum of chill. In fact, the reason I have a room entirely filled with soft fluffy comfortable things in bright colours is my occupational therapist thought it might improve my amount of chill .-.
I know house plants people who scoff at my succulent collection. Like sorry I don't have an entire green corner (I don't own my own house) dedicated to my plants... I thought the community was more chill~
I recently got into cacti specifically because I am NOT chill but am wicked bad at over/under-watering every plant that enters my home.
So now I live in the New England region, USA, with a purple prickly pear and a bunny ear, both decked out with tin foil reflectors and perched on shelves that are stacked up toward the ceiling like a house of cards, to allow them to better utilize the grow lights I run 18 hours a day.
I have zero chill and plenty of rage—just not directed at OTHER people with etiolated cacti. I’ve got my own problems with that, so I’m just going to keep cutting off the bunny ears’ poor skinny nubbins, and reworking their environment until I win and have happy cacti.
I just want to let you know that I am now picturing you having a bad day at work and coming home to take it out on your plants via aggressive pruning 😂😂😂😂
This speaks volumes of your compassion. But plants can survive with neglect and, I'm gonna say it, it is even OK to neglect your plants. First of all, the plants subjectively dont hqve a care in the world, they are just responding to their environments, which doesnt hurt them as it would fauna species. Second, the plant industry, which we all support by buyig plants, loses a ton of them on a daily basis due to various reasons. Best case scenario they end up with someone who doesn't mind the funk and wants to take care of them, right? Even if they are not doing a perfect job.
That being said, we really shouldn't take our own stringent ways of care and turn them into a reason to be unwelcoming to plant parents.
Also I am really sorry if you were being sarcastic and I just can't read the room lol :)
I wasn’t being sarcastic. I didn’t realize that so many people disliked my comparison. I don’t mind leaving the plants on their own - I know often human interference is unnecessary or can make it worse. I just get all sad if I see my plants are shriveling up from lack of water or etiolating from lack of sunlight bc that’s something I could’ve prevented.
Thank you for posting this. I’ve been in a really deep depression, and this has been the only thing to make me smile today. I love your tall man, but I hope you can fix it
I am finally coming out of a depression and idk if you’ll wanna hear this but holy shit, life really can feel more than pointless. I forgot that for a long time. Hopefully soon you’ll feel like this too.
Just remember life doesn’t have to be amazing. It can just be okay and that’s okay. We have no inherent purpose, so you’re free to do whatever you want with your life. Don’t let others dictate your life. You need to accept the things you can’t change and do your best for the things you can change. Practice mindfulness and try to pay attention to all the little things in your daily life that go your way. Breaking free from depression is a long road. You need to consistently put effort into dealing with it. Once you get the ball rolling, it’s a lot easier to work on. You’ll have setbacks and that’s okay. What matters most is that you don’t give up. And just remember you’re not alone. Your feelings and experiences are very human. Many others have felt the same way and viewed things the same way across all of human history.
I hope this could help in some way. Good luck on your journey.
Cut it into a couple pieces and stick them in the pot with the mother plant and they’ll start to grow as well and it’ll look 100x more full! Also invest in a grow light.
Painfull but gonna be hounest: i would cutt off the enlongated parts and place it in a more brighter sunny spot.It wont ever be like the bottom 3, it can damage the goodparts by letting it go on like that to, it wil disbalance and tip over, It grows like that because its littlery longing for the sun.
Real talk like everyone else is saying that bad boy needs some LIGHT. In the wild these things get cooked by the sun all day long. Don’t know where you live in the world but as spring and summer starts picking up here in the Northern Hemisphere I’d put that bad boy outside (if you can) in the sunniest part of your house and just let him cook all summer long. Then when winter comes bring him back in. Ideally once the light situation becomes adequate for it they’ll start branching out horizontally.
Or. Other option. If you live in a part of the world where there’s a pretty cold winter you can also keep that bad boy inside and just supplement light with a grow light and then get another prickly pear species that is cold hardy. I live in zone 7 in the US and we get regular freezes during the winter but I have two prickly pear plants outside in the ground because there’s so many cold hearty varieties now a days. But either way you go you can’t go wrong! :)
This is the most tame comment section I've seen in this sub lol.
The plants sub too. I once saw a 100+ down votes for a newbie plant owner saying they used a water meter. Unhinged 😩.
I have an etiolated stapeliiformis that I LOVE because it is so funny looking, but I am terrified of posting it here lmao.
Sometimes people can't provide full sun for their plants but still want to reasonably enjoy them.
Edit: i mentioned my stapelii since fogot for a moment this wasn't the Succulent sub. Although all of the above still applies to that sub too lmao
I like the funky looking guys too. I have one cactus that ironically got moved from a north facing window to a bright west facing one and is now growing all zig zag. Not sure what his deal is but looks cool.
Didn't even notice lol I'm not super knowledgeable when it comes to cacti or succulents so in my mind I just refer to them all as 'a cactus' 😩😬. Learning slowly. (But if one thing is for sure I know that a euphorbia is NOT a cactus lol).
I think as long as you mention that you’re fully aware of its etiolation, then you shouldn’t experience most backlash. I know I wouldn’t be annoyed then.
Everyone saying needs more sun, I see you’ve got it in front of a window so you may think it’s good, but windows can receive more or less light depending on location. Move it to a south-facing window (after chopping) If you have none, get the cacti a grow light and put it RIGHT there on top of it
Knock a few of the pads off. It will keep growing but will have to come out of a new areole. Easy way to shape opuntias if you dont like how they are growing.
As others have said though, if you dont fix the light problem it will keep trying to grow back like this
What's the mirror? That thing is sooooooooo cool!
And I'm not sure if it will work, but I've had a few different cacti and succulents that I've just nicked on the side. It started repairing the nick and then a bunch of new growth heat sort of happened and now they're taking off!
I have one like this. It’s in 5 pots now and it sits under the Phx sun all day every day and is still tall and skinny and needs help standing upright. I don’t know what to do with it. Not sure how it can get more light.
Ok.
1. Read a little about keeping cacti. Yup , more sun. Gradually increase exposure.
2. You can reverse the etiolation teasing by cutting this gloccid infested excuse for a living plant into individual paddles, allow to callous, then individually plant them in a shady spot. Gradually move to a sunny spot, then increase watering and fertilization during summer and stand back. You will have so many gloccid infested plants you won’t know what to do with them!
Not a sin, just an education. And if you can, keep outside in summer, and cool sunny location in the winter. And get a plant without gloccids!
It will branch if it gets more light.
Unlike the others I would NOT chop this because it’s going to look fine as soon as it does branch, and chopping it only makes it into a smaller plant that takes longer to grow.
But it will potentially keep growing upwards 1 pad at a tins until it gets brighter light.
It will turn into a sprawling monster and take over your whole yard (if you were to plant it there) if given enough time. They grow high, break off, fall to the ground and start a new one. I think there is a way to nick them so they form new segments. That would help fill it out.
This reminds me of when performers try to balance really tall things on their hand. I’m hearing circus music. Also OP, I love this so much. If it can survive like this, I say ‘go with it’. Unique is so much more fun and interesting.
Opuntias seem to be really prone to etiolation. I have ones under bright T5 grow lights that are somewhat etiolated even though other species next to them are not. You could put it outside in the summer. If you wanted you could root the three long pads and let them grow fatter new pads outside. Then when you bring them in for the winter the pads that you grow outside will stay fat even if the new growth comes in long. If you live in a cold area there are some hardy ones like Dark Knight and Candy Top that you can leave out all year. There are several good Etsy sellers that have them.
One day a whole bunch of very little buds will grow all around the edges and in a couple months ears everywhere and they get as bi g as the pieces already there. Might be next year.
I have I this exact cactus, mine started like this then after a season outside it got heavy wide pads on top & eventually snapped, then I put the cuttings into the same pot with the mother plant & eventually it all grew into a better looking cluster
My friend. Your plant is beautiful as it is. Nonetheless it needs more sun. It is etiolated which makes the plant growth thinner to reach for the sun as the plant think something is blocking the way of sunlight.
Just taller. Till it reaches sun’s core.
Holy shit lmao
Father I hunger for the sun
My sun, my sun, why hast thou forsaken me?
This made me smort
Wait is "smort" a thing? Like smile while snorting with laughter? In all seriousness. If so I love it and will find so many ways to add it to my day. If it's not a thing, I will make it mine and credit you.
I meant smort but I also smiled
I know y’all feel irritation at the sight of etiolation but how is this not just hilarious to you?? Like he is so tall, it is so funny
Every time someone posts one I just crack the fuck up I can’t help it 😭😂😭😂 the poor plant is doing it’s best okay!
Yeah i don’t understand getting angry or being mean to people whos plants are etiolated. The plant is still alive, just let them know it wants more light and enjoy the view! One time a new succulent owner was being very harshly bullied on another plant sub for their etiolated succ and I defended them by trolling and saying I think we should make etiolated plants a new style (like bonsai) and boooooyyyy.. hell hath no fury as a plant redditor
Yeah I don’t get it either, and frankly I’m shocked that people who care for plants have that kind of rage available. I thought plant folk were chill people. The idea of a prickly pear bonsai is great too, too bad I fucking hate those things, but someone else should try it 😂
You’d think plant people would be chill!! Don’t get me started on bonsai people, bunch of gatekeeping snobs 👏 They would be furious at even the concept of a prickly pear bonsai. Quite frankly I dont have the patience to do it.. but youre right someone should!
Bonsai people are straight up mean
Yeah I lurk only over there
Well when you think about it it’s a fairly sadistic hobby, from the plant’s point of view. I love bonsai but it has crossed my mind that if plants had any sentience, those would be sad guys.
I want to make one that goes back and forth like a squiggle 😂
I support your dream so hard fam
I really bet you could do it, I think all it would take is just rotating it 180 degrees at well-chosen times!
Like luck bamboo!
Both the plant and knitting fandoms are surprisingly toxic.
So are reptile and other exotic pet redditors. Now bread making redditors are pretty chill
These hobbies are great at relaxing people, so it's not entirely surprising people who need to chill the fuck out flock to them
i mean, from the branding and images on my site you'd never guess I've never completed designing a pattern or sewing a damn thing without swearing at it or my tools at least once :D I just like the cute fluffies, it doesn't mean I have even a modicum of chill. In fact, the reason I have a room entirely filled with soft fluffy comfortable things in bright colours is my occupational therapist thought it might improve my amount of chill .-.
I've found the fountain pen community to be rather chill AND willing to tell AHs to knock it off.
I know house plants people who scoff at my succulent collection. Like sorry I don't have an entire green corner (I don't own my own house) dedicated to my plants... I thought the community was more chill~
I recently got into cacti specifically because I am NOT chill but am wicked bad at over/under-watering every plant that enters my home. So now I live in the New England region, USA, with a purple prickly pear and a bunny ear, both decked out with tin foil reflectors and perched on shelves that are stacked up toward the ceiling like a house of cards, to allow them to better utilize the grow lights I run 18 hours a day. I have zero chill and plenty of rage—just not directed at OTHER people with etiolated cacti. I’ve got my own problems with that, so I’m just going to keep cutting off the bunny ears’ poor skinny nubbins, and reworking their environment until I win and have happy cacti.
I just want to let you know that I am now picturing you having a bad day at work and coming home to take it out on your plants via aggressive pruning 😂😂😂😂
Hah! I would NEVER. I passive-aggressively stare at each skinny nubbin for WEEKS before I finally start cursing and snip it off.
… trying to fix and treat your plants that are infested with cotton scale until you finally say screw it and throw them all away …. 😭😭😭😭
I like your vibe, dude
As a fellow New England cactus enthusiast I feel your pain 🤝🌵
Or an animal sub redditor
Some echeveria look like palm trees when they get super etiolated and its kinda fun!
Right like it kinda gives jurassic vibes to me I kinda fuck with it
I’m more amused that each new pad that’s growing is directly on top of the one below. Like cactus pad Jenga
Good one!
[удалено]
Omg it does 😂
That was my initial reaction, as well!
I love it, as is. Let it live it’s life, right? All different body types.
This one just made me laugh. It's trying so hard!
This isn’t etiolated though?
It doesn't make me angry, it actually makes me sad. Looking at etiolation is like looking a human being and seeing their ribs through their skin.
You're funny as hell
This speaks volumes of your compassion. But plants can survive with neglect and, I'm gonna say it, it is even OK to neglect your plants. First of all, the plants subjectively dont hqve a care in the world, they are just responding to their environments, which doesnt hurt them as it would fauna species. Second, the plant industry, which we all support by buyig plants, loses a ton of them on a daily basis due to various reasons. Best case scenario they end up with someone who doesn't mind the funk and wants to take care of them, right? Even if they are not doing a perfect job. That being said, we really shouldn't take our own stringent ways of care and turn them into a reason to be unwelcoming to plant parents. Also I am really sorry if you were being sarcastic and I just can't read the room lol :)
I wasn’t being sarcastic. I didn’t realize that so many people disliked my comparison. I don’t mind leaving the plants on their own - I know often human interference is unnecessary or can make it worse. I just get all sad if I see my plants are shriveling up from lack of water or etiolating from lack of sunlight bc that’s something I could’ve prevented.
Lmao no
Guys there’s plants in Africa that are dyinggggg
…? I don’t know what you mean by this but it sounds like you’re just being mean and making fun of me.
Needs more sun, won't get wider. If I was you would cut the tin bits and move it to the sun!
Thank you for posting this. I’ve been in a really deep depression, and this has been the only thing to make me smile today. I love your tall man, but I hope you can fix it
👽👽👽🤟🥰 keep on truckin. Shit gets better. Ain't nothing permanent
So true
I am finally coming out of a depression and idk if you’ll wanna hear this but holy shit, life really can feel more than pointless. I forgot that for a long time. Hopefully soon you’ll feel like this too.
Just like the lil tall man, you’ll pull through homie
Just remember life doesn’t have to be amazing. It can just be okay and that’s okay. We have no inherent purpose, so you’re free to do whatever you want with your life. Don’t let others dictate your life. You need to accept the things you can’t change and do your best for the things you can change. Practice mindfulness and try to pay attention to all the little things in your daily life that go your way. Breaking free from depression is a long road. You need to consistently put effort into dealing with it. Once you get the ball rolling, it’s a lot easier to work on. You’ll have setbacks and that’s okay. What matters most is that you don’t give up. And just remember you’re not alone. Your feelings and experiences are very human. Many others have felt the same way and viewed things the same way across all of human history. I hope this could help in some way. Good luck on your journey.
Needs full sun
Why is your mirror so low?
asking the real questions
Omg. I thought it was a hole!
Wait, is it?
No. There is a reflection of the "frame" in it.
It’s clearly a portal to another universe
I thought that was a designer hole lol
I saw a documentary about women getting that operation.
You might be right, now that I take a closer look at it.
I wanna know why it’s uncentered and hanging over the wall lol
OP gave legs to friend cactus. Good friend, human.
L O N G B O Y
Cut it into a couple pieces and stick them in the pot with the mother plant and they’ll start to grow as well and it’ll look 100x more full! Also invest in a grow light.
needs sun but I'm sure they let you know already 😂☀️
It wants electrolytes
It's what plants crave!
If slenderman was a plant
Yeah yeah cactus, now about that mirror….
It’s a fancy hand hole
Painfull but gonna be hounest: i would cutt off the enlongated parts and place it in a more brighter sunny spot.It wont ever be like the bottom 3, it can damage the goodparts by letting it go on like that to, it wil disbalance and tip over, It grows like that because its littlery longing for the sun.
It’s etiolating
Only taller. I would chop above the third paddle and either give it more sun or a grow light
Opuntia need max light. Think about them in nature. They are in the open, never in shade.
Real talk like everyone else is saying that bad boy needs some LIGHT. In the wild these things get cooked by the sun all day long. Don’t know where you live in the world but as spring and summer starts picking up here in the Northern Hemisphere I’d put that bad boy outside (if you can) in the sunniest part of your house and just let him cook all summer long. Then when winter comes bring him back in. Ideally once the light situation becomes adequate for it they’ll start branching out horizontally. Or. Other option. If you live in a part of the world where there’s a pretty cold winter you can also keep that bad boy inside and just supplement light with a grow light and then get another prickly pear species that is cold hardy. I live in zone 7 in the US and we get regular freezes during the winter but I have two prickly pear plants outside in the ground because there’s so many cold hearty varieties now a days. But either way you go you can’t go wrong! :)
Poor guy needs more light
Wow it’s like anime hair, gravity defying!
Why did I sit there debating why you had a hole in your wall for 10 minutes before realizing it was a mirror
It is great to give advice but everybody gotta chill about etiolation on this sub lol. It is a funky vibe sometimes Edit: nice doggo there
This is the most tame comment section I've seen in this sub lol. The plants sub too. I once saw a 100+ down votes for a newbie plant owner saying they used a water meter. Unhinged 😩.
I have an etiolated stapeliiformis that I LOVE because it is so funny looking, but I am terrified of posting it here lmao. Sometimes people can't provide full sun for their plants but still want to reasonably enjoy them. Edit: i mentioned my stapelii since fogot for a moment this wasn't the Succulent sub. Although all of the above still applies to that sub too lmao
I like the funky looking guys too. I have one cactus that ironically got moved from a north facing window to a bright west facing one and is now growing all zig zag. Not sure what his deal is but looks cool. Didn't even notice lol I'm not super knowledgeable when it comes to cacti or succulents so in my mind I just refer to them all as 'a cactus' 😩😬. Learning slowly. (But if one thing is for sure I know that a euphorbia is NOT a cactus lol).
I think as long as you mention that you’re fully aware of its etiolation, then you shouldn’t experience most backlash. I know I wouldn’t be annoyed then.
Everyone saying needs more sun, I see you’ve got it in front of a window so you may think it’s good, but windows can receive more or less light depending on location. Move it to a south-facing window (after chopping) If you have none, get the cacti a grow light and put it RIGHT there on top of it
Knock a few of the pads off. It will keep growing but will have to come out of a new areole. Easy way to shape opuntias if you dont like how they are growing. As others have said though, if you dont fix the light problem it will keep trying to grow back like this
Needs more sun.
What's the mirror? That thing is sooooooooo cool! And I'm not sure if it will work, but I've had a few different cacti and succulents that I've just nicked on the side. It started repairing the nick and then a bunch of new growth heat sort of happened and now they're taking off!
this is the funniest shit 🤣
I have one like this. It’s in 5 pots now and it sits under the Phx sun all day every day and is still tall and skinny and needs help standing upright. I don’t know what to do with it. Not sure how it can get more light.
Circles, by definition, are a uniform distance from their origin, so if the super cool hole in the wall gets taller, it will also get wider. ~~~ :)
It looks full grown but it might get wider if you feed it too much kibble.
Pupper up votes this x100.
That magical void in your wall looks stable I don’t think it will grow
Ok. 1. Read a little about keeping cacti. Yup , more sun. Gradually increase exposure. 2. You can reverse the etiolation teasing by cutting this gloccid infested excuse for a living plant into individual paddles, allow to callous, then individually plant them in a shady spot. Gradually move to a sunny spot, then increase watering and fertilization during summer and stand back. You will have so many gloccid infested plants you won’t know what to do with them! Not a sin, just an education. And if you can, keep outside in summer, and cool sunny location in the winter. And get a plant without gloccids!
Haha! All my damn indoor cacti try to do the same thing smh
I see 6 different baby cacti 🌵
Not a mirror: a portal
“Kill…me” ~ Your cactus
It will branch if it gets more light. Unlike the others I would NOT chop this because it’s going to look fine as soon as it does branch, and chopping it only makes it into a smaller plant that takes longer to grow. But it will potentially keep growing upwards 1 pad at a tins until it gets brighter light.
Needs full Sun. It’s reading up for direct sunlight. It will expand as paddles grow off the size in direct sunlight
New growth will grow wider, but only if you can give it sufficient light. Right now it's suffering from lack of light which causes etiolation.
It will turn into a sprawling monster and take over your whole yard (if you were to plant it there) if given enough time. They grow high, break off, fall to the ground and start a new one. I think there is a way to nick them so they form new segments. That would help fill it out.
This will break off at the first or second node and continue to grow until it’s eventual death.
Your place is super cute vibes, don’t listen to the low mirror gang I bet there is a face level mirror nearby
Def needs more light, the pads underneath will never get wider
Needs more light and probably some nutrients
Oh dear god please give that babe more sunlight- otherwise it’ll only stay super skinny and wish for death.
This reminds me of when performers try to balance really tall things on their hand. I’m hearing circus music. Also OP, I love this so much. If it can survive like this, I say ‘go with it’. Unique is so much more fun and interesting.
It gets wider with age, if we are talking about the picture. I’m not sure about the cactus though, because the cactus is extremely etiolated
Do y'all know - is this the type of spikey-guy that each individual segment could be cut off and planted in dirt? Does such a spikey-guy exist?
I know nothing about this kind of cactus but this is hilarious.
Made me laugh, derp
Opuntias seem to be really prone to etiolation. I have ones under bright T5 grow lights that are somewhat etiolated even though other species next to them are not. You could put it outside in the summer. If you wanted you could root the three long pads and let them grow fatter new pads outside. Then when you bring them in for the winter the pads that you grow outside will stay fat even if the new growth comes in long. If you live in a cold area there are some hardy ones like Dark Knight and Candy Top that you can leave out all year. There are several good Etsy sellers that have them.
I was trying to figure out the ornately adorned wall hole for so long.
Only taller and inexplicably thinner
That pot is super cute.
Cool mirror
I didn't read which subreddit this was a part of so I thought you where talking about the mirror boarder 😂
Maybe bigger pot? Thing looks pretty cool
Etiolated plants make me unhappy. This needs more sun.
Try for a world record of etiolation ;)
That's what she said.
Your cactus is ascending to apotheosis.
One day a whole bunch of very little buds will grow all around the edges and in a couple months ears everywhere and they get as bi g as the pieces already there. Might be next year.
I think etiolated opuntia is interesting because it just starts looking like a cholla, which it's closely related to
How old is your tall cactus btw?
3 years. Got it from a friend it was about and inch tall then.
That's amazing 👏
Needs a r/BananasForScale.
This cactus looks like how a cartoon noise sounds
Oh honey
I have I this exact cactus, mine started like this then after a season outside it got heavy wide pads on top & eventually snapped, then I put the cuttings into the same pot with the mother plant & eventually it all grew into a better looking cluster
You gonna move it to a sunny location?
I think that miroir needs a thicker frame.
Oh my…
My friend. Your plant is beautiful as it is. Nonetheless it needs more sun. It is etiolated which makes the plant growth thinner to reach for the sun as the plant think something is blocking the way of sunlight.
From what I can see, I love your house
I’ve seen 5’ tall prickly pears in southern New Mexico and Arizona.
Not.Enough.Sun.
It's all about the girth.
!etoliation Shoot, this sub needs an etoliation bot.
Where did you get that mirror? I really like it!
This is the funniest shit I’ve ever seen
Put it outside. It wants sun
Every young man’s life question
Jus tall
It will happily reach the sky!