Mammillaria gigantia which keeps toppling over

[ajm389]

I have a Mammillaria gigantia which keeps toppling over, it is about 6 inches tall and about 2.5 inches Diameter.

Because of the danger of damaging the plant which I have had for getting on for 20 years I am reluctant to put a stake in and tie up using soft jute string.

Will someone please advise

Many Thanks

[el48tel]

Re pot in deeper pot ... with gravel in the bottom?

[iann]

Does the pot keep falling over? Or the plant can't hold itself upright?

[Terry S.]

There is a problem either with identification or with the plant being grown in too much shade. M. gigantea, at least in its youth, should be wider than tall, it grows to more than 15cm in diameter and only elongates a little with age. It is one of the few mams with yellowish flowers, which should be a help in identification.

[ajm389]

The plant was clearly labelled M.gigantea when I bought it about 20 years ago.
It is only the plant which falls over.

I also have seen words which suggest that it is a difficult on to flower

Thanks in advance

[Diane]

A photo would help, both for ID and the leaning problem.

[Chris43]

I agree, M. gigantea should not be that shape. If you can post a photo that would help a lot, but if not, could you tell us a bit more about how it looks, spines, flowers...

It is quite variable, and has had several names in the past, reflecting this, and two example of what the plant should be like is here, courtesy of Mammillarias.net.

Firstly ML324


and ML85

[Eric Williams]

I don,t want to steal AJM,s interesting thread, but I have always wondered if my unamed plant was M gigantia ? It's about six inches in diameter. But I can see from Chris,s pics this is not so.Ah well back to google lol. Cheers

[ajm389]

The plot thickens, I will post a photograph but not today.
Thanks for all the replies up to yet.

[delandmo]

Assuming you have given the plant adequate light ( sunshine ) and it is not etiolated, and along with the added assumption that this is not m. gigantia, what are we looking at. Well, there are a few candidates that come to mind, m. backebergiana subsp. ernestii, m. spinosissima and possibly m. matudae. All of these plants will eventually elongate in time and will all have a very heavy crop of reddish flowers in spring and early summer. If your plant has reached this height growing correctly, then there is no reason to believe why you shouldn't have a decent show of flowers similar to these types.