What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Rotting VFTs?

U

Unregistered

Guest
Does anyone have any advice on or about VFTs and either preventing or treating rot (as in roots/bulb) when it occurs?

I ask because while there is often mention of rot or being careful with watering to avoid rotting, I find it very difficult to pin down any solid information on the actual culprit itself.
rock.gif


In my own experience, I have not had any -healthy- VFTs begin to rot. I have had questionable ones that ended up rotting, but one of them was plagued with powdery mildew or something similar when it arrived (Akai Ryu) and the only other victim was a very stressed looking cultivar that spent over a week in the mail (thank you, USPS
mad.gif
).

My healthy plants, whether I water heavily or let the trays dry up and then refill, don't ever seem to have a problem. I use a good amount of perlite, probably 50:50 at least, with sphagnum peat moss, so I do not believe that drainage was the issue with either of the two plants I've lost to rot.

Back to my original query though, does anyone have some good information on preventing rot? My experience has been specific to traumatized / unhealthy plants that succumed to rot, so if anyone has ideas on how best to nurse them to health before they rot out, I'd appreciate that as well. Also useful would be any methods you have found successful in saving a plant once rot appears to have set in on the roots or rhizome.

Thanks in advance everyone and I'm sorry if this is covered in detail somewhere else. I tried searching but did not find anything.
sad.gif
 
Start with a healthy plant, put it outside. Easy-Peasy!

If it's already rotting, you can try some fungicide to prevent fungi and keep it on the drier side. Moist rather than soggy. If the crown is rotting you can either A: cut it out, spray with fungicide and hope for the best, or B: throw it away.

If it's on/in the rhizome, cut off the rotten part and just a tiny bit of healthy tissue right after the rotten part. I guess you could do a superthrive soak if you want. I'd still keep it drier rather than wetter.

Take cuttings if you want.
 
A coating of sulphur can prevent botrytis spores from germinating.
 
how does cinnamon do? i put cinnamon on my dormant plants in the fridge so they wouldnt rot. if i wrap them in Live Sphag....do i need to worry about fungucides?
Alex
 
Thanks everyone for the useful tips. I've tried removing the rotting parts of the rhizome where I could and also made a leaf cutting at the same time. Hopefully one or the other will survive.

On another note, are there any conditions that seem to invite rot, beyond the obvious? I make sure to not over water and to keep the air circulating, but I wonder if there is anything else I can do to keep this problem from occuring with my currently healthy plants.
 
I think you've pretty well summed up the conditions that would result in mold / rot.... as well as what prevents it from occurring.
 
Start with a healthy plant, put it outside. Easy-Peasy!

If it's already rotting, you can try some fungicide to prevent fungi and keep it on the drier side. Moist rather than soggy. If the crown is rotting you can either A: cut it out, spray with fungicide and hope for the best, or B: throw it away.

If it's on/in the rhizome, cut off the rotten part and just a tiny bit of healthy tissue right after the rotten part. I guess you could do a superthrive soak if you want. I'd still keep it drier rather than wetter.

Take cuttings if you want.

By way of an update, I've had some fairly good success in saving some plants from rot with some cutting off of the fungus infected parts of the rhizome, keeping them drier and very liberal usage of a neem oil based fungicide on the rest of the rhizome. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that some of the 'survivors' will pull through after treatment. :-(

Oddly, one plant that had not grown an inch from when I left to when I returned, had fungus on the surface of the rhizome but, after the above treatment (less than a week!) sprouted new growth AND a new division. Not too shabby. :bigthumpup:
 
You can give SuperThrive a try. Peter D'Amato swears by the stuff. See "The Savage Garden" for concentration recommendations (or do a search on this board for "superthrive").
 
re: cinnamon

how does cinnamon do? i put cinnamon on my dormant plants in the fridge so they wouldnt rot. if i wrap them in Live Sphag....do i need to worry about fungucides?
Alex
Cinnamon works fine when applied to fungus, but not so good as a preventative treatment. The oils in cinnamon that kill fungus are volatile and evaporate in a short time. So applying it to your plants before doing 'fridge dormancy only kills any fungus that might be growing at that time.

Sphagnum moss has antifungal properties, but it's not a 100% quarantee that a fungus that is resistant to those properties wouldn't start growing. I would check the plants on a regular basis just to be sure you catch any fungal problems before they get bad.
 
  • #10
Unless you're trying to save the environment or something then pick up some fungicide. I use Schultz's insecticide/fungicide/mitacide and it works great.
 
  • #11
Unless you're trying to save the environment or something then pick up some fungicide. I use Schultz's insecticide/fungicide/mitacide and it works great.

Would that be the neem-based stuff? I've used this with great success as well. Burned my dews a bit (doesn't it all?) but on VFTs I have hosed them down like crazy without any sign of ill effect. Great stuff.
 
Back
Top