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Joseph Clemens

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Hurrah, under my unorthodox growing methods for this group, several species have been reluctant to bloom. I have been trying different things to see what might be the causal factor(s).

I had been concerned that it was due to my growing conditions. It has turned out that it was due to the environment I had been providing my plants, but it has turned out to be for different reasons than I had, at first, assumed. After several years of maintaining the grow-room in a particular manner, that ensured fairly warm ambient temperatures, year-round. Near 90F (32C), with occassional spikes to 100F (38C). Late this past summer I installed an evaporative cooler in the one window servicing the grow-room. The intentions for this cooler were to lower the ambient temperatures in the grow-room, while providing an increase in humidity. This cooler would also replace the refrigerated air conditioning that was previously used throughout the house (which was drastically lowering the humidity throughout the house - including the grow-room). Since winter arrived I've been keeping the cooler pads wet and drawing air through them and through the grow-room by running small exhaust fans in windows, in other parts of the house, in rooms most distant from the grow-room. Ambient temperatures in the grow-room are now, highest - 77F (25C), and during the night in the grow-room it goes down to 55F (13C). Outside, the air temp goes down to between 30-40F (1-4.5C) most nights.

With the only major environmental change in the grow-room being the lowering of the temperature, many Pinguicula, especially Mexican species, have shown an increased interest in blooming. Where before, the following species (which I grow in groups), would throw a flower or two from one or more plants, they are now blooming in what I would call, "waves" (where each plant in a particular group would each produce a flower or two, but before those flowers faded away, several other buds would begin to grow, to then replace those flowers as they fade). These shy bloomers, for me, have been: Pinguicula debbertiana, Pinguicula ehlersiae, Pinguicula esseriana, and Pinguicula jaumavensis. Some, few plants are still unbloomed, but only now, that being the unidentified Mexican I call (Red1) and a few clones of Pinguicula laueana.
 
I suppose it's not too surprising that they react so much to the cooler temps., 'cause isn't Mexico often rather cold in winter, especially in the mountains? The colders temps., I suppose, would help the Pings to know what season it actually is, so it's more of a 'natural' environment that you've produced with these cooler night temperatures. But it's still pretty interesting, and I suppose this could help other people who are trying to bloom plants that won't.

Sorta off the subject, but do you have any of those unidentified Pings left that you were giving away a while ago?

-Ben
 
Ben,
You have a PM.
 
Last year, when I whined about having few Mexican butterworts flower, of the many suggestions I was given, the majority of opinions centered around providing cool and dry conditions for the winter. Now I know that some of those expressed opinions are due to parrotting the books, but since I am relatively new, I thought I'd try it. So now all of my Mexican pings are in the unheated stairway window sills. Nearly all of them have responded with the smaller, tightly packed leaves. An why the P. moranensis huautla x ehleresiae and the P. reticulata are currently sending iup scapes, I do not know. We'll see what happens in a few months!
 
keep us updated, then!
biggrin.gif
 
Once my Pinguicula reticulata reach blooming size, they generally just keep blooming, nearly continuously.

BTW, Finch, what is, "Relpy"?
 
It's 'Reply' as far as I can tell.

-Ben
 
Are you patronizing me? Its hard to tell from your reply but I cant shake the feeling you are. I don’t even know what point you are attempting to get across. Alright, yes, it was not a shining example of what a reply should be, and yes, it was likely misplaced. I meant it to be a response to you and Jim both, to you, because I was hoping you might keep us updated if you were going to do any pollinating, because your experiences are fascinating  and insightful , and to Jim to keep us updated when his plants flower. I don’t know what you are speaking about when you say “what is reply” If you are unhappy with something I have said, please just come out and say it and don’t dance around the issue. If you have suggestions on how to not do whatever it is- go for it I am open to suggestions.

But ok, i'll bite. The reply button is a button where you can send relevant information, as a reply from someone else in the board. Have i abused it?
 
No, lol, he meant in your signature. You spelled "Reply" 'Relpy'.

-Ben
 
  • #10
Finch, no offense meant. I was just poking
poke2.gif
at the fact you misspelled "reply", r - e - l - p - y, transposing the l and p, in your signature.
 
  • #11
I was just wondering too, the other day, how one makes a "relpy". I should like to learn one day. I would say step down on this one finch, I think it was a friendly jab at a simple misspelling on your part. Man, the holidays have gotten people tense. I know how it is--
 
  • #12
Oh dear. Drat I never noticed the mispelling. I thought you were speaking as a moderator to someone who was potentially not using the reply button as what it was intended for. I hope I did not sound, eh, rude. I couldn’t figure out what the potential ‘problem’ was.

I apologize profoundly.
 
  • #13
Thanks, but really, no apology necessary. I did wish to express, Finch, that I do appreciate your willingness to participate in the forum as you do. Keep up the good work. Though I have some OCD working in me that causes me to be so compulsive about plant nomenclature. I too have misspelled, misidentified, more than my share of words, including plant names.
 
  • #14
therockmoron
You have a PM
Lois
 
  • #15
I maintain my flourescent light setup at a constant 20-hour photoperiod throughout the year. The plants themselves are exposed to widely varying temperature and humidity ranges, though I have noticed that the majority of them grow and flower much, much better with cooler temperatures (in the 50-70º F range). For the past couple of years, my pings have grown beautifully all through autumn, winter and spring and then languish and sometimes die in the heat of summer. I ended up losing quite a few of my favorites during a heat wave this past summer. They just stopped growing and then succombed to bacterial rot nearly overnight. Those that I salvaged and repotted only started to recover nicely once temperatures significantly cooled off in autumn.

Most of my plants seem to go in and out of winter growth forms at random, although some like Pinguicula 'Titan' and some forms of Pinguicula agnata seem to always know when it is winter regardless of photoperiod and temperature.
 
  • #16
Blooming Pinguicula laueana

Pinguicula laueana does appear to initiate blooms from its winter rosette, however, for many years my many plants, consisting of multiple individuals of various clones of Pinguicula laueana had no problems forming winter rosettes despite consistent year-round high moisture levels (setting in water), high temperatures (80-90F / 26.6-32.2C) and day lengths of 12 hours or more. It wasn't until I modified their environment to include a night temperature drop down to 40F (4.4C) and even somewhat lower, that my plants of this species began forming flower buds and blooming. Moisture level and day length, do not appear involved, despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Simply providing a nighttime drop in temperatures below 40F (4.4C) when the plants are in winter leaf form, seems to be the deciding environmental ingredient for them to initiate blooming.
 
  • #17
I sure hope so. Mine, and all of the Mexican butterworts are at window sills in the unheated stairway, most have winter rosettes.
 
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