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What would cause a P. caerulea to suddenly decline and die?

jimscott

Tropical Fish Enthusiast
I've had one for more than a year, mostly as a window sill / open tray plant. But for this winter, I put it, along with a P. planifolia, P. primuliflora, and a whole mess of tropical sundews and bladderworts in a plastic storage container, open tray, room temp, under a 30W fluorescent light, for ~15 hours a day. While most of my sundews think it's June and are in various stages of flowering, this particular plant, under the same conditions, up and died. Any theories why?
 
aren't those species notorious for easily rotting?
 
Er, whoops, I sorta didn't read all of Jim's post...

P. caerulea is known to live several years.

-Ben
 
Pinguicula caerulea. Well, that one can die, apparently, if you eat at the wrong seafood restaurant.

Seriously, I've always had unexpected success and/or trouble with the Pinguicula of the S.E. USA.

I do grow a few plants of most species in this group, but I really appreciate the Mexican Pinguicula species, for the most part, they are much less temperamental or arbitrary.
 
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Wow! I'm sorry.

They actually seem to be the easiest plants that I have.....besides D. filiformis.
 
Farmer Dave, you should have an edge on some of us, since you are inside the natural range of these species.
 
I agree that the Mexican butterworts much easier than SE ones, and really easier than all CP's. But does anybody have a theory as to why this particular species, which was housed with P. planifolia and P. primuliflora, in different pots, but the same plastic storage container - up and died?
 
Out of all my pings, P. caerulea is the ONLY one dying on me. So, I called it many names, degraded its parentage, called it weak and useless, and wanted another one as soon as possible. Still no bites. All other pings are in the bog garden. The P. caerulea was in a pot in a tray. Guess it wasn't happy there.
 
I have a small transparent plastic food storage container, 1/2 filled with peat moss. About 3 years ago I sowed some Pinguicula caerulea seed into that peat moss. The seed promptly germinated and the plants progressed until they were about 1 cm in diameter. Since then the usual ubiquitous moss grew up to inundate the little [i}Pinguicula[/i] plants. Recently I plucked most of the moss from around the Pinguicula plants, spritzed them with my dilute fertilizer solution, and they have greened up and are beginning to grow again. I still don't have strong confidence that I will be able to transplant them and get them to grow to maturity (bloom and make more seed). But, it has happened many times before, just as often as there has been complete crop failure.

If anyone else has kept plants in extended periods of suspended growth, and brought them out of it again, please let me know. I've been playing with this technique, in various ways, since I heard of it from Park Seed Co. in their seed germination handbook, several decades ago.

The species of S.E. USA Pinguicula I have the most trouble keeping is Pinguicula planifolia. Hopefully someone who is very experienced with these species will respond to this thread.
 
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  • #10
Doesn't P. planifolia like it REALLY wet, like flooded sometimes?

All I have to say about P. caerulea, is that mine flowered. :banana2:

-Ben
 
  • #11
Pinguicula planifolia is certainly often found underwater in its native habitat. Whenever I located any of this species in the wild, years ago, I almost always found it submerged in shallow ditches or depressions.
 
  • #12
So, generally speaking, Pinguicula planifolia, isn't one of the easier ones? Is it one that expects a reduced photoperiod, and/or colder temps, more than other N.A. pings? could that have been the cause of its demise?
 
  • #13
Assuming!!! Shame JimScott!!! Who knows?? While most of you experience problems, I have good luck with mine. My P. planifolia are doing well in the circulating bog along with P. ionantha, and P. primuliflora, while P. caerulea has gone to that Great Bog in the Sky. My P. lutea recently decided to join it. Though the lutea was not in the circulating bog, it lasted many years before biting the bullet. Occasionally, I submerged my pings in their containers (circulating bog excepted) with good results. This year, I neglected to submerge P. caerulea and P. lutea, and that somehow ticked them off. They're gone now, but the string of curses that followed them to thier final resting place, still occasionally drips from my lips!!!!
 
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  • #14
Mexican butterworts are nearly impossible for me to grow here in Florida. The SE U.S. Pings can be tricky. P. primuliflora and P. ionantha are by far the easiest. P. pumila is the devil.
 
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  • #15
Mexican butterworts are uber-easy up here. They do well by a window sill, probably even better if I put a shoplite over them. And most people seem to struggle with P. primuliflora. Mine do well as a window sill plant.
 
  • #16
The only problem that I have with Mexican Pings is that the rain bruises them too easily.
 
  • #17
I can attest to problems with primulifolia - I am currently on my 4th attempt with this species, and it don't look promising :-( ,
and I live I s. Louisisna!

My mexican pings do great in my garage under a shoplite {coolish in the winter (48F this am) and hot in the summer} but I do have to be careful of watering and humidity.
 
  • #18
I can attest to problems with primulifolia - I am currently on my 4th attempt with this species, and it don't look promising :-( ,
and I live I s. Louisisna!

My mexican pings do great in my garage under a shoplite {coolish in the winter (48F this am) and hot in the summer} but I do have to be careful of watering and humidity.

Are you referring to: Pinguicula planifolia or Pinguicula primuliflora?
 
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