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!

What did i do wrong?

These plants arrived perfectly healthy. It appears it has taken  me less than a week to destroy plants that were quality when I received them. The other 3 Pings I received at the exact same time appear to be perfectly fine. I am absolutely clueless.

9d23ce2e.jpg


To the best of my knoweldge, there was absolutely nothing wrong with these plants when I received them. They were packed well and were thriving... until they had the misfortune of ending up at my house.  Here's a photo of them the day I received them-

93731b2e.jpg


Please let me know what I have done wrong so that I don't repeat this same mistake.
 
What species? I would say fungus or soil borne pathogen
 
That looks like P. lusitanica. I have never seen anything like that happen to mine, I'm afraid to say. Maybe they don't like travel so much. However, I can send you some seed the next time I get some if they don't make it.. Once you have a couple of these going, you get viable seed pretty regularly.

Give them some time, though. They may come back.

Capslock
 
improper aclimation, temperature/humidity swings, etc

looks like they've been cooked.
 
Yes, they are P. lusitanica. I'd be inclined to think an airborne pathogen would be out in this length of time because I "cooked" my planting medium in my microwave.  I have a habit of cooking planting medium.  And in this particular situation, all of it, save the LFS which was added last, was "cooked". I suppose anything is possible.

I was somewhat leery of placing newly transplanted plants in full sun so I stuck them in a bathroom in a spot where they would only get about 3 hours of sun a day.  I figured I'd move them around a little bit in about 10 days. They looked cooked to me too for some reason. I watched them decline over the last few days but figured they'd perk up. When they didn't, I posted the photo here.

Something that comes to mind, the outside air temps were in the 20's on the day these were delivered and these were so small. I knew they were coming that day so I stopped back in at my house several times throughout the day so that they wouldn't be sitting outside for any length of time. Perhaps the back of the truck wasn't heated and the smallest plants succumbed?  I did not receive them until the end of the day.  I must be at the end of the route.  They were sent next day air though.

I'll leave them be for a while as suggested. Thanks for your offer of seed Capslock, I appreciate it.  Let's see if they don't come back though.

Thanks all, I guess this is going to be one of those mysteries of the universe.
 
Laura,
Sorry to hear about your P. lusitanica. Lets hope that mine will make it. Have you received them yet?
I grow mine as windowsill plants, so hopefully they will not have trouble acclimating to your house. If they fail and Capslock does not have any seed, I have some in the fridge right now.
 
Hi There elgecko, no I did not receive them yet. Did you send them to my address or to the school?  The school is in Kenosha Wisconsin.  If you sent them to me via regular mail, it would depend on what day you sent them as to what day I will get them. It can take 2-3 days so don't worry, maybe Monday. I'm looking for them though and on Friday I stopped in at the house a few times just in case they came that day and I also asked my neighbor to use binoculars and look out her front window to my front door stoop to see if anything was sitting there. They leave packages on my front door stoop and the neighbor is a gardener and there are no leaves on the trees right now so she can actually see my stoop for a few more months. On Saturday, one of us was home all day so they wouldn't have sat out in the cold if they came. I will let you know as soon as they come.
 
I have seen Darlingtonia, spatulata, primuliflora all look fine until I bring them home. Then, within hours, they are withered. I think that a plant under stress, either from lack of attention or being dried out or covered up too long or too great a temperature disparity, will result in shock (as was suggested by everybody above). In time, new leaves will come in, looking healthy.
 
I am glad I am not the only one who has had a problem. Here's hoping they snap out of this shock or whatever is going on.
 
  • #10
When I have transplanted or just potted them up after receiving new stock plants, I always put them in ziploc bags and give them a little less light than my established plants. My Pinguicula lusitanica did this too when I transplanted a few to a new container. Even the ziploc did not keep them from looking like yours do now. In a few weeks I was able to take them out of the ziploc once they had produced new leaves and had begun to flower.
 
  • #11
Minus the ziplock bags, that is the exact same concept of which Tamlin describes - covered, with less light, for a short while. That's about 60 years of experience and confirmation! I wonder what Bugweed says...
 
  • #12
Looks like they dried out. If these plants were terrarium grown, full sun would probably cook them. Humidity might also be a factor. Pings in general tend to be more sensitive to humidity and light changes than Drosera and other genera.
 
  • #13
My lusitanica got moved from the windowsill to the bog garden. It is still alive but with dark puple veins and looks weird. I wonder if it will survive (It has almost a month). I have decided I do not like P. lusitanica that much (This is the 4th that I will have killed)
 
  • #14
Is it too late to bag them now or would that be just another disruption to their little lives?  I did give them a little less light by placing them where I knew they wouldn't get much more than 3 hours a day. It had been my intent to increase the amount of sun they were to receive in about 10 days.
 
  • #15
Oops, I was posting and didn't realize there were posts to read past the comments made by PinguiculaMan. Sorry.

I don't think they could have dried out as I am pretty careful about that and I check on my plants more than frequently. I am also relatively sure they aren't sun burned for lack of a better term as they weren't in full sun.  They certainly did looked fried out or dried out to me though.  To the best of my knowledge, these plants were not terrarium grown.  I believe they were greenhouse grown though. I am sure the man who sold them to me would have shared that information with me as he is professional and would want the plants to live.

Hi Tre- here's the deal... if I get these to live, I will split half of what I have with you.  Thanks for letting me know you have done what I have just done 4x. Not that it makes me feel any better as I freak out if I lose any but maybe I will try them again, and then maybe again after that before totally calling it quits.
 
  • #16
Well Joseph, you were right. I took a magnifying glass because I thought I spotted the tiniest little bit of green coming out of the center of the smallest lusitanica. My husband said he thought it was a little bit of green too. Happy St Patrick's Day to me!  I checked again tonight and by gosh by golly... there is the tiniest bit of green emerging from that plant and I think I see a little bit of green coming out of another little lusitanica. That's two of them that may rebound!
 
  • #17
Laura, That same thing happened to several Pinguicula lusitanica which I transplanted as adult plants. I gave them a little less light and kept them covered to increase the humidity and they eventually came back just as you have described the beginnings of.
 
  • #18
I am most pleased! I ran up there again and it is a perfectly formed mini ping leaf!
 
  • #19
That is wonderful, Laura!  I am glad to hear that your Pinguicula lusitanica are growing again and appear to be snapping out of their shock.  Have any more out of the batch you received started growing again?
 
  • #20
The soil looks like it has too much peat in it also...
 
Back
Top