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  • #21
Greetings,

   If you go to home depot or lowes you can find something called "aquatic plant soil".  The company name is Profile.  It's basically high fired clay particles.  I mix it with peat, perlite, vermiculite, sand, and crushed lava rock.

Brian
 
  • #22
Hey Laura,

You should not be using Bob Z's site as the last definitive word on what is or is not currently in cultivation. Just because Fernando doesn't know of anybody growing P. kondoi or it is not pictured on Bob's site doesn't mean that some of us are not growing it. Remember....those of us who have been growing in excess of 30 years have many species in cultivation that we choose not to publicze. So in a nutshell....yes...Pinguicula kondoi is currently in cultivation in the USA.

Recently a friend stopped by the nursery to look over the collections. In the greenhouse he stopped by the Ping. collections and his eyes nearly fell out of his head. Not because the plants looked so nice, which they do, but because of how they were being grown. His comment was..."Why are you growing your pings in such shallow containers (1-1/2 to 2" deep) in pure LFS? Why haven't you added peat, pumice, perlite, vermiculite, sand, coral, clay pellets,  kitty litter, dolomite lime, crushed granite, knives, forks, spoons, the kitchen sink, ETC???

My reply was merely, why should I? Because everyone else does or because foreign growers say this is how it should be done? Maybe it works for them and like most ALL authors of gardening how-to books or periodicals....they are reporting on what works for them. The premise of all these mix combinations is to aerate the mix. I don't mean to downplay the successes of our members but let's face facts here, many of the members here are measuring their successes on months of culture and not the needed years. Sure...I could add all kinds of ammendments to my mixes and have great results for 3 or 4 months and I could go online and announce this. But what then? After this time frame has elapsed do I post my concerns that my plants are failing and I need help quickly before they all go roots up?

The European growers may have better luck with an all mineral compost because they may have other environmental factors at play. Their growing conditions may be much cooler than ours, which would deter the breakdown of growing mediums thus lessening the chance of mineral leaching, or their water sources may have completely different mineral suspensions than ours do. All these factors make for a success rate for one grower but a failure for others.

Just take the basic information you find relevant here and work with that. An open mix. Experiment, experiment, experiment. Be creative but basic. Trying to copy another growers recipe can spell disastor. If you are just starting out with the genus Pinguicula then for heaven's sake keep it simple. Don't try to feverishly re-invent the wheel. If one grower posts that they grow their pings completely submerged in water....DON'T DO IT!!!!! It only works for them under their conditions and they have spent years perfecting it. Until you are an accomplished grower with several years of experiece under your belt and can detect the slightest problem by eye, stick to the basics. Your plants will be much happier for it.

I received an email a while back from a friend who claimed they were having trouble with their Mexican Pinguicula collection. A few simple questions revealed that they were trying to duplicate an elaborate mix that they had been reading about on these posts. The plants were dying. So making a few changes to the soil mix, by eliminating some of the needless ingredients, and relocating the plants to a cooler location resulted in an immediate recovery of the plants. This person's comments were..."why is everyone trying so hard to create these elaborate recipies whan all you really need to do is...." Yes that's right. Sometimes less....is more.

It's all trial and error friends. On another note I would like to know what the long term effects of using crushed coral is. Isn't coral a salt water product?

Phil
 
  • #23
[b said:
Quote[/b] (philcula @ July 12 2005,8:48)]You should not be using Bob Z's site as the last definitive word on what is or is not currently in cultivation.
I fully agree! Also, my Photo Finder is not intended to be a definitive word on plant identification either. My purpose is to classify the photos posted on the Web by the identification given by the owner. This allows comparison and debate with the owner about those photos that may not be correctly identified. If I become aware of incorrect identification, I often add a cautionary note after the link.
 
  • #24
Hi everybody,

I am writing with a single hand as my second is booked for my new son Alexis (1 month old) that love sleeping along my arm!.
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Hence also the delay in updating the website on Pinguicula.

There are not an unique recipe for growing Mexican Pinguicula but hundreds but very few rules to follow. In fact, everyone should experiment its own mix.

The rule I would recommand to follow is an open free mix, with or without calcareous component with a carefull watering and a dryness in winter.

This must be changed according to your growing conditions : for exemple, a dry greenhouse mean more often watering, a wet greenhouse : nearly no watering, only a little amount at the bottom.
A terrarium : also a light watering

My recipe works quite well for me and other european growers that have copied my way of growing my plants so this is normal that the mix works well also for them. For others, it doesn't as it dry to quick in dryer conditions...

The calcareous addition and the free draining media reduce the fungus attacks with plants with stronger roots system; Healthy plants meaning a low risk to loose it...

BUT this is not the end
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I still have troubles to grow few species P. oblongiloba, P. parvifolia, P. moctezumae (even if some growers put it as a weed in their cultures) for exemple so I am still trying experiments :
pure gypsum, gardenning mix, sphagnum moss, peat ...

And my experiments with Coral : catastrophic but I admit it can work for others and maybe, we have not the same coral in our shops
smile_m_32.gif


cheers
 
  • #25
Eric, you nailed it! See folks...even master growers like Eric mix and match until the right mix works for the right conditions. I follow those exact same guidelines in my greenhouse. In fact I often move trays around to take advantage of better microclimates even if they register only a degree or two difference. It makes ALL the difference in the world.

Eric....I was having trouble with both P. moctezumae and P. oblongiloba until I added less peat to the mix and more LFS. In fact all of my P. oblongiloba are grown in very shallow, well drained  plastic bonsai dishes filled with pure NZ LFS. I keep them on the drier side or just damp and in cooler, conditions than the other type species. So far they really like this and are blooming beautifully. Well....they were blooming. I have another bad habit that I must admit.

I routinely remove flowers and developing buds from most all of the Mexican pings during the extreme heat of summer and early fall months. Everything goes. Flowering is stressful enough for some species without having to add the horrors of ghastly hot summer weather. The plants, in MY collection, truly appreciate this and grow so much better. Besides....I get far better flower quality in the late fall and winter months and pollen seems to be riper during this time as well.

I tried repeatedly for years to make sib crosses and selfings with all of my P. hemiepiphytica and P. zecheri during the spring and summer months with 0 success rate. Then I tried again during the winter when the blooms were bigger and more vibrant and voila! Every pod developed successfully. Could be just my conditions during this time of year that the plants feel most fertile. But I now restrict all crosses to the winter. I don't know if this is unique to other growers but it's working for me.

And just to add more confusion to the mix.....I grow my P. gypsicola in 50/50 peat/sand and they get just huge and beautiful. No special additives, no vermiculite or gypsum. But again..this method could spell disastor for another grower. So work with your conditions until you hit the right combination and stick with it.

All the best.

Phil
 
  • #26
Phil, I haven't seen a Mexican ping flower yet, since Christmas - and it was an inherited flower! I have all of mine on SE window sills and water 3X per week. Do you have any helpful hints. The leaves on most of them are pinkish-red and "greasy".
 
  • #27
Jim,

I don't want to be quoted on this, but I think most of the Mexican Pinguicula would like a night time drop in temperature. If you grow any highland Nepenthes try growing them along with these. I have a 14' x 24' unheated greenhouse that drops down to 50-55 deg. F every night (during the summer)...even with outside day temps upwards of 100. During the winter months the GH can get as low as 35 deg. F at night and the Mexican pings look their absolute best! I have literally hundreds of flowers on the plants.

I think your light levels and watering schedule are probably fine, although I don't know what species/hybrids you are growing and what medium you are growing them in, but definitely try some cooler temps and see if that helps. I exerimented with a few by placing them in my lowland Nepenthes grow chamber and all the plants grew very large, very pink/red, very greasy....but no flowers. For 1 full year...no flowers. And the siblings of these plants in the greenhouse bloomed almost year round....or they would have if I had refrained from cutting them all off. I don't know what other indoor growers (lights, windosill) are doing to get their plants to flower. Perhaps some of them could pipe in with their comments.

Hope you find some useful information here.

Phil
 
  • #28
no soil mix for any CP is THE mix. heck the way i grow Darlingtonia leaves most shaking their heads in disbelief. before i knew any better i grew my Mexi-Pings in pure peat cause thats what i had. 2 years later those plants are still doing extreamly well. anymore i use an airier mix using more perlite but thats about it. slight variational differences between where you grow your pings and where someone else grows theirs can make a huge difference in what works and what doesnt as far as growing mixes and such. another member here has wonderful luck growing some of his Mexi's as darn near aquatics for part of the year and they are doing absolutly great for him.
 
  • #29
Hi Phil,

Here is a copy & paste of my Pinguicula list:pINGUICULA:
primuliflora
'John Rizzi'
'George Sargeant'
'Sethos' (moranensis x ehleresia)
agnata x moranensis
agnata
esseriana
ehleresiae
tina
rectifolia
luscitanica
emarginata (leaf cuttings)
jauvensis (leaf cuttings)

I believe you discerned the missing ingredient to this mystery, or at least one variable I haven't considered. They are all indoors and don't experience much of a day/night temperature differential. Thanks!
 
  • #30
Jim, im getting mine to bloom under flourecent light on a regular basis, but they do see a temp drop at night of about 15-20 degrees. not sure if this helps yah or not. i am keeping the house comfortable for me and not my plants, however my highland neps and my Utrics in general love it
 
  • #31
LOL! no, that confuses the matter. Gee, I get scapes on sandersonni blue and I can't get a simple Mexican ping to bloom. Oy vey!
 
  • #32
oh you did get it to bloom finally. now what do i have to tease you about?
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  • #33
[b said:
Quote[/b] (rattler_mt @ July 15 2005,4:56)]oh you did get it to bloom finally. now what do i have to tease you about?
smile_m_32.gif
Not blooming yet! I spied what looks like 2, green, vertical scapes, with a teardrop shaped thingy on top. It looks different than anything else going on aboveground. So I'm hopeful. One is about a half inch tall, and the other just barely visible.
 
  • #34
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jimscott @ July 15 2005,5:01)]Not blooming yet! I spied what looks like 2, green, vertical scapes, with a teardrop shaped thingy on top. It looks different than anything else going on aboveground. So I'm hopeful. One is about a half inch tall, and the other just barely visible.
I've got the same thing with my 'blue'

Of course the 'whatever it is' has been sitting there for about two months not doing anything. o_O
 
  • #35
jim it sounds right for a flower. the blue forms flower stalk gets nowhere near as tall as the typical forms
 
  • #36
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Not blooming yet! I spied what looks like 2, green, vertical scapes

It's a moss sporophyte. Rip it out before it's too late.

Brian (huge evil grin)
 
  • #37
[b said:
Quote[/b] (jimscott @ July 15 2005,5:01)]
[b said:
Quote[/b] (rattler_mt @ July 15 2005,4:56)]oh you did get it to bloom finally. now what do i have to tease you about?
smile_m_32.gif
Not blooming yet! I spied what looks like 2, green, vertical scapes, with a teardrop shaped thingy on top. It looks different than anything else going on aboveground. So I'm hopeful. One is about a half inch tall, and the other just barely visible.
congradulations, youve got flowers
biggrin.gif
 
  • #38
Moss???
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  • #39
So...taking this from a post by Vic Brown at CPUK (thanks Jim!) regarding the P. kondoi/reticulata issue...its permissable to label your plant either way?  

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]However, (this is the important bit!) Hans did not consult the original type herbarium specimen of P. kondoi (this is in Germany, I think!) when making his comparisons, he used material in the herbarium collections of the Plant Resource Center (LL,TEX) Austin, Texas. According to Jan, this material is of P. reticulata, not of P. kondoi and P. kondoi is only known from one badly described location and has not been found since its original collection.

P. kondoi and P. reticulata are obviously very closely related species and may well prove to be synonymous in the future, but whatever you choose to call the plants we cultivate (according to Jan, both names can be legitimately used, depending on your point of view), it is still a stunning little Mexican Ping!
 
  • #40
Figured i'd jump in since I love a good discussion on mexi-ping substrates.

I'm another that has used coral in my mixes, and am one who uses the addition of cat litter to help out with the mix as well. Though it varied quite a bit, i honestly tried to get as far away from an organic media as possible. At one point I learned that fungus gnat larvae really do enjoy snacking on mexi-pings quite a bit. No organics=no larvae.

At any rate, i digress, here's the mix I was using
smile.gif
:
1:1:1:1
perlite:vermiculite:crushed coral:hartz ph5 cat litter

Everything was mixed together with an additional layer of vermiculite on top just to give the roots something to stick to.

I had used the same for cuttings as well, only topping it off with a thin layer of milled sphagnum to keep the surface wet.
 
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