Well as we enter June I'm starting to ask myself more and more questions from the looks of my S. leucophylla and S. leucophylla 'Tarnok'.
I know that abnormal growth is normal in the beginning of the growing season but now that we are entering June and the temps are constantly in the mid 70s during the day and mid 50s at night I figured this abnormal growth would have seized. I've asked myself if maybe the peat needs replaced, but here is a list of the factors i'm considering.
- Medium consists of Peat moss and perlite, less then 1 yr old, sat in water/ice all winter
- There is no 'burnt' look to the peat
- Water is strictly rain water
- No pest issues such as aphids, scales, spider mites or anything
- The rest of the plants in the same bog are doing fine, (Catesbaei, Wriggleyana, VFTs, filiformis filiformis.
- A flava cannot develop normal pitchers either, leading me to believe a late start in the growing season?
Looking at the above signs nothing leads me to believe that my soil needs changed but then the pitchers are still looking very abnormal. I know that phylodia are very common early on but I wouldnt say that it's early on anymore as my other leucophylla is opening just fine.
This pitcher unrolled like a D. filiformis leaf, you can see in the background the other pitcher did a complete 360 as it was growing.
The leaves that did develop into pitchers rather then phyllodia all began to get a burnt/dried out look prior to opening even though the water level is about 1/2 way up the pot and after heavy rain can be around 3/4 of the way up. Roots in the wild can be completely saturated so I assume that this should not have affected the plant either.
I trimmed the top of the dried pitcher but here is a close up of what the entire thing looked like:
Here is a wider shot of the plant, there are more pitchers developing but the pitcher openings 'to be' seem a bit small for the size of the leaf.
I'd like to get some input and suggestions from the pros out there and thoughts from anyone out there. My current assumption is that this season has been slow to start and that they will eventually 'straighten out'.
I know that abnormal growth is normal in the beginning of the growing season but now that we are entering June and the temps are constantly in the mid 70s during the day and mid 50s at night I figured this abnormal growth would have seized. I've asked myself if maybe the peat needs replaced, but here is a list of the factors i'm considering.
- Medium consists of Peat moss and perlite, less then 1 yr old, sat in water/ice all winter
- There is no 'burnt' look to the peat
- Water is strictly rain water
- No pest issues such as aphids, scales, spider mites or anything
- The rest of the plants in the same bog are doing fine, (Catesbaei, Wriggleyana, VFTs, filiformis filiformis.
- A flava cannot develop normal pitchers either, leading me to believe a late start in the growing season?
Looking at the above signs nothing leads me to believe that my soil needs changed but then the pitchers are still looking very abnormal. I know that phylodia are very common early on but I wouldnt say that it's early on anymore as my other leucophylla is opening just fine.
This pitcher unrolled like a D. filiformis leaf, you can see in the background the other pitcher did a complete 360 as it was growing.
The leaves that did develop into pitchers rather then phyllodia all began to get a burnt/dried out look prior to opening even though the water level is about 1/2 way up the pot and after heavy rain can be around 3/4 of the way up. Roots in the wild can be completely saturated so I assume that this should not have affected the plant either.
I trimmed the top of the dried pitcher but here is a close up of what the entire thing looked like:
Here is a wider shot of the plant, there are more pitchers developing but the pitcher openings 'to be' seem a bit small for the size of the leaf.
I'd like to get some input and suggestions from the pros out there and thoughts from anyone out there. My current assumption is that this season has been slow to start and that they will eventually 'straighten out'.