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mmorehead

Carnivorous Newbie!
Hi, all!

The other day, I noticed that all of the pitchers' lids on my Hummer's Giant were closed. From the knowledge I've gained from several of you, I thought it simply to be a humidity problem, as I saw my humidity gauge had registered 30% at one point, and my humidifier was running...? I immediately attended to it and had to put a little water in the pitchers. Upon further inspection, I noticed that the pitchers themselves were softer than normal, as well as a winter leaf and 1 of 2 'baby' pitchers. Not smushy, but soft. I also noticed that the forming pitchers' stems are a little brown around the crown, but the teeny ones look healthy thus far.

I've only had this Ceph for a few months now, and I've been watering it from the top around the rim every other day (1/2) on the advice from the seller. Well, it has been getting much cooler in the evenings here in zone 6a, and I just realized that I haven't changed the watering schedule with the temp and humidity changes. So I put a warm burning flourescent directly over it all day yesterday in case it was water-logged in an attempt to 'dry it out' a bit, and the lids have re-opened and firmed up again... all seems well. But is all of this early signs of rot, fungus, pests, etc.? If so, is there anything I can do to save it? And this may be a very silly question, but I know that with orchids (my main staple), I've used hydrogen Peroxide to provide aeration to over watered plants. Would this be advisable for a Hummer's Giant if that was the problem?

Could this also be a result of the plant needing a repot?

Thanks for taking the time to help. I greatly appreciate it!

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Rot maybe? Do you constantly keep it damp or wet? Or pests?
 
Ya thats looks like rot. and I spot some brown-ish color from the main stem. IMO if that happen to my ceph I will unpot them immediately and see if its really root rot. if it is i will try to cut a healthy root and propagate a new ceph. that's what i would do but try to listen to other TFer first. :)

Edit: since ur LFS look healthy and ur ceph looks all crumpy like leak of water. its root rot
 
Ya thats looks like rot. and I spot some brown-ish color from the main stem. IMO if that happen to my ceph I will unpot them immediately and see if its really root rot. if it is i will try to cut a healthy root and propagate a new ceph. that's what i would do but try to listen to other TFer first. :)

Edit: since ur LFS look healthy and ur ceph looks all crumpy like leak of water. its root rot

Thanks for your reply, Indigo. I greatly appreciate it!

Is there anything I could do to save this plant? Since this is my first Ceph, I have no clue as to how to take root or leaf cuttings. I've used hydrogen Peroxide on other plants with rot and have had great success with it. Should I give it a shot in this case? Anything I can do to save it, I will. Here is another picture of the crown after removing the top sphagnum... would you concur that it's definitely rot? Thanks again!

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The problem could also be a fungal infection; and if that is the case, a liberal spraying with a neem oil solution (Garden Light Neem II has been my choice for some time now) and backing away on the over-frequent watering should be of help . . .
 
Thanks for your reply, Indigo. I greatly appreciate it!

Is there anything I could do to save this plant? Since this is my first Ceph, I have no clue as to how to take root or leaf cuttings. I've used hydrogen Peroxide on other plants with rot and have had great success with it. Should I give it a shot in this case? Anything I can do to save it, I will. Here is another picture of the crown after removing the top sphagnum... would you concur that it's definitely rot? Thanks again!

that looks pretty bad. i would unpot the whole plant and wash the media off and look for healthy root or leaf, could even be a pitcher( pitcher rooting had extrememly lw successful rate but you could take a gamble. but for ur ceph condition right now. its hardly gonna make it) and cut it make sure you cut the rotting part off not even a little bit could attacted to the healthy root. can't risk in another infection. and then pot it up. try NOT to press the media too firm next time. did you press the media firmly? when u pot it up? another way to prevent rot is try to flush the media once a while. like when the weather channel say today is gonna be rain storm. bring it outside and let the nature do teh job :) highly recommened

I could be wrong if anyone have better suggestion please help this guy out.

EDIT: I'm not an expert of using any chemical to prevent this kind of stuff happen, because i do not know how to use them myself XD so......
 
Hi Mike -

Sounds much too wet to me. I water my Cephs once a week or two - they are in terrariums. I don't believe I said to water every other day. Watering around the rim is a good thing. You can lift up the plant to see how heavy it is in order to gauge how wet it is. That soil is around 45% perlite. So if it's very heavy, it's too wet.

Some folks in the NECPS use a dusting of Cinnamon with a paint brush for fungus. Cinnamon has anti fungal properties. We learned that from our NECPS resident microbiologist Frank Meglio. The Neem is also good as BigBella mentioned. Live Sphagnum also is a natural anti-fungal.

Please keep me posted on this plant. I've had a few die back to nothing, then do a miraculous unexpected recovery. The new growth is a good sign. After the NECPS show, I'll be splitting off parts of my large Hummer's Giant that's in the 12 inch deep pot. I'd be more than happy to set one aside for you to replace this plant if doesn't make it.

Best of luck with it, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

WildBill
 
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