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help with a purpurea!

Hey all, I am having some trouble with a purpurea venosa and all visible parts of the plant above the ground are brown. Should I let it be and see if it recovers, or should I divide whats left of the rhizome and plant those?
 
If it is "on the edge" of dying, repotting would only make it worse..
(unless there is something wrong with the media itself)
But if the media is fine, then leaving it alone would be the best option..see if it recovers.

Whats the background on the plant?
Did it have a winter dormancy but not come back this spring?
where has it been growing the past few years?

Do you think the media is ok? what is the media?
and how long has it been since the last repotting?

Scot
 
If it is "on the edge" of dying, repotting would only make it worse..
(unless there is something wrong with the media itself)
But if the media is fine, then leaving it alone would be the best option..see if it recovers.

Whats the background on the plant?
Did it have a winter dormancy but not come back this spring?
where has it been growing the past few years?

Do you think the media is ok? what is the media?
and how long has it been since the last repotting?

Scot

Ok The plant is a purp venosa I got 2 years ago from a lowes deathbox. It has successfully gone through both dormancies. At one point last year it was extremely healthy and had many large pitchers. This year I have seen two pitchers and a flower stalk come up but due to squirrels all were broken off. I did pull it up ( i guess ignorantly ) about a week ago and it was still alive with roots. I planted it in the same spot with a tiny bit more of the plant exposed as it was completely buried before. now the exposed parts (what was left of the flower stalk and other 2 pitchers) are brown. For the first year it was in my front yard (6 hours direct sun) and for the second year it was on the back porch (3 hours of direct, yea i know its low, but It still grew vigorously). The media is absolutely fine. I have a happy sarracenia ladybug, sarracenia flava seedlings, a drosera rotundifolia, and a flytrap in the same pot. All are very happy. For the past 2 years it has happily grown in the same pot until squirrels messed with it. Theyve even completely dug it up at one point this winter,destroying all pitchers and most roots. I replanted it then, and it was coming out of dormancy fine... until the squirrels came back.
 
Oh, how I hate squirrels. They're ruthless monsters who'll dig up your pots just to hide nuts. Roman Tyrant has stated that he wards off squirrels by hiding his pots behind a ring of cacti. Anyhow, if your plant's roots were mangled by squirrels, your plant is in shock. It's that simple and it has the classic symptoms: leaf damage. (It happens in almost any kind of shock--heat, cold, light, etc.) If you grow your plant well it should recover. The only problem is that you've said your plant has no green leaves left. Let's hope your plant has enough stored food to come back.
By the way, does your plant have any growing leaves?
 
Oh, how I hate squirrels. They're ruthless monsters who'll dig up your pots just to hide nuts. Roman Tyrant has stated that he wards off squirrels by hiding his pots behind a ring of cacti. Anyhow, if your plant's roots were mangled by squirrels, your plant is in shock. It's that simple and it has the classic symptoms: leaf damage. (It happens in almost any kind of shock--heat, cold, light, etc.) If you grow your plant well it should recover. The only problem is that you've said your plant has no green leaves left. Let's hope your plant has enough stored food to come back.
By the way, does your plant have any growing leaves?

There are no growing leaves at the moment. I did figure out how to keep squirrels away though. If you put steaks wherever there are plantless spots the squirrels will not bother the pot altogether.
 
There are no growing leaves at the moment...

That's not good. However, I have heard about a Sarracenia purpurea with one live pitcher going a whole month before it made new ones. It stayed perfectly healthy. These pitcher plants are tough and are great plants to have around. It should recover. Just give it the conditions that helped it thrive so well and wait.
 
poor lil purp :( hope it shows life soon
 
Ok The plant is a purp venosa I got 2 years ago from a lowes deathbox. It has successfully gone through both dormancies. At one point last year it was extremely healthy and had many large pitchers. This year I have seen two pitchers and a flower stalk come up but due to squirrels all were broken off. I did pull it up ( i guess ignorantly ) about a week ago and it was still alive with roots. I planted it in the same spot with a tiny bit more of the plant exposed as it was completely buried before. now the exposed parts (what was left of the flower stalk and other 2 pitchers) are brown. For the first year it was in my front yard (6 hours direct sun) and for the second year it was on the back porch (3 hours of direct, yea i know its low, but It still grew vigorously). The media is absolutely fine. I have a happy sarracenia ladybug, sarracenia flava seedlings, a drosera rotundifolia, and a flytrap in the same pot. All are very happy. For the past 2 years it has happily grown in the same pot until squirrels messed with it. Theyve even completely dug it up at one point this winter,destroying all pitchers and most roots. I replanted it then, and it was coming out of dormancy fine... until the squirrels came back.

I am sorry to here about your little purp. I had an issue with a few of my Sarrs shortly after it started to warm up also. When I did all of my divisions, like you, I exposed more of the rhizome than was exposed before, and the plants started to wilt and die back. After I covered the rhizome with more soil they showed improvement slowly, but have since fully bounced back. Like others have said though, they are tough but without any green showing it's gonna be a battle.
 
Squirrels are a problem with CPs? I'm fortunate indeed! I have a state of the art area denial system in place which has denied squirrels access to my property. I have a large tree in my yard that has been a nesting spot for squirrels since we got the place. The first two years I had squirrels galore all over. Fortunately I wasn't growing CPs, but they did do a number on the Crocuses I scattered around. I acquired the system about 4 years ago, and about two years ago I realized that there were no more squirrels at my birdfeeder. I started looking for them and quickly realized they were still around, and still nesting in the tree. One morning I watched squirrel after squirrel forage across the ground on my neighbor's property, then take to the trees and traveling in the canopy, head right to the nest in my tree! I watched them leave by the same route. I saw a squirrel walking the fence the other day, and it set off the system. It didn't look like a Flying Squirrel, until it flew up a tree! And the really cool thing is that birds don't set it off, so I still get the normal characters at the feeders. The system isn't cheap, requires a lot of hands on diy to get it working properly, and the operating expenses are not inconsiderable and ongoing. But if you have a squirrel problem it might be something to consider. The system is actually pretty straightforward to install. Here's how I did it:
Step 1. Acquire a baby of a larger parrot species, (in my case a Macaw) which still requires hand feeding twice a day.
Step 2. Raise the bird to where it requires only one feeding a day.
Step 3. Acquire an 8 week old Anatolian Shepherd. Any questions, concerns, or problems with this will be addressed in Step 6.
Step 4. Allow puppy and bird to bond with STRICTLY supervised play. Allow the puppy to clean the bird after feedings. Saves you the job!
Step 5. Show the puppy from any early age the borders of his/her territory. Reinforce this often. Fencing helps. A lot.
Step 6. Let nature take its course.
I think that seeing squirrels bullying birds at the feeder triggered his protective instincts, and he saw squirrels the way his daddy saw coyotes on the goat farm he came from. But in any case my property is now a squirrel free zone!
 
  • #10
lol wut
 
  • #11
There are no growing leaves at the moment. I did figure out how to keep squirrels away though. If you put steaks wherever there are plantless spots the squirrels will not bother the pot altogether.

In my yard putting "steaks" in the pots will encourage crows and other critters that enjoy meat to come raid the pots.
 
  • #13
Anyhow, are the plants doing any better?
 
  • #15
Great! As long as you have one plant, you can divide it and it'll become more than one plant! It will be divided, but it won't be conquered.
And even if all the aboveground parts are brown and nasty, it might not be dead...yet. Of course it's the common fate of all organisms to die, but let's hope that that fate won't befall your plant...yet.
 
  • #16
Squirrels are a problem with CPs? I'm fortunate indeed! I have a state of the art area denial system in place which has denied squirrels access to my property. I have a large tree in my yard that has been a nesting spot for squirrels since we got the place....

When posts are this long, I typical skim through them and try to get an idea of what they say rather than read them word for work. You should try doing this on your post- skimming through this post is a brain trip :p
 
  • #17
It makes perfect sense to me.................... ;)
 
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