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Problem with filling my pitchers with some water.

I have what appears to be a normal, healthy, run of the mill Sarracina P. that I recently purchased at Home Depot. After reading both the care instructions that came with the plant, and on this site, I filled each of the active, grown pitchers roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of water.

Unfortunately, doing this causes the leaves to droop to the ground due to the water's weight, dumping the water I filled and springing back up to their normal position. So my question is, is this normal, or do I have an out of shape pitcher plant?
 
Fygee, my guess is that the existing pitchers are "soft" from being grown indoors.  If you grow it outdoors, wait until you get a new pitcher and try it again.  All my S. purpurea handle water just fine and they all grow outdoors.

best of luck,

Homer
 
Unfortunately, growing it outdoors isn't an option for me. I live in Las Vegas and its really, really hot here.

So hot in fact that in the the past few days the heat killed nearly every bug I'd previously seen a few days before, with the exception of a few roaches and heat stroke stricken crickets. There were at least 5 active ant hills and after yesterday, there's not been a single sign of activity, day or night. Dead beetles and other smaller flying insects all over the lawn too.
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Is there any way to get them hardened and buffed up indoors?
 
Nice hot terrarium maybe. With bright lights and maximum humidity. Then you probably won't have to fill the pitchers with water. They'll do it themselves.
 
Fygee, The S.purpurea you purchased is most likely an immature plant to begin with. As others have stated, it's recent indoor habitat at Home Depot didn't help to toughen up the leaves. Many times these chain-store plants have been cooped up in a domed pot for several weeks. This high humidity (and often low-light) environment contributes to the softness of the pitcher walls. What I would do is not worry about filling them with water and just let them photosynthesize in sunlight or, at the very least, bright shade. Since you're experiencing such high temps at present you'll need to do this on an indoor windowsill. However, don't underestimate pupurea's ability to withstand high temps. Purps are incredibly tough buggers. You could place it outside in bright shade (no direct sun at this time) and place the pot in a bowl at least 1/2 full of water. Purps in the wild sometimes grow burried deep in a layer of sphagnum moss and in some cases receive almost no direct sunlight. They still grow vigorously, just less colorful.
 
I've been meaning to check on this too, but what exactly are the "rules" on filling pitchers with water?

I have two types of Sars, the pitchers in each are maybe 5-6 inches tall. I'm not really sure though if I should be filling them with water or not. They've been doing fine without(ie not dead!), but I'm not 100% sure if I've been lucky or what.

Should I be adding some water to these?
 
S. purpurea is the only species that you would fill, and this would only be indoors.  The uprights species' hoods are intended to keep rain OUT...they hold bugs by means of their steep pitchers and they secrete enzymes when needed.  S. purpurea drowns its prey in a pool of collected rain.
 
Okay...so for a "Judith Hindle" Hybrid Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia ssp.), it should be fine without adding water?
 
I'm still kind of wary about putting them outside at all, even in the shade. It got to 116 in my area two days ago, and even in the shade it felt like you were on fire.
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It should cool down to the low 100's by the end of the week, so I'll see about putting it outside then.

Currently its in a high temp (85-90) degree terrarium with a nice, high watt flourescent light. Hopefully it'll toughen up a bit in there as well.
 
  • #10
My plants have survived just fine in hot weather. We had some mid to upper 90's a couple days this summer, and no damage was done.
Unfortunatly, most plants do not "harden" up indoors. The only way to truely "harden" up a plant, in my opionion, is to stick it outside.
 
  • #11
You probably should keep it indoors until the outside temps come down towards 100. Even though purps are a fairly tough
species a 20 degree sudden increase in it's environment would probably throw it into shock.
 
  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]My plants have survived just fine in hot weather. We had some mid to upper 90's a couple days this summer, and no damage was done.

The problem with Las Vegas is we're generally pretty lucky if we get two months out of the year of non-extreme temps. It hasn't been in the mid-upper 90's here since early May, and chances are once fall rolls around, that'll last only for late September/Early October before it gets cold.

And believe me, mid-upper 90's is nowhere near "hot" for us. Particularly if you've ever experienced the joy that is 150+ temps when getting in your vehicle after its been in the sun for more than an hour. ;)
 
  • #13
Correct, do not add water to S. x 'Judith Hindle'.

116 is a bit warm. Rarely does it break 100 in the wild range of Sarracenia. 80s and 90s are quite common.
 
  • #14
I have a friend near Atlanta that is a sarracenia grower professionally. He grows his sarrs in a greenhouse that reaches temps upwards of 130F but with 98% humidity. He says they grow like weeds and have incredible color. I am to visit him tomorrow and I will report back about this.
 
  • #15
I had two S. Purps. that I brought back from Franks.
This is what it looked like when I first got it:
P1010251.JPG


I'll take a picture of it later when I get home of it outside where it grew alot in 1 month. It's nice a red and purple now with a pitcher that has a diameter of 1 inch. It can hold water fine and is alot stronger.

I think that wind has a big factor with the strength of the plant. Also rain drops strenghthen the plant I think.

I'll post a picture later. I was amazed that the pitchers grew so well outside. They do much better outside then my VFT's do.
 
  • #16
Are the pitchers slumping over because they are suspended in mid air, over the edge of the pot? The pitchers will slump down if filled with water, but the ground stops them tipping out their contents. Yours might have just outgrown its pot.
 
  • #17
Mine droop down, and its outside! This is normal, the pitchers look nicer since they get more squat anyway.
 
  • #18
Well here is the picture I promised of what the plant above looks like now.
I was very suprised to find a Hornet in the largest pitcher I was talking about earlier.
I had to take pictures of it.
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Click this link for the hornet pics- http://www.petflytrap.com/cgi-bin....y128771
S%20Purp.JPG
 
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