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Ping Troubleshooting

Hi Everyone,
I need advice from the experts. I just started growing Pinguicula. About a month ago, I ordered a P. cyclosecta and a P. kohres from cascade carnivores, pictured below:
28krr52.jpg


Left, P. cyclosecta Right, P. kohres. They came bare root. I planted them immediately in a 1:1:1 mixture of fine pumice, horticultural sand, unfertilized peat moss. I fill the trays they grow in with rain water whenever they are empty, every 2-3 days. They grow in an eastern windowsill.

Its been a month, and P. kohres lost most of its original leaves, however it is growing new leaves to replace them, but the lack of leaves is alarming me. Is it ok or do I need to do something?

P. cyclosecta grew much better. Its got a nice rosette of leaves going. When I received the plant, it didn't have any roots. Its been about a month, and it hasn't really rooted into the medium. Here's a picture of the bottom of the plant:
29yfs4.jpg


Why hasn't it grown out a root system yet? Am I keeping both plants too wet? Any advice an experienced member could give would be much appreciated!
 
They look ok to me. Pinguicula don't have much in the way of root systems to begin with. How moist your substrate is makes some difference too.
 
Pings have a really minimal root system. It's not super alarming, but it does mean you could keep them drier. Some of my Mexican Pinguicula totally dry out between waterings. It doesn't seem to harm them. I have seen them produce long roots in search of moisture in these conditions.
For watering, especially if your lighting is not intense, I would let the tray dry, then wait a day or two before refilling.

In addition, it seems as if your P. cyclosecta May be entering non-carnivorous growth, but I can't quite tell. If it is, give it a bone dry dormancy. It will produce rather unattractive "in-between" leaves if it gets lots of water.
I have no experience with Pinguicula "Kohres"
 
Thanks everyone, for the advice! To answer your questions, yes the medium is pretty moist, certainly more wet than a wrung out sponge. I assume I would want it to be drier than that on average.

It should be getting really good sunlight, I have them growing in front of a Brassovola nodosa (a high light orchid) that has red speckling on its leaves and 12 flower buds. They get direct sunlight from dawn till about 11:30am with perhaps an hour or so of tree-filtered light around 8am.

I'll try watering them less often and seeing if that makes a difference. I'll also keep an eye on my P. cyclosecta's leaves. If it is too wet, and its root system isn't doing well it wouldn't be getting enough water and as a result it could be going into succulent mode.
 
You give a very minimal description of your growing conditions. Saying nothing about light levels or photoperiod, temperatures, humidity, etc. If you're not providing lots of strong PAR light, your lack of supplemental nutrients is appropriate, because with lots of water/moisture, and low light levels, supplemental nutrition can be deadly. Also, in less than optimally balanced environmental conditions growth will be slower and plants will be a little less robust.

I recommend checking out my post from 2006, "Cultivating Mexican Pinguicula", for more details.
 
Light levels- At 8:30am I measure 3000fc from direct sunlight.They will get that sort of exposure until 11:30. From dawn that's 6 hours. The rest of the day they receive about 800 foot candles of indirect sunlight reflected from the bright ground outside from the sun moving to the west.

Temperature: Its inside my drawing studio at my house, right now they won't drop below 70 and rise above 85. The hotter temperatures are during the afternoon when the pings are in indirect sun.

Humidity is around 40%, as they are grown alongside all of my indoor orchids- cattlyeas, brassovolas, oncidiums, all of which are thriving and flowering in wood slatted baskets.

Photoperiod should be the length of the day, I grow everything in my art studio, which I don't use after sunset, so when the sun goes down, the room stays dark.

I did do research before purchasing these plants. The Care sheet that Cascade Carnivores sent with the plants specifically says "Mexican pings like some sun, usually morning sun, which is not too hot...A couple of hours a day is plenty and is only needed to produce good coloration. Most pings will grow just fine with good strong indirect sunlight all day...".

I am not giving them any fertilizer of any kind. When I researched the genus I found that fertilizing should only be done if you're experienced. So far I've just given them the occasional insect that I've caught. I've even tested the rainwater I feed them with water testing strips to make sure the total hardness is below 100ppm, and the alkalinity is below 40ppm.

I hope that gives you the information you require. I don't grow them under artificial lights.

From the forum, I believe my problem now lies in my watering habits. I'm going to allow a longer period between refilling my trays so the medium has a chance to dry out a little more. I hope this will cause my pings to develop better root systems, help increase their water intake and pull them out of their slump.

Any other observations experts have are welcome!
 
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Joseph Clemens-I looked at your information thread on Pings, and under the site "A World of Pinguicula", they recommend growing P. cyclosecta in a pure mineral based mixture. The plants may grow slower, but they would develop stronger root systems. Have you ever tried growing pings in pure minerals?
 
Mexican pings tend to want a more alkaline soil. There's a lot of variety of favorite mixes out there. I happen to be using sand / perlite / egg shells. I have also used crushed coral in the mix. Some people use Iron Oxide in the water.
 
After reading a bit more about Pings from you guys' recommended websites, and reading glowing remarks about these all mineral mixes containing <Turface/aquatic plant medium>, <sand>, and <iron oxide> I may give that a try for my P. cyclosecta. I'll conduct an experiment today to see how that mix absorbs water. I'll try and start a new thread about it.
 
  • #10
A really easy base material for mineral mixes is APS/Turface. It's (relatively) readily available, doesn't degrade, and holds water well.
 
  • #11
Thanks for the additional cultural details.


BTW, none of the media ingredients I use or recommend are anything other than 100% mineral, other than those I suggest as amendments to the media, such as dilute fertilizer solutions, dried insect powder, or Trichoderma harzianum inoculant.


My favorite media are all-mineral ingredients:
Media: 1 part Schultz aquatic plant soil (sintered fullers earth) and 1 part 20 or 30 grit silica sand --- pre-moisten the sand (not wet, just damp) and blend a very small amount of iron oxide powder into the sand before mixing all ingredients together, I mix this media thoroughly while lightly spraying with a 40ppm solution of 20-20-20 soluble fertilizer with trace elements (which is absorbed/adsorbed by the aquatic plant soil and fortifies it).
Amendments to media: dried, powdered, insects with a small amount of Trichoderma harzianum inoculum mixed in.


After reading the additional details of your cultural conditions, it seems to me that the missing factor is most definitely a lack of nutrients. Yes, successfully fertilizing Pinguicula can be tricky and, if done improperly, can cause the loss of the plant, but the same can happen if essential nutrition is withheld, it just may linger a little longer.
 
  • #12
Thank you, everybody! This is great information. I did order Turface, and I used Joseph Clemen's recipe for a 100% mineral soil mix of sand, turface, and a very small amount of Fe2O3. Fortunately I do have a bottle of pure, ceramic glaze grade oxide lying around, so I using a dentist's spatula, I mixed a VERY small amount of it into the sand/turface, and carefully transplanted both Pings into the new stuff. After reading posts about people's pings turn-arounds after using mineral based media, I am sure this will help my pings develop better roots. I tested the sand/turface and pure turface out before transplanting. I am amazed at how well even pure turface wicks up water, but I decided to stick with the sand-turface mixture.

I will also try getting some freeze-dried bloodworms. Conveniently there is a pet store right next to my gym, so I can get some and try them out today. There are some trace amounts of fertilizer in the water I use as well, but its extremely diluted. Its basically what ever residual fertilizer is washed off my orchids when I soak them in a tub of collected rainwater.
 
  • #13
So here's the status of my Pings. I've kept them in the same location, and transplanted them into a mineral mix described by Joseph Clemens- 1:1 horticultural sand / turface, with a small amount of iron. I also bought freeze-dried bloodworms, and crumbling one or two up I sprinkled them over the pings.

Here's what P. cyclosecta look like now, its rosette is domed out, so it looks a little more healthy, but it still seems to be growing succulent leaves:

2n15dvc.jpg
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Here's what P. koehres looks like now, I am relieved to see it growing lots of new leaves:

2m81bty.jpg


I'm sure that in another week the rosette of P. kohres will be filled out. The P. cyclosecta still concerns me though, it still hasn't grown much roots. I'll keep watering it and hope that the increasing temperatures and humidity will make a difference. I could also try pulling succulent leaves off the bottom of the rosette and see if they "strike".
 
  • #14
My P. cyclosecta rooted well in response to drying out. It looks good. I wouldn't worry.
 
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