Reply With Quotewhat sort of potting mix? Is it a name brand, or self made mix? Also, where are you growing it? I.e.. indoors, out?
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I bought a S. leucophylla "Tarnock" two springs ago at a garden center locally. It was/is in a 4"square plastic pot. It didn't really look large when I bought it, but it was the best I could get then. I keep my Sarracenia's outdoors spring to fall in full sun in water trays. Most of my CP are in an sphagnum potting mix. My tap water is very soft as we receive it from the water commision. I do not fertilize ever. Just natural bugs.
My question is
This plant seems to be growing very poorly. The pitchers are small and few. it is nothing attractive to me at all. Any ideas why? Does it need repotting? If so, isn't it too late to transplant this season?
what sort of potting mix? Is it a name brand, or self made mix? Also, where are you growing it? I.e.. indoors, out?
Happens all the time to me as well. I think tarnok only makes the awesome pitchers for like one month, usually fall.
-Luca
Heliamphora Set Up
do you happen to have other leucophylla clones in your collection? i've noticed that leucophylla is very demanding in terms of temperature (warm) and sunlight (full blast), even more so than other sarracenia species...also as others may have already suggested, tends to push out it's best pitchers during the fall.
btw, nice seeing you here jerry! i recognized you from the planted tank forum.
When you state that your tap water is "very soft", have you determined an actual TDS (total dissolved salts) value for it? If that cultivar hasn't nearly tripled in size since you got it, then the water could be toxic, causing a slow poisoning, which it won't stand for. I bought a small specimen this May and it has pretty much tripled in size already, now with three growing points and pitchers over 2 feet tall. I use filtered water from the local co-op and it tested under 50ppm TDS, which is pretty much ideal. It spent the summer outside in blazing sun, with late afternoon open shade. I find this a very easy species, so I have to wonder if its your water that is making it unhappy.
Leucophylla tends to sulk a bit when it is getting accustomed to a new environment. I have had some that take years to get happy.
Having many cultivars of leuco as well as natural forms, let me tell you that leuco can be finiky. I have a leuco that for the first 7 years, never sent up a pitcher of flowered even though I kept it outdoors, it had full sun and good water. All it did was send up phyllodia and spread like a madman. In the 8th year, it sent up a ton a pitchers and flowered like crazy and it's been that way ever since. As for Tarnok, it does seem to be a slow grower. I grow mine in pure LFS and keep it in a water tray with water about halfway up the pot in full sun like all the other Leuco's. Try that and see what happens.
I got one in a 4" pot and set the pot on the shelf around my pond and it did not grow well at all for 2 years. I then put it into a bog setting at the end of winter last year and man, did it take off this year and even produced flower buds, which I cut off to give more energy to root development as the roots were not as big as I thought they should be at this age. Perhaps repotting it into a bigger pot with fresh soil would do the trick?Originally Posted by jerrysmith
I usually do transplanting in early spring, but know others who have no problem with their plants repotting and dividing in fall. If it were my plant, since it does not seem to be growing well, I would wait until spring but, as it will be slowing down going into dormancy at this time of year anyway, maybe does not matter if you transplant it now.
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Thank you all for your replies. Let me try to respond to them all here.
Mass: The plant is growing in the same pot and same mix it contained since I purchased it. It looks like regular sphagnum peat, not LFS. There is a layer of moss, not sphagnum growing on the surface.
amphirion: Howdy to you too!!! I wanted to use Jerrytheplater for my screename, but it had too many characters. This is my only leucophylla. It did make much nicer pitchers this fall. Still no frost yet here. Plants are all outdoors March to first or second frost. Full sun for at least 6 hours. Water trays about 1" deep. Winter quarters are in a commercial greenhouse under glass, not plastic. No heat except to keep the pipes from freezing. Can see 28F for short periods at night. My friend is the manager.
Whimgrinder: My water comes from the Wanaque Reservoir/Monksville Reservoir in Passaic County which does get some pumped water from the Passaic River at Lincoln Park-Two Bridges area. The local rocks are Gneiss and Granite. Iron is plentiful. I have a meter at work which I need to bring home to tell you the Total Dissolved Solids of my home water. I will be going tomorrow and I'll try to bring it home to check. I'll post tomorrow.
We never get any scale on our tea kettle and my tankless water heater I had for almost 20 years was virtually scale free in the copper heat exchanger tubes. This unit had a 125,000 BTU input flame right under the copper tubes. All of my plants are watered with the tap water in the summer supplemented with rain water I collect. In the winter, all of my plants are watered with DI water with a TDS of less than 5 ppm and usually around 1 ppm. This water is the water produced by the waste treatment/water recycling system at work. I also use it for my African Cichlid Aquariums at work after adding the appropriate water hardness salts and bicarbonate buffer.
I have other CP: VFT, Sarracenia hybrids, sundews which are all thriving in the same conditions. I even have live sphagnum moss growing on the surface of a few of my pots. I have to doubt the water could be causing a problem unless the leucophylla really is that sensitive. I saw them growing at the NY Botanical Garden two summers ago. Really great huge plants. Double flowers. Looked wonderful.
cpman/DJ57: What do you think of repotting it now? I have LFS waiting in the garage and it is easy to get more.
Is it possible the water could have something else in it that's harming the plant? Perhaps chloramine or some other disinfectant?
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