Lidless Pitcher

[JB_OrchidGuy]

I have a lidless truncata pitcher forming.  This is the second pitcher produced by this plant under my care.  Accualy the third.  The first aborted, the second was flawless, and the third appears to be lidless.  It is just now starting to inflate, but there is NO LID!  the peristoma is starting to uncoil because there is no lid to hold it in till its fully inflated.  Just wondering what could have done that?  Its in the same location in the GH where it produced the flawless pitcher.  The only thing is I added the shade cloth back to the GH 55% because it was getting warm in the GH, but where I have the truncata it shouldn't have affected it much because the shadecloth doesn't cover the entire GH.  The front section is still uncovered.  I don't keep it waterlogged.  Its in a standard hanging basket with peat/perlite for the media and growing fine.  I let the media slightly dry a little before watering again, the peat never totaly dries I just let it get slightly damp, but there is no signs of it not growing.  Jsut the deformed pitcher.  What do you guys think? If you want a picture I need to wait till I get home and see where I want image hosting so I can post one.

 

[CopcarFC]

I also wonder what causes that. I have a Raff. that makes lidless pitchers randomly inbetween perfect ones.

 

[WalterG]

This bicalcarata x spectabilis has a lid, but not much of one!

 

[CopcarFC]

Thats exactly how my Raff pitchers end up

 

[Hans Breuer]

In my experience, screwed-up pitchers are usually a result of low humidity.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Hmmm That could be, but my GH stays pretty humid. I water some plants once a day so that helps a little, but when the exhost fan is on it could pull out the humidity. Although here in GA we stay pretty humid this time of year though. I duno we will see if it does it again. Thanks everyone!

 

[Hans Breuer]

Do you have a hygrometer in your greenhouse? If so, please ignore the following.

If not, getting one might help sorting out the guesstimations. I speak from bitter experience: after moving to what's supposedly the most humid place in all of Northern Taiwan, I found my plants slowly drying out in their new greenhouse. With the help of a hygrometer I discovered that in the place where I had set up the greenhouse, the combination of sun and wind would never allow the air to get any wetter than 45% in summer...which is why I now mist them every hour for 3 minutes to keep humidity above 65%.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Most of the time when I check the humidity its above 65%, but I haven't checked it when the exhaust fans were running during midday and such.  I will be rebuilding and expanding the GH this summer, and may think about adding some misting nozzles under the benches and set them to a sprinkler timer to increase the humidity during the day if that is the problem.  I also plan on adding a wet wall too.  The peat its planted in stays damp at least, and I water it about every 2 days weather it needs it or not to get fresh water in the root system.  If I really get fancy with it I may add a humidistat set to turning the misters when humidity drops below 55%, or get a fogger when the money is right again after the rebuild.  LOL  Vegas vacations coming soon.  COME ON high roller big money big money!  

Thanks for everyones suggestions!