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Whats wrong with my northiana?

B

b.t.

I have a few northianas, all of which are growing new leaves. One is pitchering too! Ironicially its the smallest one.

One of my northianas seems to voluntarily fry its leaves at the tips and I'm not sure why. They've all been with me for some time, and the self-frying one has been here growing for a year. This behavior only started 5 months ago.

Has anyone had this before and is there a way to correct it before the plant croaks?






Another healthy one that came in December that has put out two new leaves since.
 
I've never grown this species... but what conditions are you growing it in? Where do you live? Since this is a lowlander maybe it could be due to stress during these winter months. It is still odd however, that the tips of the leaves are burning off...
 
Crazy. So you keep them all in the same conditions? And only that one is unhealthy?
 
N. northiana is extremely sensitive to humidity and temperature fluctuation's from what I have found out. I would increase humidity and keep it really toasty. How warm is it during the day and night temperatures? What is the difference? Being a true lowlander, it really shouldn't change much more than 10 degrees. I would say keep it around 80-85F in the day, 70% and higher humidity and drop down to 70-75F at night with naturally occurrence in higher humidity levels.

I don't believe your plant is going to "croak" just from leaf tip burn, As long as the main growth point doesn't start to wilt or turn black, you should be fine. N. northiana is also very sensitive to root disturbances as well and perhaps this one got a little more rough handling than the others when they were potted up. A severely shocked Nepenthes can take upwards of 6-8 months to fully recover and put out normal colored and formed pitchers.
 
You're absolutely right, Dustin. I imagine the potting process using what appears to be pure lava is much more abrasive than nice, fluffy LFS or even bark!
 
Nepenthes northiana is one of the only shade-loving nepenthes. It is very sensitive to excessive light. If your plants are in bright light, you should shade them a bit, but if they are already in partial shade, the tip-burn is probably caused by something else.
 
I have used lavarock alot in hawaii it is very sharp it works great but I suppose it could upset the nepenthes.
 
Could extra mineral deposits cause this behavior? I see white tips on some of that lava rock.
 
I you get the right lavarock you can grow neps,pings,drosera,urtics and all other cps instead of perilite but if you get the lavar rock say from a company that mines it from the shore then your toasted.. But if you get it from hawaii and it says "cinder" then your set and it may be a different rpoblem. JLAP it looks like ferilizer sorta since they have some dimesion I dunno.
 
  • #10
I'm not sure if this information will help, but here is the living conditions I treat these plants in:

Temperature;
90 by day, 85 by night

60% - 90% throughout the day

Sun levels:
Shade for the group of three, and a little bit of sun for the single plant.

Watering:
daily, once in the morning or once at night. Sometimes it gets quite dry and I can hear the media sizzling when I pour the water in. The water is given very generously and flows out of the pot excessively. I think any mineral buildup should be flushed out every time I water.

Fertilizer:
once a week on the weekend, 1/4 strength, orchid fertilizer, sprayed onto the leaves and nothing goes into the media or the roots.

This plant started exhibiting this strange behavior, five months ago. It was in a different location, and the shifting position of the sun started to hit it. It started getting large red patches of sunburn. I shifted it out to its current location. But the sunburn seemed to continue. That led me to suspect that this is something else other than sunburn. At that time, the plant was in volcanic soil with some burnt rice husk. I changed the pot into a mesh pot. The plant responded positively for one leaf and then stopped growing again. In December I changed the media into the current media. Since then it has responded well again by growing another leaf, but, everything is frying at the tips again.

The part that puzzles me most is I treat all four with the same living conditions yet only one of them is acting adversely like this. This was previously the most vigorous of the for and the fastest growing as well until what happened five months ago.
 
  • #11
Why don't you add a nice bit of LFS to your mix? Please tell me you don't think it'll kill it!
 
  • #12
That looks like orchid leaves when they get to much minerals in the water. Do you use R/O water? If the rocks sizzle when you water I would try to cool the roots off a little by planting them in peat with some lava rock added to it or LFS like Clint suggested. I could be wrong as I have never grown that plant before. It is just a behavior I have seen with Orchids. Switch the media as I think your cooking the roots if it is sizzling when you water and then start using more pure water.

I have a few orchids that don;t like my water, and they are the thiner leaf orchids. So far my nepenthes don't mind it.

Goodluck and I hope that helps you.
 
  • #13
I agree with JustLikeAPill... I think the lava rock is too rough for a small nepenthes on recovering.

I have a question here you say "The plant responded positively for one leaf and then stopped growing again..." the plant stop growing at all and the leaves start turning brow or just get on standby?
 
  • #14
I have used lava rock on a few easy neps and many tehr things but for a small nep that has small weak roots lava rock is not a thing that would work..
 
  • #15
id have to say excess minerals. I wouldn't risk a repot though...try flushing it with water for a few days and then let it sit.
 
  • #16
Lava rock mostly it does NOT retain water like charcoal or vermuculite or maintaines(absorbs) water like perilite so a few flushes and you should be in the green.
 
  • #17
He said he gives a lot of water at morning and at night and it pours out the bottom.

I would say if it is minerals, then the lava rock has to go as flushing it will do no good. If it's not minerals, then a good re-potting will still help the plant out. While some people may have success with lava rock, it is not a preferable medium.
 
  • #18
I will suggest take the shoot and repot on a more soft media (Peat-Perlite-orchid bark on a 1-2-1 proportion maybe), use some rotting hormone to give it a extra push, a lot of water (RO or destilled only) and quiet time...

If you want put some osmocote as fertilizer (I dont like the one for orchids... I use it before and burn easy the plants if you dont keep an eye on the mix :p , the osmocote pellets disolve more slow)
 
  • #19
Those symptoms are NOT the result of too many minerals. It's either mineral deficiency, the fact the roots get entirely too hot, or both. Mineral related burn looks entirely different, progresses much faster, etc.
 
  • #20
It seems like quite a lot of folks think that it's too much mineral, and equally many folks think that it's a lack of a certain mineral. Now I am completely confused on whether I should try and fertilize this plant, or flush it even further, or change the media. The other three seem to be doing well in this media, and some of my friends have told me that their northiana improved after they switched to this media which is why I tried. I don't think the media would be too much of a problem considering how the other three are doing alright. If all four of them started complaining then I think I would have to do something about the media.
 
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