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Help recover a stressed macrophylla

vraev

Carnivorous plant enthusiast
Admin
Hi guys,

I figured I make a new thread on this issue that I am facing.

In january..I went away on a vacation for 7 days. I had made arrangements for watering and misting them, but unfortunately, they failed. By the time my parents managed to visit my apartment after 5 days of the 7, the fans inside the enclousure had completely dried up the moss...all of the live green moss was white and dead. Many...if not all neps were showing signs of withering. My macrophylla, villosa had brown dry leaves showing symptoms of cold dry conditions. I even lost a beautiful BE argentii. I decided I might as well try coffee and supplement any missing nutrients. However, it didn't seem to make much of a difference. The plants still took nearly 3-4 months to recover and start growing. heck...The macrophylla was in probably the worst shape an close to death.

Dave Evans has been very helpful and is helping me to bring this expensive plant back to good condition. He did suggest that I should have used superthrive instead of that coffee and that the coffee might have contributed to bacterial and fungal growth rather than benefit a stressed plant.

Do u guys think I should get superthrive and help this plant along?

Here is a full record of the plant.

Upon arrival: may 09 26

3562157936_8b3147be61.jpg


End of august 09

4597512732_0e5e2d6941.jpg


October 09

4596902617_a4c1dd0823.jpg


December 09 end of year

4596906431_ef79d9485a.jpg


January 10 (after cuba trip...jan 1 - jan 8):

4596853925_5c64f8988a.jpg


end of jan 10

4597482120_b60fbdc503.jpg


feb10

4597488706_eca86e4acd.jpg


march 10

4597484398_003d9f32b0.jpg


april 10

4597486956_ae35e59f85.jpg


In the past few weeks the weather has changed and there are spikes of warm/hot weather with occassions of 90F or few days of 85F. Nights then have been min 69F. This is in contrast to the sept 09 - Mar 10 being high 75F max, low 55F. As a result...the plant hasn't twitched since april. It looks exactly like that april picture even today.

I would appreciate any help that you guys can offer. There are a lot of experts here. You must have had some similar issues in your decades of experience with these plants. I am looking forward to getting this plant back on try.

thanks,

varun
 
Superthrive, in my experience, has only been helpful, when transplanting -- to avoid shock; and I know of few growers who use it on a regular -- watering -- basis . . .
 
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So what is your suggestion BigB? I guess just grow it as before?
 
i say to keep on growing it like you were cause i see a diffrence looks healthy on April
 
Dang! Shouldn't have gone to Cuba!

I think you'll be fine if you continue to grow it way you were. Mine is still going -- just keep the conditions stable w/ nighttime temp drops.
 
So what is your suggestion BigB? I guess just grow it as before?


The plant looks like it's recovering -- so far as I can see; and I would not add anything "unusual" to its environment (fertilizer, coffee, etc.), until you see some new growth.

Keep it well-watered, smoke your Cohibas, and treat the little bugger like a highlander . . .
 
lol! seriously...Cuba was the first vacation I had taken for any number of days in the last 3-5 y. The previous one was a 3 day trip to US. But thats about it. ANd this experience has made me very skeptical. I guess I just got to make sure I am better prepared and planned for the next time I want to go somewhere.

but thanks guys...I am looking forward to the day when this guy recovers compeltely. I know that is quite a few months away though. Gotta be realistic considering its current pace.
 
The one fortunate thing about N. macrophylla, N. villosa, and a few others is that, while they are all slow to grow, they are also terribly slow to die -- and you have to be particularly inspired to kill them.


¡Viva la Revolucion!
 
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True dat. very very true. I had a similar experince with N. rajah that grew well for a while till I changed conditions by moving back from university. On top of that..media changes...temperature changes when i moved back to an apartment all compounded into the plant just staying like a plastic plant until I got sick of it and chucked it away after getting a smaller new specimen. Well...I won't be doing that with this little guy.
 
  • #10
Nothing beats giving a plant the ideal conditions it wants!
Nothing can make up for that, and nothing can take its place!
While the coffee probably wasn't a great idea, no point beating yourself about it, nor about taking a vacation.
Again, I believe the best thing you can do is to give it as close to ideal conditions as possible.
If your nights are not cool enough, start putting ice packs in at night, and refreeze them during the day. Even a few nights a week that are more in line with its natural environment, will help.
If you value it, then do the best you can, when you can.

Good luck!
Indeed the plant looked great when you first got it!

Keep in mind, we learn the most when we encounter problems and are forced to deal with them!
 
  • #11
Well said man. Thanks for the positive advice.

I will be looking forward to the day when I can see my macrophylla back in good condition.
 
  • #12
DVG has had some great success with his ultrahighlanders - you may want to check with him ..... here's one of his threads.
 
  • #13
Thats right...he is one of the UH gurus.

Doug ......any 2 cents on this??

thnx ;)
 
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  • #14
Jeeze that sucks. Looks like it's coming back though, so keep doing whatever your doing now I'd say. I've had mine for a year. It was the size of a penny when I got it. A year later, it's still the size of a penny. Slow doesn't even begin to describe this thing. I'm wishing I'd gotten one with some size as yours had.
 
  • #15
Yeah man!! In december if you notice, it reached its peak speed...a leaf per month.... and thats when this happened. And later after the january issue, I also repotted it from a regular plastic pot into a net pot thinking that might help. So overall...everything was against the little guy...first... dehydration nearly to death + repotting and total root system destabilization.

It definitely was a good size. At first I was even doubtful if it is a real macro...I still am... the leaf structure doesn't seem like the one that Doug has and this looks very close to the clone "S" of wistuba. But well...lets see. XTM also goes for 100$ +. I just want this guy to recover.

However, one positive attribute is its slow growth rate....time and time again, I have read about macros being a lot slower than XTM and this one surely fits the bill.

ANyways...lets see... I am going to patiently wait for the guy to recover. My first macro and I want to bring it back to the land of growing. :)
 
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