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Biggest secret to growing healthy Pinguicula

Joseph Clemens

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It has been hinted at. It has been stated outright. It has been emphasized emphatically.

If you have been doing everything correctly for your plants and they still look pathetic --- you are most likely not giving them enough light.

The secret to getting them to look their best, is LIGHT. Lots of light. If you can't give them high levels of fluorescent light, give them lower levels for longer periods of time (24 hours per day works well for me). I have no experience with using natural light for this group, so I will not attempt to advise you concerning natural lighting.

It might help if you think of it like this:
If you had a car and you expected it to provide you with reliable transportation, you would go to the greatest lengths to ensure that its maintenance were kept up. All essential fluids were kept optimum, you wouldn't crash it repeatedly into whatever obstacles you could find. You would be very careful with it and provide it with all the cleaning and maintenance that would keep it working well for you. But you wouldn't expect to travel indefinitely with only one quart of fuel. I know it is not an analogy that fits well, but just like automobiles need fuel, plants need light, and, of course, everything else too. And, like automobiles, all things necessary must be kept in balance.
 
Joseph is absolutely right. I find pings at their best under lights vs. natural. The coloring is out of this world! You could probably get the same coloring in sunlight, but then you run the risk of too much Sun, and burning them!

I have moved most of my collection under lights now, with the exception of the few large ones!
Happy growing!
Peter
 
ok so officially Mexican Pings hate me. They go from under 60watts of light, 5 inches away, to on my windowsil because they are rotting from the bottom up. they were in a good mix of 1:2:1 peat, sand, vermiculite and sit in about 1 cm or so of water almost full time. there are NO roots at all and fungus has appeared in that area. so it hates me but my P. primuliflora doesn't which bothers me.
Alex
 
I can definately say that now I see... the light (I wish that came out better). My titan went from having weak, spindly leaves, to actually looking something like a ping in only a couple weeks under artificial lighting.
 
I also can attest to the response I have seen in just a a few weeks, 4-6" under a shoplite in a closet.

I still like to do window sill lighting and get pinkish hues, but not anything close to the red and green I see with Josedh's and Andrew's plants.

I had mine outside, in full sun, last spring. But a persistent rain drowned, scattered, and destroyed leaves, flowers, and plants. Whaddya all think of having them outside for the growing season, but under / on the edge of a porch so that they don't get rained on and yet get less than full sunshine?
 
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