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I know everyone does things differenetly but there must be some general guidlines I'm just not following.

Heres my situation. I've killed two P. morenensis plants within a few months of getting them! I now have a P. laueana (sp) and I sure don't want this to go down the same road!!! I am currently growing this palnt on a windowsill since the rot started as described below. I also have a few seedling Ping which are doing OK for now but if my past performance is any indicator of my future succes, I'm doomed. I have only been succesful with P x sethos (Correct form for cultivar names: Pinguicula 'Sethos') which is growing in pure peat.

So here are my conditions. I grow all of my plants in my basement under a 1000 watt grow light. The humidity is quite high for my Neps. I don't have a circ fan but the humidifier has a fan and moves the air around a little. The temps are lowland nep range in summer and highland nep range in winter.

The Pings do the following. They look good for a week, tray method and sand/peat/vermiculate mix. Then the leaves start to turn brown and rot till there isnt anything left.

My guess is that its too humid and not enough circulation for these plants. The rot must be some sort of fungal attack.

Help, I'm very frustrated.

Glenn
 
My advice is to take leaf cuttings everytime you get a new ping, put them in a sterile container of peat with decent lighting and they should produce baby plants....  
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That way if the original plant dies all is not lost
 
I think your mix may be overly wet. I have better results with a very inorganic mix of sand, perlite and a small amount of peat. I do not use the tray method, and my mix remains moist to slightly damp. This seems to promote good root growth.

Also a 1000 Watt metal halide sounds like overkill if the plants are at all near the light.

I highly suggest the use of a fan to improve air circulation.

Hope this helps.
 
I have had had trouble with P. moranensis too.  I got the plant about a year ago from California Carnivores, left it in the same pot, and grew it in a tray with water, just like they do at CC.  However, my growing conditions are different -- outdoors in a tropical climate under shade.  What happened during the past year is the plant has gotten smaller and smaller.  It started out with a diameter of about 4 in, and is now down to about 1.5 in.  It is the incredible shrinking plant.  Maybe there's a movie idea in there somewhere.  There are approximately the same number of leaves on it as before, though, and it looks kind of cute, actually.  Maybe I have invented a CP bonsai.  Well, I wasn’t too interested in seeing how small it would get, so I replanted it in LFS a couple of weeks ago and took it out of the water tray.  I now water it every other day.  It seems to be doing better, but it could be just my imagination.
 
Tropics,

Sounds like your plant is possibly going dormant or resting. I keep mine nearly dry when they rest.
 
my morenensis is im a mostly peat based mix and im watering using the tray method so its constantly wet. its growing like a weed. my lights arent as intense as yours as i am using four 32 watt four foot florecents. and its not as humid. dont know why its doing well. i have a Darlingtonia growing fast right beside it in conditions that going by the book should kill it. i say take cuttings and get a nice lil collection of babies and try out different locations.

Rattler
 
Just to add contrast and confusion, I was given some sethos cuttings this spring and I planted them open tray, keeping them by a south-facing window. I wouldn't say that they grew like weeds, but they did grow. I had no complaints. When my plants were evicted from the lab I took them home and put them outside. Nothing happened immediately, but over the summer they just "melted" to nothingness. I don't know why. I thought they would do better outside with direct sunlight, but I was wrong. I recently received several more Mexican pings and have them in a similar set up as the one in the lab - open tray, window sill. All survived shipping and are "greasy". One is flowering.

If I'm not mistaken, Tamlin and Pinguiculaman are on opposite poles in ping cultivation - with comparable success. Now that's scary - especially to newbies. I'm scared!
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Don't be scared. MAny plants flourish under a variety of protocols. What is needed is to sense the interplay of all the conditions, and adopt the optimal one in your instance. All cultivation advice is by nature egocentric, and must be viewed with an open mind as to possible improvements. In this case, the plant is not flourishing under a specific set of conditions. This mandates that the conditions be changed. If he ws to have stated that the plants were nearly dry and wasting away, I would have suggested increasing the watering schedule. You have to play it by ear, and feel for the most likely factor affecting the plants. In my conditions, Pingiculamans protocol would result in rotting plants, and has! Possibly my mix is not as clean, or I have root mematodes where he does not: the unseen can also effect the equation. Always take cuttings with these plants and reproduce them against loss. Having more plants means you can experiemnt and hopefully strike the idea balance for your conditions and habits.
 
many clones of P. moranensis throw a fit if they don't have full sun-light. You either have to grow them outside, in a glass room or put a grow light on them. Mine almost died, but then I got my light system and now it is slowly growing more leaves and they get a little bigger each time. P. moranensis seem to take lack of water as a cue to go dorment rather then light, if all you do is drop the light they just start dieing, very anoying. As for your rotting plant, I'd reduce the water levels for a start and then look into getting a light system.
 
  • #10
Darcie- my P. moranensis, auctually all pings, thrive in my terrarium and the light is very low compared to full sun. the plants are pink and pretty big.
 
  • #11
Thanks for all the comments. Can Pinguicula Man weigh in? The sethos I have is from him is in pure peat per his recommendation and its the only mex ping I have that is flourishing. So far the seedlings I have are doing OK.

Tamlin, my light is hung from the beams in my basement and I locate my plants around the grow room based on thier lighting requirements. The sun lovers are under the light on the basement floor approx. 5 feet from the light.

Glenn
 
  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JustLikeAPill @ Sep. 16 2004,8:56)]Darcie- my P. moranensis, auctually all pings, thrive in my terrarium and the light is very low compared to full sun. the plants are pink and pretty big.
I'm glad you have a P. moranensis that likes wet low-light conditions.  I didn't say all, I said some clones.  This proticular species is one that many people debate as actually being more then one plant because of the drastic variablity in preferd growing conditions by the plants.  My proticular clone is of the coppery rose color varient when in bright light rather then the more durable pinks and greens some people have.

Glenn, is your P.moranensis from Steve? If it is you have our (as in FM Gardens) light hog clone, try moving it to about 1.5 feet from the light, that should turn it around ;)
 
  • #13
Hey Glen,

The mix that plant is in can stay pretty wet. That works well for me, but may need to be tweaked a bit for you. From your description of what is happening to your plants I would do the following:

Take the plants out of the tray, they need to stay consistently moist, but trays may keep them a bit too wet. Increase the humidity around the plant itself. I have taken those clear saucers and turned them upside-down over the plant. If you can keep the media uniformly moist but not soggy and the plants humid, you should see improvement. Also, laueana should start forming winter leaves soon, your plants sisters are starting to.

Hope that helps,

Steve
 
  • #14
Darcie,

I think that 1.5 foot from a 1000 watt bulb would probably fry the plant. 1000 watts generates a lot of light and heat! I wouldn't even place cacti that close!
 
  • #15
my plants aren't wet at all
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  • #16
Thanks agian for all of the advice. I can take the plants out of thier trays. My grow room is very humid since my Neps grow there and they seem to love the humidity. I was worried that the humidity was the cause of my problems.

Based on the feedback so far, I'm planning on trying the following.

Stop using the tray method
Switch to a more open mix, not sure what just yet
Add a fan near my Mexi Pings

I'm still worried about the ambient humidity but no one seems to think its a problem, so far.

(Thanks for the nice plant Steve)

Glenn
 
  • #17
dont worry about humidity, my RH is about 80 percent with no problems. your plan of action sounds good.
 
  • #18
I guess you have to try something, but I would not have guessed there was a problem by the description of your growing conditions.
Pings grow better than any othe cp in 10 gallon tanks with a shoplight on top. Not much air movement inside a 10 gallon aquarium.
If you are lookig for a fluffier mix, maybe you should use some lfs(see the P. gigantea thread and Phil's advice).

Cheers,

Joe
 
  • #19
General Mexican Pinguicula growing guidelines

- Media - be careful that a suitable media pH for the species or hybrid is chosen, some do well in both a high pH media or low pH media, others do well in only one pH range.

- Water/Humidity - This can also vary greatly. My opinion is that very wet conditons can be used if there is suitable strong light of sufficient duration, the media is very well draining, and there is good air circulation. Though many Mexican Pinguicula can tolerate being quite dry periodically, I have found that in suitable conditions they don't necessarily need this treatment.

- Light - To my mind, very bright light of suitable duration is the most important factor. The Pinguicula rot diseases mentioned by Eric on his website Pinguicula diseases are, most likely supressed by strong light, especially in the UV frequency ranges.




I recommend checking out this thread; many very good ideas here: CP cultivation thread
 
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