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Question for pinguiculaman

  • Thread starter LauraZ5
  • Start date
Please take a moment to explain to me your growing medium choice of-
"100% granular peat moss with a vertical layer of pumice through the center of the pot"

Question for anyone, Why use bloodworms? Are they necessary?
 
<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>Actually Laura, though I still use 100% granular peat moss for some of my CP, including Pinguicula, I have begun to use a larger proportion of other media mixtures as well. I still use the vertical layer of pumice, about 1/4 inch thick through a horizontal plane of the pot, from one side to the other and from on top of a 1/4 inch layer of redwood bark or LFS, which I place on the bottom of the pot to restrict washing of the media from the pot. This pumice layer extends up to the top of the main media being used, whatever that media may be for that particular plant. I often sprinkle just enough media on top of the pumice layer to hide it from view and I submerge the pot until the media is saturated and then tap the pot on a firm surface or the palm of my other hand to firmly settle the contents just prior to planting the pot.

I have devised this pumice layer technique because I believe that lack of aeration to the center of the pot where the plants roots are expected to grow and thrive is common under cultivation and has dire consequences to our precious beauties. This layer is intended to help restore oxygen to the media in the center of the pot.

I use pumice -vs- perlite because pumice does not easily crush to dust and it does not float as readily as perlite does (once it has been thoroughly wetted it sinks). Both being reduced to dust and floating away or (floating out of the mix that it is incorporated in) have been traits of perlite that personally offend my sensibilities and ideals as to how a good media ingredient should behave.

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Freeze-dried bloodworms pulverized to a powder and sprinkled lightly on the leaves of Drosera and Pinguicula at regular intervals I find to be greatly beneficial. This only works well if all other environmental conditions are near optimum, especially light and moisture. If light intensity or duration is lacking this could backfire and cause some rot damage to the plants leaves. Of course, if the plants are in conditions that provide them with fair amounts of natural insect prey, then bloodworms or other supplemental feeding may be superfluous.</span>
 
Thank you,

I may be new to CPs but I am not all that new to gardening. It has been my experience that perlite does float and compress over time so I have been stearing clear of it. Pumice on the other hand looks ideal.  One problem, we don't have any around here.  A few art stores used to carry it and I believe at one time it was an additive in soaps so one would think it would be readily available yet it isn't.  All I've got around here that is out there in quantity is that reddish volcanic rock that comes in big chunks for landscaping use and that stuff is nasty.  Is it possible that I have been calling around asking for just plain gray pumice when it is actually being called something else?

Do you get yours online somewhere?  I am not all that concerned about the price but more so with being able to get my hands on a bag to use for one or two pots for myself with a little left over to set aside in the event I need it again.  

Thanks for the explanation on the freeze dried blood worms. I am thinking that I won't have any plants that would be big enough to benefit from supplemental feedings for quite a while. I currently have only a few hardy Sarracenias outside in a small bog and one little injured Drosera by my kitchen sink.

I don't have any pings but someone has offered me a ping as well as an Utric and I additionally have been looking them up here and there and have found I like the looks of them very much. Such beefy/stocky looking plants yet they produce an orchid/violet type fragile flower. Neat.

I have been reading they like bright indirect light yet on the flip side of the coin, I have read of people growing them in full sun to part sun. Confusing.  

Please share with me what you know about meeting the needs of P. primuliflora.
 
I've been wondering where to get pumice as well.

Glenn
 
I am not sure if there is a Universal solution for all on where to get pumice. I can't get it in Nebraska. It seems to be common on the West Coast.
Joseph, do you think lava pebbles would work for your technique, instead of pumice?

Cheers,

Joe
 
When I talked with Ivan Snyder, he said that Leo Song recommended not use pumice as Nepenthes has died from it. Not taking this too seriously, some time later a LACPS member had a beautiful Drosophyllum that grew quite large and brought it to a meeting. Then for some reason, the plant started to decline and eventually died. The grower dug out the plant and noticed that the main root went straight into a piece of pumice and that caused it to die.

The probablity of this happening is very slim and most Pinguicula that I know don't have deep roots. I still prefer pumice over perlite, but I mention this as food for thought.
 
Ill take the P. primuliflora question: I bought one in August of 2003. It has been soloely a window sill plant. I have done afew things like repot and move to different sill, but my basic approach is to have it at a window sill that isn't in direct sun. It sits open tray and I fill the container once a week, so it sees varying water levels. Its media is a mix of sand and peat, topdressed with LFS. It alternates and overlaps flowering and plantlet production, continuously. It looked haggard a year ago after producing 8 consecutive flowers, while producing plantlets. Other than that, it has been a model plant. That isn't the only successful approach out there, but it has been for me.
 
I've been looking up information on pings and the P. primuliflora is the one I think I would like to try first.  I have a nice big bright bathroom with high humidity that I would like to try as a growing location.  If it works, I will try another... and then if that one works... I will try another...

I still don't know exactly what I want to use as a soil mix.  Seems to me the temperate pings are more forgiving than the Mexican pings when it comes to soil mixes.  I'm thinking the mix described by PinguiculaMan may be more appropriate for use with tropicals while the mix described by Jim would be more appropriate for species such as the P. villosa or P. vulgaris.
 
I have a new P. prim and I'm going to put this one in a shallow tray with pure LFS and keep it very wet. I stuck a baby prim in the bottom of my nep tank at work which has a layer of LFS on the bottom. That little plantlet grew very well and looked so healthy. It was a beaut! Unfortunately I got sick and nobody at the office thought to water my tank and the ping and drosera fried...
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I've tried a number of ping mixes and so far I'm not that happy with any of them. So many different growers with different results with different mixes. I do have some right nice looking pings though...lots of flowers.
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Its the gypsicola that stubbornly won't grow.
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  • #10
<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>A local nursery which specializes in desert plants, and also has a tropical greenhouse, including a few epiphytic and terrestrial orchids, had requested that I keep a few Mexican Pinguicula in their greenhouse to see how they perform. Initially I provided some plants in small plastic pots planted in 100% granulated peat moss. These pots were held in place atop the greenhouse benches by use of standard square black plastic mesh nursery flats. By the end of the first year most of the peat moss had either been washed away by heavy frequent watering with very hard tap water or had simply rotted away. These Pinguicula did not mind being without media, they multiplied prodigiously by leaves severed due to the nursery staff's forceful watering practices. Plantlets were everywhere, from the rims of the pots and flats to the exposed wood bench top and the gravel of the greenhouse floor beneath the bench. For me the most curious event produced by this "experiment", was that in this somewhat bright natural light, without any "strong" or "direct" sunlight, plants of Pinguicula esseriana, Pinguicula cyclosecta , and Pinguicula 'Sethos' became almost indistinguishable from each other in their vegetative growth. Another curious event was their flowering. It was very full and complete, nearly every medium to large size specimen produced multiple flowers, and they all bloomed together. There were so many plants crowded together in this area that the nursery owner requested that I please come thin them out. I soon obliged and decided to switch the plantings to 100% pumice.

It was this same nursery that had been my initial source of pumice. I had obtained some of this pumice from them a few years earlier for the explicit purpose of trying it with CP and quickly learned to appreciate its properties.

This time I used small trays (4" x 6") with a few vertical one inch slits cut in their bottoms -- along their sides and ends. I then filled the trays 1/2 full with pumice and sprinkled a little granulated peat moss on the surface and watered it in. This was to help hold the surface of the pumice together until the plants had established themselves. It is now many months later and the plants are all thriving in this nearly 100% pumice media.</span>
 
  • #11
Cool! Wish I could get my hands on that nice gray pumice!
 
  • #12
The pumice I use is a light beige color, actually almost white.
 
  • #13
very cool. it should be noted that not everything works for everyone. im growing my Pings in pure peat that is constantly sitting in 1/2 inch of water. and they are doing wonderfully, growing large fast and flowering. i would like to try the pure pumice, i guess im on the hunt for some too.

Rattler
 
  • #14
Well. if you find it on line, please share your source with me!
 
  • #16
I went to go place an order and there were too many choices.  What say I just order the Black Gold from here-
http://www.sungro.com/product....d_id=13

Would one bag do it? Three plants will be all I will have.

Thanks for the links... I have my credit card and am ready!
 
  • #17
<span style='font-size:11pt;line-height:100%'>I would expect that one bag would be much more than enough. That link is to the source of the packaged product. I do not know if they will sell a single bag. They usually sell in volume at wholesale prices to retail stores. Though they can definitely let you know where to get their product in your area.</span>
 
  • #18
Sungro is a distributor and they won't sell one bag!

I had difficulty locating a retailer for their pumice. They don't seem to have anyone out my way offering it.

Will this product work?
another pumice
 
  • #19
Is that black pumice? If you use it I would recommend checking its wet pH first (the pumice I use has a pH about 5-6), then rinsing it thoroughly too. Thanks for the link. I think I may even try the black pumice myself.
 
  • #20
I have no idea what type of pumice it is.  It was the only pumice I could find on the Internet available in a small quantity. Pretty much every time I found pumice it was only available wholesale.  What type of pumice do you think it is?  I am absolutely clueless. Should I buy a bag and post photos and discard it if it isn't the right type?  Maybe only one of us should buy a bag. I'll be the experimental guinnea pig if you want.  No sense a bunch of us each having a bag if it isn't the right type of pumice.
 
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