So I'm working on expanding my collection of CPs. I actually have quite a few questions I guess so try to bare with me. My thread for my first two CPs can be found here.
The D. Capensis and the Nep both seem to be doing ok although I do have a question about each.
The Capensis first, it recovered from repotting/drying out some and is consistently putting out new leaves now. However, I feel when I look at pictures of D. Capensis online the leaves grow fairly straight and often more upright than mine. I don't have a picture at the moment but my capensis seems to be sort of droopy. The stems of the leaves grow up and then the part with the dew curves down until it is facing the ground, is this normal or can it be a sign of something?
Now for the Nep. This took much longer to adjust to the new conditions. It is putting out some new leaves though. The existing pitchers have stopped turning brown and are sort of stagnant with the tops of them dry and brown and the bottoms still looking alive. Should I just leave everything be or is there a point when I remove the old half dead pitchers?
Also a couple leaves at the bottom turned brown and dried out a few weeks ago. I made the mistake of trying to pluck one off and I think the base was still attached to the stem of the plant because it took a chunk with it. Will this have any negative long term effects for the plant? It's just a brown patch on the stem now.
And onto the new plants. I ordered the following recently:
D. Capensis 'narrow red leaf'
D. Spatulata
D. Aliciae
U. Sandersonii 'blue'
U. Longifolia
Aldrovanda Vesiculosa
I potted everything in 4" pots with what I think is a 50:50 mix of peaterlite, excent the Aldrovanda for obvious reasons and the U. Longifolia because it came potted already. Let me know if my mix looks like it has too much peat or perlite as I'm still fairly new to this.
This is my D. Aliciae:
It came with two small plants sort of attached to it which I potted both of in a separate pot. The roots weren't extremely developed on them but I'm hoping they develop into two more nice plants:
Here is my D. Spatulata:
When I was repotting it I'm worried I may have damaged the root ball as the root system on it was very small. The plant is also about half the size of the D. Aliciae so maybe it is just a younger plant? Or maybe this sp. just develops shorter roots? Hoping someone with some experience with D. Spatulata can comment. And do you think it should make a recovery if I did damage the root system some?
Here is the U. Sandersonii 'Blue':
I'm not sure if I should leave this bunched up in one chunk or if it should be broken up into several plugs to allow it to spread through the whole pot properly?
And here's the U. Longifolia that came already potted:
The plant seems to be mostly buried under some long fiber sphagnum, I'm wondering if I should do some thinning to expose the leaves more? Also is that nice green looking stuff in the middle of the pot live sphagnum? Or maybe the green long fiber stuff in the top right? I've been hoping to get some live sphagnum so I can seed a pot or something and grow my own.
Finally and most troublesome is the Aldrovanda, I was told I would receive two plants when I purchased this. Most of my plant experience is with aquatic plants as I have been keeping planted tanks for several years now and have several aquatic setups at the moment. My understanding was that aldrovanda is what I would refer to as a stem plant. So I expected two stems, granted the size of the stems could vary. However this is what I received:
Three green balls of something smaller than a pea and a couple fuzzy things floating around that look like detached traps from the plant. I don't even know what to think of this or what I can grown from it. I separated the contents of the bag into a net in my high light, pressurized co2 tank. Any speculation?
And if you made it this far and read through everything thank you! And thanks for taking the time to try answering whatever you can.
The D. Capensis and the Nep both seem to be doing ok although I do have a question about each.
The Capensis first, it recovered from repotting/drying out some and is consistently putting out new leaves now. However, I feel when I look at pictures of D. Capensis online the leaves grow fairly straight and often more upright than mine. I don't have a picture at the moment but my capensis seems to be sort of droopy. The stems of the leaves grow up and then the part with the dew curves down until it is facing the ground, is this normal or can it be a sign of something?
Now for the Nep. This took much longer to adjust to the new conditions. It is putting out some new leaves though. The existing pitchers have stopped turning brown and are sort of stagnant with the tops of them dry and brown and the bottoms still looking alive. Should I just leave everything be or is there a point when I remove the old half dead pitchers?
Also a couple leaves at the bottom turned brown and dried out a few weeks ago. I made the mistake of trying to pluck one off and I think the base was still attached to the stem of the plant because it took a chunk with it. Will this have any negative long term effects for the plant? It's just a brown patch on the stem now.
And onto the new plants. I ordered the following recently:
D. Capensis 'narrow red leaf'
D. Spatulata
D. Aliciae
U. Sandersonii 'blue'
U. Longifolia
Aldrovanda Vesiculosa
I potted everything in 4" pots with what I think is a 50:50 mix of peaterlite, excent the Aldrovanda for obvious reasons and the U. Longifolia because it came potted already. Let me know if my mix looks like it has too much peat or perlite as I'm still fairly new to this.
This is my D. Aliciae:
It came with two small plants sort of attached to it which I potted both of in a separate pot. The roots weren't extremely developed on them but I'm hoping they develop into two more nice plants:
Here is my D. Spatulata:
When I was repotting it I'm worried I may have damaged the root ball as the root system on it was very small. The plant is also about half the size of the D. Aliciae so maybe it is just a younger plant? Or maybe this sp. just develops shorter roots? Hoping someone with some experience with D. Spatulata can comment. And do you think it should make a recovery if I did damage the root system some?
Here is the U. Sandersonii 'Blue':
I'm not sure if I should leave this bunched up in one chunk or if it should be broken up into several plugs to allow it to spread through the whole pot properly?
And here's the U. Longifolia that came already potted:
The plant seems to be mostly buried under some long fiber sphagnum, I'm wondering if I should do some thinning to expose the leaves more? Also is that nice green looking stuff in the middle of the pot live sphagnum? Or maybe the green long fiber stuff in the top right? I've been hoping to get some live sphagnum so I can seed a pot or something and grow my own.
Finally and most troublesome is the Aldrovanda, I was told I would receive two plants when I purchased this. Most of my plant experience is with aquatic plants as I have been keeping planted tanks for several years now and have several aquatic setups at the moment. My understanding was that aldrovanda is what I would refer to as a stem plant. So I expected two stems, granted the size of the stems could vary. However this is what I received:
Three green balls of something smaller than a pea and a couple fuzzy things floating around that look like detached traps from the plant. I don't even know what to think of this or what I can grown from it. I separated the contents of the bag into a net in my high light, pressurized co2 tank. Any speculation?
And if you made it this far and read through everything thank you! And thanks for taking the time to try answering whatever you can.